Andrew Herr Recap: Elite Human Performance

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Right?

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After receiving graduate degrees in Health, Physics, Microbiology and Immunology and Security Studies from Georgetown University, Andrew Hare led human performance and biotech strategy efforts for the Pentagon special operations personnel and professional sports teams. He was honored as a Mad Scientist by the US army twice. Whilst working with elite sports teams, Andrew realized that the insights he had gained would be beneficial to people from all walks of life. He started fount to bridge this gap and make cutting edge performance insights more widely available to everyone. Look, as always, I like to share some recaps and distinctions from my time with my special guests. Andrew shared so much so I will encourage you to go back and listen to the full one. But I'm going to share some of the key takeaways and I hope that you can apply those to your life. I'm pretty sure you will be able to and I just want to take a moment to say thank you. Thank you to each and every one of you who listens to the show, who shares the show with a loved one, a friend, a colleague, family member. Thank you to those who take the time to connect with me or my team to let us know which shows you love most, what might have impacted you. We sincerely appreciate you. So thank you for taking the time to invest in your own growth, your own leadership. Now here's a few of the key takeaways. First, one Trust can buffer the physiological effects of stress. Andrew said. If you place a person in a situation on their own, their stress levels are high. If you put them with someone they don't know, their levels are moderate. But if you put them with someone they know and trust, their levels of stress drop significantly. So think about that in your world. Where are there times or places that you're under extreme stress? And maybe you're by yourself or with someone that you don't know. Think about how you could get people around you that you know and trust. It could be in your business, it could be in your professional life in some capacity, it could be in your personal life. But the more you can be around people you know and trust, the more your stress will drop.

And just think about that. If you're leading teams, what can you do to make sure that the majority of your people are surrounded by people they know and trust? And how can you build that know like and trust factor in your team, in your family, in your life. To me, that's just a really noble cause and something to work towards is how can we develop more like more Know more trust in our tribes. So and that's done through spending time. You know, when I work with professional athletes and ask about the culture and the team, it tends to get better with time. It tends to get deeper, the trust tends to build. Right. Another share here from Andrew Heer was there are two characteristics of leaders who are able to re energize their units and regain trust. And this is from his time working with the elite military personnel. So those two characteristics of leaders who were able to re energize their units and regain trust were, number one, they had to acknowledge their mistakes and then get back on the horse. And really the takeaway from that is you've got to show confidence. When you get knocked off your horse or you get a bit of wind kicked out of you, it's important to acknowledge your mistake but then get back on it. Don't show people around you that you're scared to jump back in. And honestly, that could happen at a very personal relationship standpoint. You might say something or you might get triggered to something your partner says or your friend says and go cold on them or respond to them a little bit short. Get back on the horse, say sorry, admit your mistake and get back on the horse. And what does that mean? Maybe that means getting back to a normal rhythm of conversation with good energy.

The second characteristic that leaders who were able to re energize their units and regain trust were, you've got to manage uncertainty really well. Make sure that your people know what you know and also what you don't know. Don't be afraid. Say, I don't know the answer to that. It's important that they know where your blind spots are. Perhaps they can step up and support you and help you.

Third takeaway. Tell people what needs to be achieved, not how to do it. This actually came up some time ago when I interviewed Greg Creed. So Greg is an incredible human. He grew up in Australia and went on to become the CEO of Taco Bell and then the CEO of Yum Brands. And Greg now sits on the board at Delta Airways. He said exactly the same thing. Maybe not the same words, but definitely the same context. Saying, you got to tell people what needs to get done, what the outcome is, but not how to actually do it. Let people attach their own skill sets and their own visions of how to get to the end outcome. There's going to be so much more buy in. People feel more like they're valued and part of a team. Also encourages creativity. Right.

Next, big takeaway. Enable your team to See progress, make sure people know what they're doing actually matters. If your team doesn't feel connected to the mission, they're going to lose focus and their performance will dip. Keep them connected to the mission at all times and keep them focused. But one thing I want you to remember is all humans are different. We all respond differently to stress and adversity. What works for one person in terms of stress relief may not work for another. Some people may love meditation, for others, that may drive them up the wall. But what you need to think about is get out there and test what works for you and weed out what doesn't. You've got to test it. Here's an interesting one. And being alcohol free now for a couple of years, almost three years coming up, this was interesting. Andrew is very deep on study, very deep on data. And he said alcohol decreases sleep quality and it actually activates your fight or flight system that pumps more adrenaline through your system. So his take on this was, you know, to be at peak performance mentally, physically, emotionally reducing alcohol intake or eliminating it may be a really beneficial factor. So, you know, maybe if you're having a few too many drinks or too often, perhaps, you know, knowing that for you to perform as a leader, as an athlete, as a parent, as a colleague, you know, perhaps there's a little happy medium, something that you can do to rebalance the books. He also just to kind of wrap up, but to finish off for you. He also mentioned that meditation done simply for 20 minutes, three times a week will provide incredible long term benefits. So if you're not meditating already, please do. I don't know how many times I've mentioned that over the last few years on the podcast, but meditating, to me, if I don't meditate, I feel different. I feel a little irritable, I feel a little less focused. I feel out of whack when I meditate. I'm just a better human, I think. Ask Caroline, you know, she'll say, I'm better to be around when I've meditated. When I haven't meditated for a few days, people can sense it, right? To be a better version of me, I know I just, I've got to do it. So for some of you, it may not be your thing, some of you may not have tried it, but if you haven't tried it, please do. How do you try? You keep it simple. Close your eyes.

You focus on your breath. Start with that. That's too much. Go to YouTube and type in guided meditation for two minutes. Try two minute meditation, but the benefits are just incredible. Look, I hope you enjoyed some of the key takeaways from our session with Andrew Hair, but please go and listen to the full episode. He was just so insightful, and his insights around the mind, the body, and how it all works were just phenomenal. But for now, please get out there and lead your life on purpose.