{"id":1357,"date":"2017-04-30T11:10:43","date_gmt":"2017-04-30T10:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/?p=1357"},"modified":"2017-04-30T11:10:43","modified_gmt":"2017-04-30T10:10:43","slug":"from-firearms-to-vegetables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/from-firearms-to-vegetables\/","title":{"rendered":"From firearms to vegetables"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let me put on the record what I see within the scope of this section of Clarity. Structure. Performance.<\/em>, within the scope of my work as a trainer and coach\u00a0– but also within the scope of whatever you do, whether as a lawyer, an HR-professional, or simply as a human being in general.<\/span><\/p>\n

Performance considered<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

If taken literally, the word „performance“ refers to how we put things into the world. Sure, there is performance art. Musical performances. But there is also my performance as a trainer, your performance as a lawyer or training specialist, our performance as spouses, friends, foes, professionals, hobby musicians or pet owners…you name it. Performance from this perspective\u00a0is simply a description of\u00a0the way we project ourselves beyond\u00a0ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

„Enhanced performance“, „high performance“ and similar concepts correspondingly only make sense when seen in relation to an explicit or implicit goal or ideal we pursue with what we do. We need to know where we intend things to go in order to say whether we are getting any closer, or how we „perform“.<\/span><\/p>\n

There seems to be a somewhat implied set of metrics defining\u00a0what makes a high-performing\u00a0lawyer in a transactional environment. Instead of\u00a0exploring what\u00a0exactly\u00a0that might or should be (which in any event is worth thinking about for all of us), this post very generically and summarily looks at „what a transactional lawyer does“ and instead focuses\u00a0on what can in principle affect performance in this broad sense.<\/span><\/p>\n

Legal and business…doesn’t cut it<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

First there is, of course, technical legal ability. Let’s not go there, this is a given and without having that pat down, nothing else really matters. It is beyond legal, where the differentiation begins. And let’s equally ignore other obvious and hugely important candidates like all kinds of business aspects. Transactional lawyers are advising businesses, they ARE\u00a0a business…not much room to argue here, it seems.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neuroscience<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

How about some basic concepts of neurobiology (and related disciplines)? Turns out, these are\u00a0underlying ALL those „soft skills“ that so many people (righteously so) stress to be important. Learning and applying these skills is so much easier, if the learning is based on at least a basic understanding of what’s going on under the hood – and why. This is particularly\u00a0true if there is very little\u00a0time to practice and things have to work in unknown (and unpracticed) situations.<\/span><\/p>\n

SpecOps<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Approaches developed and used by the military, in particular special operations forces. Sounds weird? Don’t want to have to do anything with the military? Well…think of it this way: On a regular basis\u00a0dealing with high-pressure situations that for others are „once-in-a-lifetime“ events.\u00a0Little tolerance for and severe consequences of mistakes. A premium on attention to detail. The need to very quickly learn about and adjust to a new environment. High expectations of others in relation to one’s performance. The need to lead effectively and to very closely cooperate as a team. Plus, a millennia-long history of thinking and writing about topics like strategy, leadership and training. I’m not saying it’s the same. My point is that there are\u00a0parallels and there is a lot for us to learn at many levels.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Moving and eating<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

General\u00a0fitness, health, nutrition and related topics seem to be personal and beyond the scope of what we might look at in a professional context. And this definitely\u00a0is neither a workout site nor a food blog. But from my own transactional experience alone, I can name at least a handful of incidents, where we were able to get substantial points simply because together with our clients we could outlast the other side and their advisors. To stay sharp and focused enough to go on, to use momentum going in our direction to finish things off. And then, there is another perspective:\u00a0to have the capacity to fully engage with friends and family even after a long workday. To really be „there“ beyond merely physical presence. No, there will be no exercise videos here. And no salad recipes. Information and tips\u00a0that help\u00a0to extend concentration, to be efficient with mental and physical resources in a transactional setting, to not only survive but thrive in and after\u00a0the long sessions we all know sometimes are part of the job? Sure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back to performance<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The list goes on and on. Marketing. Influencing others. Design thinking. Negotiation. My point is – almost nothing is off limits. There is a lot to learn from seemingly unrelated fields (I would contend that hardly anything is entirely unrelated, but let’s not go there for now). And I will do my best to present a curated and interesting selection. Low-threshold\u00a0tips that can help in daily practice. Concepts that can make it easier\u00a0to fit\u00a0what we’re doing into what is happening around us. Articles, books, podcasts or videos that could be of interest. Things to consider that might\u00a0help us better\u00a0understand and shape what we’re doing on a daily basis and align it with where we want to go. And that, to me, is just „performance“ in other words.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let me put on the record what I see within the scope of this section of Clarity. Structure. Performance., within the scope of my work as a trainer and coach\u00a0– but also within the scope of whatever you do, whether as a lawyer, an HR-professional, or simply as a human being in general. Performance considered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}