The Walls are Talking - Stress, Passion and High Performance

If you don`t know me, I`m the office of The Kevin Eikenberry Group. I`ve not always been an office - in fact for the first 47 years of my life I was, well, a house. I had kids and grandparents roaming my wooden floors. I`ve heard laughter and seen tears. Frankly, I thought I`d seen it all.

Then when my last owners sold to Kevin about 3 years ago and he turned me into his global headquarters, I figured life would get really boring. Of course, I didn`t really know, I was just assuming (after all I am just a house).

If initially I thought I`d never see laughter or even drama, boy was I wrong!

For the last three years I`ve heard lots of laughter, joking and clearly a sense of family, and something happened last week I really want to share - because I`m just sure it has to be useful for you too.

You see, last Tuesday the crazy people here decided to turn me into something new yet again . . . a "TV" studio. You know, I`m just really getting used to being an office, and now I`m being asked to become a "TV studio"? For most of my life there was a least one TV in the house, but I`ve never been a studio. And for the last three years there hasn`t even been a TV at all. (I do see an occasional YouTube video, but I miss Law and Order and Friends re-runs).

But I digress . . .

Last week Kevin and his team started what they`re calling Remarkable TV. (They sure use the word Remarkable a lot around here.) They broadcasted live over the internet for nearly 4.5 hours talking about how leaders can be better coaches -and why people need coaching to become their best.

The guests Kevin interviewed were very interesting and made a lot of sense, even to a House. But what I noticed was something the cameras likely didn`t catch and the viewers probably didn`t know. Since no one could really see those things, I thought I`d let you know what I saw behind the scenes . . .

The team did an event something like this last fall (with the video and everything), and it went pretty well. During that event they discovered some technical things they wanted to improve - like better sound quality, capturing everything in new ways, bringing in more live guests, and stuff like that.

So, they talked - starting weeks ago - about testing and trying things. And they did test things out. In fact, they even did three interviews early (something about the guests not being available on Tuesday to be live). They found technology to allow them to play those interviews during the live broadcast - and they were excited.

They tested it again, and it all worked well . . . on Friday.

The event was Tuesday.

On Tuesday, with hundreds of people watching worldwide, it didn`t work.

Some of the stuff that worked great on Friday - like the sound quality - didn`t work so well on Tuesday. So, they improvised and kept going, kept trying and kept staying focused on their guests.

There were a couple of other challenges on Tuesday morning too. Without going into more detail, let me just say there was stress and drama (more tha
I`ve ever seen of those two things since becoming an office).

I guess I had to tell you all that to get to my point. (Sorry it took so long; remember, I`m not a professional writer. I`m a House.)

Here`s the part I think will be useful to you in your offices or other places of business:

The team was stressed to get on the air. Beyond just getting on the air, things were not going the way they wanted, planned and tested . . . but failure wasn`t an option.

What I noticed was that their stress turned into something positive because it created creativity, energy and resolve. After the event, Kevin told the team he was proud of them for making it all happen even when things were constantly changing, and they had to deal with glitches and unexpected outcomes.

He said out loud the next day (when no one else where around) that he had witnessed a high performing team in the midst of, and maybe in part because of, the challenges and stressors.

What was really obvious to me was that the stress became a positive because everyone was passionate about the outcome. They were of one mind. They all knew what the goal was and why it mattered; most of all, the outcome mattered to them.

I heard Kevin say once that stress doesn`t have to be negative - and that not all stress is distress. While I did see some distress in the moments leading up to and even during parts of the event last week, what I really saw was how when stress and passion mix with a clear goal, high performance can be an outcome.

Kevin and his team can tell you more about the actual content from that afte
oon, but that`s what I noticed in the hubbub of Kevin`s office being transformed into a "TV studio" for an afte
oon. I hope this is useful to you. I`m done, but Kevin can`t let this moment pass without offering his Potential Pointer (you know he does that every week).