Peak Performer Human Performance

According to renowned social psychologist Albert Bandura, self-efficacy is "the belief in one's ability to achieve desired outcomes." This is an essential psychological concept to understand if you want to build self-confidence in your work, art, or sport. Self-efficacy is the foundation of self-confidence; it is what allows us to believe that we can succeed in any specific situation. If you don't have a strong sense of self-efficacy related to a given task, it will be difficult for you to feel confident in your abilities. In this podcast episode, I'm reading Chapter 3 of Stewart Cotterill's The Psychology of Performance and discussing the difference between self-confidence and self-efficacy. Throughout this reading, I interrupt the narrative to offer my own input, clarity on certain aspects, and tips and advice on how to build up your sense of efficacy.

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In this week's episode, I'm talking with Rob O'Donohue from Gartner Consulting on how to create positive workplace culture for small organisations. You'll learn in this episode that even if you are a solo business owner, you can begin to create the right workplace culture for the future. The seeds planted now while you build your business will be vital for positive workplace culture and growth later.















Guest Biography









Rob O'Donohue is an executive coach at Gartner Consulting advising CIOs through organisational change programs that target leadership development, creation of high-performing teams, solving complex cultural challenges, and enhancing diversity & inclusion within the organisation.









Rob provides leadership team workshop facilitation, team and one-to-one coaching, and his work relies on evidence-based research to better empower CIOs on their transformation journey. In his 20-year career, he's held IT & Business Leadership positions in IT Infrastructure, Project Management, PMO, Strategy, Business Operations, Talent Development, Coaching & Mentoring.







Prior to joining Gartner, he held a Director for Project Management and Leadership Coaching & Mentoring in Team Member Experience Services in Dell IT. In volunteering, Rob was the Communications Director with PMI Ireland Chapter after a two-year term as Regional Officer hosting events in Cork, Galway & Limerick.







Get in touch with Rob O'Donohue























Transcript Extract







Transcript PDF







Rob O'Donohue (00:00):In many ways, it's about culture. It's about leadership. It's about talent and people,and it's about diversity, equity and inclusion. And I'm starting to, dip my, toe a littlebit into sustainability as well, but from the lens of those, those four areas. So it's thehuman side of everything, I would say. And try to yeah. Trying to help leaders, clients,to kind of do better with work and make work more, I suppose, enjoyable andproductive for their people and I'm emphasizing the word people more thanemployees.







Larry Maguire (00:37):Yeah. That, that it's refreshing to hear it because, you know, I suppose us atraditional corporate world would be about, you know, getting things done, turning abook and being profitable. And I suppose the last 10 years, would that be fair thatthings have kind of shifted in terms of the business focus on, on people and creatinga better work environment and a better culture than maybe in the past?







Rob O'Donohue (01:00):Yeah, I would, I would like to think so. I would say I'm probably working 22 years orso now in professional life or whatever that might be. And I guess I've been luckyalong the way to have some really good people managers and leaders that actuallykind of got that early on, but also, without doubt, I've had some that didn't and theyalways made me more determined to be more of a people manager and peopleperson when I, when I did manage. So I think it's the thankfully the more interactionsI'm having and throughout my career, as it progressed, it is yeah. Moving a little bitmore to that. And I would say over the last two years that's accelerated even more asa consequence, you know, of, of the pandemic and people working from home andnow, you know, leaders managers need to, to manage the person as much as just theemployee, you know?







Larry Maguire (01:57):Yeah. And what do you think the,

In this article, we will explore the phenomenon of unethical leadership. Why do oil drilling firms dump production waste in the Amazon?1 Why do airline manufacturers hide potentially catastrophic faults from their customers?2 Why does big tech use behavioural psychology to take advantage of young developing brains? And why do car makers hide vehicle emission data from the public?3 At the core of these breaches is unethical decision-making by business leaders with concern for profit at all costs. Unethical Leadership results from a skewed sense of priority, a heightened sense of self-importance, and malevolence toward the welfare of people and the environment. In this article, I'm sharing details of the Ford Pinto case from the 1970s, highlighting what a lack of ethics in leadership looks like, how it impacts people's lives and what we can do about it.















Table of ContentsUnethical Leadership in BusinessThe Art of Self-deception and Disregard for Ethics in BusinessIs Unethical Leadership OK in Your Organisation?How To Cultivate Ethics In BusinessSome Final Thoughts on Unethical Leadership















Unethical Leadership in Business







It never ceases to amaze me as I go about my day the extent to which businesses large and small go in their attempt to get one over on the buying public. It seems to be a game of cutting as close to the bone of ethical practice as possible without getting caught. The implicit marketplace script appears to say; “let’s take advantage of people and make as much money we can while giving as little value as possible to the customer. And sure, if we get caught, we’ll just apologise and pony up. In the meantime, let’s make enough money so we can cover the legal costs. If people are hurt by what we do, it’s their fault. After all, it’s just business.”







From cleverly packaged meat products that hide small portions under the label, containers with fake bottoms, high-margin lower quality goods placed at eye level, to discounted fruit and veg that go off within a couple of days. Every time we go shopping, it takes effort not to be conned. And it’s not only foodstuffs; appliances and personal technology have built-in obsolescence. Social and other technology apps mine us for our information without our knowledge or consent. Tradespeople who take outrageous shortcuts. Financial products are created so that the providers don’t lose. You can even buy books showing you how to build products that manipulate and exploit people’s propensity toward addiction.







People Care For People, Corporations Don't







Everywhere you look in our wondrous capitalist society,

Self-determination is an important concept when considering the human motivation to work and perform. Self-determination theory (SDT) explains the human motivation, and according to Edward Deci, it is "the energy for action. It gets us up in the morning and moves us through the day". Motivation allows us to make personal choices based on survival, integration, and work with others and allows us to feel we have control over the direction of our lives. In this episode, we explore motivation to work from the perspective of self-determination theory and look at how internally generated motivation is healthier and more sustainable than externally generated motivation. In this sense, commanding our own work seems consistent with self-determination theory.

In the pursuit of success we can lead ourselves astray. Caught up in how we might be perceived, or in anticipation of the prize, we lose our focus. The work become less important that the material results. This is detrimental to high performance. High performance can only ever be seen in retrospect. In other words, it's only when the job is done do we get to see the fruit of our work. Therefore, we've got to get into the work for its own sake. Rewards will be a reflection of our degree of focus, of forgetting the self, of the self becoming absorbed in the work. All thought about our performance takes us out of the work. It is in the absence of self that success comes. https://humanperformance.ie/subscribe

In this episode, we will explore the autotelic personality and the aspects of the self essential for peak experience in work, sport and indeed life. We will also explore the nine optimal conditions for Flow according to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. High performance in all domains of work and play requires it, and the degree to which we may cultivate these aspects of personality will almost certainly influence our performance results. Want to become a better actor, writer, craftsperson, athlete or business person? Consider these 9 aspects of the autotelic personality and work consistently to build them in yourself.


Read about The Autotelic Personality


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