SNEAK PEEK
On TIGNUM’s Bold Kitchen, our world-class Performance Specialists share their latest insights on human performance and discuss real-life experiences and best practices with industry leaders.
Here is a limited selection for you to explore:
Stay Energized and Focused During a Job Transition
Starting a new role or job is an exciting time that takes planning and preparation. By default, the transition comes with challenges that can test your self-belief and bring about fatigue. Stay on top of your game during these times of change by defining your non-negotiable strategies to keep your energy and focus high.
By Jake Marx
Head of Performance Coaching, TIGNUM
Whether you’ve earned a promotion, moved to a new organization, or taken on new responsibility in your current job, new roles start with celebration, excitement, and a sense of accomplishment. Rightfully so - you've earned it. Few things satiate the human brain like being recognized for your talent and experience and being given an opportunity to grow into a role with higher visibility, reach, and impact. Often, this same excitement and gratitude is the very thing that sabotages performance during the transition period, leading to a tidal wave of self-doubt, fear, and uncertainty.
How could that be?
The “dual-role” period
In most cases, a transition involves an onboarding period of learning new systems, building relationships with new stakeholders, finding clarity around expectations, and building your strategy. At the same time, you’re typically asked to continue to ensure that all of your old responsibilities are taken care of and the person taking over is set up for success. You effectively now have two roles.
If you’re moving to an entirely new company, you won’t have a dual role, but you will have a lot more heavy lifting to do with onboarding. Similarly, you will likely have to make significant changes to the structure of your day, move to a new location, leave old colleagues behind, and establish a new tempo. Failing to account for this doubled cognitive and emotional load and setting an unsustainable pace to learn and prove yourself to others are the leading causes of over-fatigue during these periods.
Commonly, this fatigue can lead to brain fog, feeling out of control, self-doubt, and reflexive, often destructive behaviors. This can be avoided by building a recovery plan for your transition and continuously building your self-belief.
Build a plan to keep your cognitive capacity high
When starting a new job, there will always be many things out of your control. In order to show up at your best, reduce fatigue, and regain the feeling of control, a great approach is to control the start and the end of your day. Within these two windows, you can define the non-negotiable strategies you will use to sharpen your focus, build your energy stores, proactively prepare for your day, and build in your recovery moments.
So what is your start-of-the-day plan? How can you prime your mindset, feed your brain, move to activate your nervous system, and focus yourself to multiply others' energy?
Similarly, what is your end-of-day plan? How can you shut down from a busy day, create a natural melatonin (sleep hormone) release, capture your key learnings from the day, and calm your nervous system for sleep?
Make self-belief building an ongoing practice
With any new role comes self-doubt. While we could write books about building authentic self-belief, here are a few quick suggestions to help you.
First, reflect on other moments in your life where you've had similar transitions, experienced but overcame self-doubt, and moved forward to succeed.
Second, at the end of each day, write down a few things you did well, a couple of things you want to do better, and one thing you learned.
Finally, prepare - prepare - prepare. Nothing builds true self-belief like preparing for a big meeting, building recovery into your preparation, and setting clear intentions.
Transitioning to a new role is a challenging but exciting time if you can avoid putting your head down and going into wing-it mode with your Sustainable Human Performance. By creating your transition recovery plan and continually practicing self-belief building, you can regain control and multiply your readiness to take on the challenges that lie ahead.
About the Author
Jake Marx // Head of Performance Coaching
Jake is the Head of Performance Coaching for TIGNUM. He is responsible for finding, developing, preparing, and growing all TIGNUM Performance Specialists. He is an experienced Sustainable Human Performance coach to many top senior executives.
About TIGNUM
TIGNUM is the major performance building block for business professionals, designed around a skill- and data-based approach that respects the individuality, focuses on the brain, evolves constantly, and creates lasting impact.
Its international team comes from a wide range of fields, including human behavior, elite athletics, special forces, performance medicine, executive coaching, change consultants, and more.
Discover how our solutions help you show up better and maximize your impact.
Contact us
Getting Stronger When Fatigue Strikes
Feeling tired from hard work is normal. Instead of focusing on exhaustion, reflect on your accomplishments, learn from challenges, and shift to a "we" focus by helping others.
By Chris Males
Managing Director Americas and APAC, TIGNUM
It’s the end of the night, and you’re exhausted. You collapse onto the pillow with a wake of challenges behind you. From tackling your quarterly deliverables to debating how to handle a silo problem to smoothing inner office politics to spending quality time with your two kids, helping them wind down before bed - you left it all on the field today. As you lay there with barely the energy to turn the next page of your book before bed, you ask yourself - am I burning myself out? How long can I possibly keep this up?
We all ask ourselves this question when we are out of energy and feel like we gave it all in so many directions. When the long hours and tough problems empty our cognitive tank, and the personnel issues sap our emotional tank, we may question our own stamina and resilience. We may start to wonder just how long we can keep this up.
What if fatigue is a normal thing from hard work? What if the energy spent actually created something great, moved something critical forward, or paved the way for a future relationship you will always cherish? Would you still be asking yourself these same questions?
The other day, my wife and I had one of these experiences. After a long Saturday of chasing our kids, spending time with our friends and family, and squeezing the life out of every minute, we collapsed on our pillows, exhausted. But a funny thing happened. We didn’t ask each other if we were burned out; instead, we started reflecting on all the fun we had, the impact we made, the memories we will cherish, and the potential we were creating for our kids and our family - the same feeling of fatigue, but a completely different feeling of its meaning.
At TIGNUM, we have seen how fatigue can make the same person fragile or psychologically resilient. It can make them believe in themselves more, or it can raise their self-doubt. It can excite them for the future or scare them to death. So what is the difference?
Your focus makes all the difference
One of the most common differences is your focus. Do you focus on your fatigue and the effort you have put out? Or do you focus on your contributions, the impact you created, and the lessons you learned? The former leaves you zapped, but the latter can leave you energized, inspired, and hungry for more.
Do you focus on the huge amount of things out of your control? Or do you choose to deliberately and consistently focus on those things that you can influence or control? The former leaves you overwhelmed, but the latter makes you feel capable and in control.
Do you choose to focus on how you are being impacted or instead on how you can positively impact others on your team? When you choose to be an energy multiplier for others, to be we-focused instead of me-focused, and to be of service rather than helpless, everything changes. Suddenly you may find your gas tank full rather than empty.
Role modeling these behaviors should be a part of leadership. But unfortunately, most of us learn these Sustainable Human Performance skills when it is too late, and we’re already struggling with burnout. Are you going to wait?
About the Author
Chris Males // Managing Director, Americas and APAC
As TIGNUM's Managing Director of the Americas and APAC, Chris is an experienced Sustainable Human Performance coach to many CEO’s, C-suite executives, and professional athletes. In 2020, Chris was inducted into the MG100 Coaches program, an organization of some of the best executive coaches, leaders, and business thinkers from around the world.
About TIGNUM
TIGNUM is the major performance building block for business professionals, designed around a skill- and data-based approach that respects the individuality, focuses on the brain, evolves constantly, and creates lasting impact.
Its international team comes from a wide range of fields, including human behavior, elite athletics, special forces, performance medicine, executive coaching, change consultants, and more.
Discover how our solutions help you show up better and maximize your impact.
Contact us
Managing Extreme Circumstances: Mindset is the Key
Just over 5 years ago, Laura Penhaul led a crew of four women on a groundbreaking journey, becoming the first four-person boat crew to row across the Pacific Ocean. In this episode, Laura shares with Scott the High Performance Mindset and leadership skills that fueled their incredible 9,200-mile (14,800 km), 257-day journey.
Laura Penhaul
TIGNUM Performance Specialist
"Why do we wait for significant adversity to maximize our abilities? Why don't we explore maximizing what we've got when we've got it?"
Just over 5 years ago, Laura Penhaul led a crew of four women on an unprecedented journey, becoming the first-ever four-person boat crew to row across the Pacific Ocean.
In this episode, Laura talks with Scott about the High Performance Mindset and leadership skills that helped her and her crew complete their astounding 9,200-mile (14,800k), 257-day journey.
Her inspiring perspective, stemming from her work as a Physiotherapist for the British Paralympic team, challenges us all to explore our potential by finding our own version of the Pacific to cross.
About TIGNUM ThoughtCast
TIGNUM ThoughtCast is a series of short interviews in which TIGNUM co-founder Scott Peltin sits down with friends, clients, and human performance experts to explore the application of Sustainable Human Performance.
Discover how our solutions help you show up better and maximize impact
Contact us
The Most Neglected Performance Factor: Hormones
It's time to change the narrative around hormones—they don't control us or just bring negative symptoms. Instead, we can manage our hormones and leverage their impact to enhance our performance.
Business professionals, specifically female leaders, can significantly benefit from understanding hormonal patterns, gaining body literacy, and learning strategies to navigate hormonal fluctuations.
Laura Penhaul, Angela Walker, and Scott Peltin
TIGNUM Performance Specialists
In this roundtable, our TIGNUM performance specialists share their insights into the impact of hormones on performance, and specifically brain performance. Business professionals, specifically female leaders, will greatly benefit from understanding the impact of hormones, gaining a new sense of body literacy, and learning strategies to deal with hormonal fluctuations.
TIGNUM offers a program designed for female leaders and their teams to help them harness the power of hormones and be their best throughout all life stages: The XX Factor.
ABOUT TIGNUM THOUGHTCAST
TIGNUM ThoughtCast is a series of short interviews in which TIGNUM co-founder Scott Peltin sits down with friends, clients, and human performance experts to explore the application of Sustainable Human Performance.
Discover how our solutions help you show up better and maximize impact
Contact us
The Promise and Pitfalls of AI in Human Performance Support
With the new AI modalities, it will become easier for clients to get the information on human performance that they are looking for. But will that lead them to the insight they need?
Laura Penhaul and Chris Males
Performance Specialists, TIGNUM
With the new AI modalities, it will become easier for clients to get the information on human performance that they are looking for. But will that lead them to the insight they need?
ABOUT TIGNUM THOUGHTCAST
TIGNUM ThoughtCast is a series of short interviews in which TIGNUM co-founder Scott Peltin sits down with friends, clients, and human performance experts to explore the application of Sustainable Human Performance.
Discover how our solutions help you show up better and maximize impact
Contact us
The Future Will Belong to Those Bold Enough to Create It
In this episode, Scott Peltin, TIGNUM’s Chief Catalyst, and Jogi Rippel, TIGNUM’s CEO, discuss their proactive strategies for navigating today's complexities and how their B-LD KITCHEN initiative equips leaders with the tools to embrace challenges boldly and shape the future.
Scott Peltin
Co-Founder and Chief Catalyst, TIGNUM
Jogi Rippel
Co-Founder and CEO, TIGNUM
In this final episode, Scott and Jogi shared their key takeaways from four years of ThoughtCast interviews. They talked about their initial motivation to start this interview series and why they felt it was time to take it to the next level.
While the challenges in the world get ever more complex, people struggle to become the game-changers we need. Instead of consuming more one-way content, aspiring professionals need deeper, more participative conversations that offer pragmatic solutions from a human lens.
TIGNUM, therefore, started the B-LD KITCHEN, our metaphorical lab designed to act as a catalyst for business professionals to maximize their impact. B-LD members get inspired, prepared, connected, and enabled to be more and move the needle.
The B-LD KITCHEN is our proactive approach to navigating today's uncertainty and shaping the world.
"The best way to predict the future is to create it." P. Drucker and A.Lincoln
Thank you for being our listeners.
Be More. Be Bold.
ABOUT TIGNUM THOUGHTCAST
TIGNUM ThoughtCast is a series of short interviews in which TIGNUM co-founder Scott Peltin sits down with friends, clients, and human performance experts to explore the application of Sustainable Human Performance.
Discover how our solutions help you show up better and maximize impact
Contact us
Designing The Perfect Vacation
With increased fatigue and uncertainty, learn the best vacation strategies to improve performance, energy, and focus. Embrace this opportunity to reset with the right performance mindset.
By Scott Peltin
Co-Founder and Chief Catalyst, TIGNUM
It's that vacation time of the year again, but this year feels different. The accumulation of fatigue is a little higher, the world is a little more unstable, and the future looks a little scarier. For these reasons and more, this vacation may be one of your most important. So are you leaving it to chance, or are you approaching it with the level of intention, purposefulness, and creativity that it really needs?
Many of you will plan the length of your vacation, the location (the "Where"), and maybe even the things to do (the "What") on your vacation. But too often, many forget the “Why" of vacation. It sounds simple, but it happens all the time.
Intentionally design your vacation to meet your needs
Executives often ask us, "How long does a vacation need to be to recharge?" That depends on how you transition from work to vacation, whether you really recharge, and how you show up to your vacation. When recharging is your top priority, and you plan all your vacation events to align with that, you could physically recharge in as little as five days and emotionally recharge in as few as three days.
Unfortunately, what happens too often is a person takes a week-long vacation, thinks their priority is physically recharging, then turns it into a fitness camp, exercising at a high intensity five days in a row. They return from vacation feeling sore, exhausted, and definitely not restored. Why did this happen? There was a disconnect between their actions and the "Why" of recharging. They acted as if the “Why" was to do a cram session sort of boot camp approach to try and get physically fit. We’re not saying exercising is a bad thing, but we are saying that if your "Why" is recharging, the way you exercise may be completely different.
Clarity about being on or off can make all the difference
Similarly, many executives don’t properly transition into and out of their vacation. Without these transitions, they bring their work self on vacation, and the brain thinks it is supposed to be fully on and problem-solving. When this happens, it can take 3-5 days just to get into vacation mode. Then, on the return from vacation, the same thing can happen where their vacation self shows up at work unprepared to engage. In this condition, they can be easily overwhelmed, and the vacation is quickly forgotten.
You can avoid this very common self-image trap by creating a transition where you first ask yourself (both coming in and coming off vacation), “Who do I need to be to maximize my effectiveness?” Also, spend a little time visualizing yourself as that person so your brain can believe that you can make it happen.
One common question that comes up in our coaching is whether to work or not work during vacation. The truth is: it really depends. If you would feel better checking in and dealing with any potentially critical items, you may want to adapt the 60-minute work sprint in the morning during vacation (followed by 23 hours of being fully off). If, on the other hand, you can’t turn your mind off once it gets turned on, it may be better to fully delegate your responsibilities and perform a thorough handoff at least one day before leaving. Then, you can remain fully off throughout your vacation. Both of these situations can work, but they must be designed. If you leave it to chance, you are leaving the door open for work creep and potentially creating a huge source of conflict with your family.
How to maximize the benefit of your time off
As you plan your vacations, here are a few questions to help you get what you want and need:
_Why am I taking this vacation? (Is it, for example, to recharge my batteries, reconnect with friends and or family, change the scenery, have fun, go somewhere I have never been, cross something off my bucket list, get back in shape, work on my golf game, finish my manuscript?)
_What does success look like on this vacation and when I return from vacation? Think about emotional connections, stimulation, regeneration, etc. Based on this, you may want to go through your TIGNUM intention setting questions for both your vacation and your return from vacation. How do I want to be perceived? What do I want those I'm with to know? How do I want them to feel?
_When I return from my vacation, how do I want to feel (e.g., relaxed, energized, pain-free, inspired, focused, passionate, creative, in love, reconnected to my family)?
_What do I need to do on this vacation to make this vision of success a reality?
If you approach your vacation with this intentionality, you can quickly see that questions like these answer themselves. Should I shut down 100% or stay connected? Should we do five big things or one big thing? Should we chill on the beach or explore a new city or nature park? There are infinite ways to design and execute a vacation, and they can all be right, or they can all be wrong - it depends on what it is you want.
Sustainable Human Performance doesn't happen by luck or chance; it happens by design. This is why you may want to design your next vacation to make it the best ever.
About the Author
Scott Peltin // Co-Founder and Chief Catalyst
As the Co-Founder and Chief Catalyst of TIGNUM, Scott has coached many top CEOs, executives, professional athletes, and others to Rule Their Impact. Scott’s unique blend of his 25 years in the Fire Service, education, and coaching experience helps him combine the art and science of Sustainable High Performance to help TIGNUM clients be better, for longer, when it counts the most.
About TIGNUM
TIGNUM is the major performance building block for business professionals, designed around a skill- and data-based approach that respects the individuality, focuses on the brain, evolves constantly, and creates lasting impact.
Its international team comes from a wide range of fields, including human behavior, elite athletics, special forces, performance medicine, executive coaching, change consultants, and more.
Discover how our solutions help you show up better and maximize your impact.
Contact us
Bringing Sustainable Human Performance to the Team
Work and life are not two different spheres that need to be balanced - sustainable human performance is a much more appealing and integrative approach to simply being our best version.
Dirk Maarten-Molenaar
Managing Director and Senior Partner, BCG
Sustainable Human Performance is both simple and complex at the same time. Dirk-Marten Molenaar shares how learning about Sustainable Human Performance profoundly changed his life and how he consequently introduced the concept to his teams and initiated major shifts company-wide.
He has an in-depth understanding that there is no one perfect performance strategy, but rather it differs from person to person and over time. Yet, adopting your performance strategies according to need and context should never mean letting them drop, no matter how turbulent the times. Why? If you are a paid thinker, like many of us are, you should never compromise on your own brain power.
ABOUT TIGNUM THOUGHTCAST
TIGNUM ThoughtCast is a series of short interviews in which TIGNUM co-founder Scott Peltin sits down with friends, clients, and human performance experts to explore the application of Sustainable Human Performance.
Discover how our solutions help you show up better and maximize impact
Contact us
The Benefits of Learning New Skills
Learning something new has significant benefits for your brain and personal recovery. Be curious, embrace any fears, and see the impact on your performance and those around you.
By Chris Males
Managing Director Americas and APAC, TIGNUM
I was coaching a VP the other day, just after her return from the holidays and the start of the new year. She shared some goals and intentions she wanted to achieve in the coming year. As she shared, one common theme kept reoccurring: learning. Her goals were centered around growth, change, leading, and solutions. To be great at those, one has to be curious and willing to learn.
A common trait we see in Sustainable Human Performance is a strong desire for self-improvement. Often this looks like a commitment to mastering a craft or profession; sometimes, it’s simply a desire to stretch yourself and learn something completely new, even if it’s just for fun.
Learning new things as we age has clear performance benefits for our brain and personal recovery. Learning stimulates your brain, building new neural connections to help prevent cognitive decline. Learning can also help spark your curiosity and motivation and help you take yourself less seriously as you lean into a growth mindset.
Being in learning mode refreshes your brain
At TIGNUM, learning is a fun form of recovery for a brain becoming cognitively fatigued from your normal day-to-day work. By learning new things, we can alter our brain wave states, providing just enough task-switching for our brain to recharge and be ready to return to work.
Science has shown that the brain primarily engages in two types of learning — explicit and implicit. Both these states are associated with specific brain wave frequencies. ‘Explicit learning' is when your concentration is high, and you’re deliberately focused, like memorizing a speech or learning how to play a complex game such as chess. This state often results in Beta brain wave activity, which is fast and active.
‘Implicit learning’ is the opposite, inducing lower brain wave frequencies called Alpha and Theta states. It’s the kind of learning you aren’t necessarily consciously aware of, like learning to dance, trying new sports, or even meditating.
Learning something that engages a brain wave state different from your usual occupation can provide a uniquely refreshing source of recovery. For example, if your day is full of back-to-back meetings, fast processing, fire drills, and multi-tasking, shifting gears to learn something that requires creativity and imagination could be greatly rewarding.
Reap the benefits of learning by embracing the process
This down-shift can be a challenge for some high performers that are often addicted to the rush of achievement. Over the years, I’ve had many coaching conversations with leaders that admit that they often feel uneasy, maybe even guilty, when they aren’t pushing for more. Yet, when they can overcome these feelings, allowing themselves to become absorbed into learning something new, they often report feeling more balanced, more satisfied, and even more self-confident as they embrace mistakes and gradually see improvements in their chosen task. Ultimately, the joy of engaging fully in learning for pleasure or simple novelty became the reward.
As 2024 is ramping up to full speed, you’ve probably established your work KPIs, your personal goals, and perhaps even when and where you’ll go on vacation. My encouragement is to think about what new things you’d like to learn by the end of this year and to go about learning them with a child-like curiosity, no fear of failure, and completely free of judgment.
Your brain and the sustainability of your performance will be better off for it.
About the Author
Chris Males // Managing Director, Americas and APAC
As TIGNUM's Managing Director of the Americas and APAC, Chris is an experienced Sustainable Human Performance coach to many CEO’s, C-suite executives, and professional athletes. In 2020, Chris was inducted into the MG100 Coaches program, an organization of some of the best executive coaches, leaders, and business thinkers from around the world.
About TIGNUM
TIGNUM is the major performance building block for business professionals, designed around a skill- and data-based approach that respects the individuality, focuses on the brain, evolves constantly, and creates lasting impact.
Its international team comes from a wide range of fields, including human behavior, elite athletics, special forces, performance medicine, executive coaching, change consultants, and more.
Discover how our solutions help you show up better and maximize your impact.
Contact us
You Are Unique And So Is Your Sustainable Human Performance
In many ways, our individuality is both in and out of our control. By being curious about what works and doesn't work for you and taking ownership of your bio-individuality, you can positively impact your Personal Readiness.
By Laura Penhaul
Chief Innovation Officer, TIGNUM
Have you ever felt you were odd because what works for someone else doesn’t work for you? Whether it’s a nutritional strategy, an exercise regime, tips on leadership style, or managing your team, what works for one person often doesn't work for others.
We see people get super fit with one type of workout routine and falsely believe that if it worked for them, it must be good for everyone. Similarly, this same thing happens with personal growth, leadership, and so many other things. The problem is, we are all unique, and one size never fits all. Propagating this misconception even more, when we collect data on a group, the myth is that the average describes everyone in that group. As Harvard professor Todd Ross describes in his book The End of Average, not one person actually fits the average.
Many factors influence our individuality. First, we have our genetic makeup (our DNA coding) and our epigenetic factors (which genes are turned on). And then there are all of the things that impact our billions of experiences that make up our life (culture, family, society, social media, education, etc.).
In many ways, our individuality is both in and out of our control.
Performing at your best is about knowing your individual needs
Recently, I (Laura) was working with a female tennis player who was experiencing repeated low-grade injuries that were taking much longer to return to play than expected to heal. Her mood was constantly up and down, she found it difficult to make decisions in key moments, and she would report times of low energy, diminished motivation, and a sense of ‘brain fog’.
On the surface, the player appeared to be doing all the right things regarding her training and recovery balance. She appeared to be eating all the right foods and was naturally frustrated with the constant injuries stopping her from playing.
The performance team was perplexed, but through an insatiable curiosity, we kept trying to figure out why this was happening. What could be hindering recovery and causing all of these nagging injuries?
After turning over every stone, we noticed the player only having episodic menstrual cycles, which made us look at her hormone profile. Interestingly, two key hormones, estrogen and progesterone, were not at the levels they should be. Again we asked, "Why?" Knowing that what an athlete eats can influence their hormone profile, we assessed her energy expenditure and energy consumption. The findings were fascinating – she was at a 1,000-calorie deficit both during her training and competition days. In sports, this is known as Relative Energy Deficiency (RED-S). After addressing her energy balance through increasing how much and how often she ate, she started to feel more energized. As her hormone profile normalized, her mood, cognitive ability, motivation, and injury status all improved over time. Finally, she was experiencing the performance she deserved.
For us, there were many learnings. It took a lot of digging to understand her individual issues and needs, but, once again, we were reminded about just how different we all are. This experience reminded us of how crucial the sex hormones, male and female, are to our performance, both physically and cognitively. Interestingly, “normal” hormones levels can differ from person to person and differ within daily and monthly cycles.
Sex hormones are an aspect of human performance that is often overlooked, especially in the corporate world. Estrogen promotes the growth and repair of our neurons. Progesterone is involved in calming the nervous system and promoting deep sleep phases. Testosterone is key for motivation and energy, as well as bone health and muscle repair. Sometimes, when you are doing everything right (according to what is working for others), but you aren't feeling the energy and performance you want, it may be time to go deeper.
Take ownership of your performance by being curious
Is there a perfect audit to discover your own unique bio-individuality? Probably not, but increasing your awareness and asking more questions is a great way to help understand your own physiology. Looking at your performance from all angles can require experts from many different fields, but ultimately, what feels right to you is critical.
At TIGNUM, we are embarking on a journey to better understand the impact of sex hormones on the brain and physiology. Our experience shows the huge impact they have on our personal readiness, and ultimately, on our Sustainable Human Performance.
If you are feeling below optimal in any area of your performance, these questions can help initiate an individuality audit:
Is this my normal?
Are there patterns (daily, weekly, monthly, annual) to how I feel?
Why is this happening?
Where can I seek more information that will help me understand this?
By being curious about what works and doesn't work for you and taking ownership of your bio-individuality, you can positively impact your personal readiness.
So, is our individuality in our control? Yes, it is. Our habits play a big role in how that is expressed. Taking ownership is key if we are to fully step into our potential. Our hormones are a prime example of this. Over the coming months, we will continue to explore how our habits influence hormones in relation to our human performance. Stay tuned.
About the Author
Laura Penhaul // Chief Innovation Officer
As TIGNUM’s Chief Innovation Officer, Laura explores the latest science and innovation to support the performance of our clients. As a double world record holder from leading a team to row across the Pacific Ocean, combined with 15 years experience working in Olympic and Paralympic sports as a Physiotherapist, Laura is passionate about supporting teams and individuals to achieve their personal best.
About TIGNUM
TIGNUM is the major performance building block for business professionals, designed around a skill- and data-based approach that respects the individuality, focuses on the brain, evolves constantly, and creates lasting impact.
Its international team comes from a wide range of fields, including human behavior, elite athletics, special forces, performance medicine, executive coaching, change consultants, and more.
Discover how our solutions help you show up better and maximize your impact.
Contact us
Leveraging Hormonal Changes Across Life's Cycles to Sustain High Performance
Dr. Emma Ross, a sports scientist and advocate for women’s health discusses how understanding hormonal cycles boosts performance. She highlights breaking taboos around menstrual health and using body literacy to optimize mindset, movement, nutrition, and recovery.
Dr. Emma Ross
Co-Founder and Co-CEO, The Well HQ
“The body literacy piece is so important in our mid-life as women because it’s critical for helping us understand what we can do; what works and what doesn’t.”
As a lifelong athlete, mother, and highly-respected sports scientist, Dr. Emma Ross has made it her mission to tackle the taboos that exist not only within sports, but business and society, around women’s health, menstrual cycles, mental health and the impact hormones have on our ability to perform at our best. In this conversation with Scott Peltin, Dr. Ross discusses:
How our hormones ebb and flow and how this affects our mental and physical performance at different phases of our hormone cycles
Why understanding our individual rhythms is key to creating an optimal performance state
Why breaking the taboos around the natural female life cycle is imperative to creating psychological safety and effective leadership environments
Bio-individual awareness is critical for every human. Have a listen to discover how you can manage your mindset, movement, nutrition, and recovery strategies during your unique phases to maximize your impact.
ABOUT TIGNUM THOUGHTCAST
TIGNUM ThoughtCast is a series of short interviews in which TIGNUM co-founder Scott Peltin sits down with friends, clients, and human performance experts to explore the application of Sustainable Human Performance.
Discover how our solutions help you show up better and maximize impact
Contact us
A Life-Altering Vacation
Stephanie Lena from Novartis shares how a one-on-one vacation with her husband strengthened their bond and became a foundation of support during her cancer journey. She reveals mindset skills like using anchors, setting intentions, and reframing that helped her persevere, inspiring us to approach life and vacations with greater purpose.
Stephanie Lena
Global Trial Program Head, Novartis
In this episode, Stephanie Lena of Novartis sits down with Scott Peltin to share her powerful story of how a new approach to a one on one vacation with her husband created the bond and partnership that helped her persevere through cancer shortly thereafter. She goes on to share the critical mindset skills and performance habits she developed and applied during her chemotherapy including the use of anchors, intention setting, and reframing.
Her amazing story has made us all pause and think differently about how we'll approach our next vacation. We hope you'll do the same.
ABOUT TIGNUM THOUGHTCAST
TIGNUM ThoughtCast is a series of short interviews in which TIGNUM co-founder Scott Peltin sits down with friends, clients, and human performance experts to explore the application of Sustainable Human Performance.
Discover how our solutions help you show up better and maximize impact
Contact us
The Opinion Pause: Using Humility and Curiosity to Think More Critically
The opinion pause is a great way to build your Performance Mindset and multiply the energy of those around you. It makes you smarter, makes others less defensive, and helps you think at a deeper level.
By Scott Peltin
Co-Founder and Chief Catalyst, TIGNUM
In today’s highly connected world, it is easy to quickly share your opinions. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter - all designed for the rapid viral spread of information. We could fill books with the reputation damage one flippant response to the wrong person at the wrong time can make, but let’s focus on the impact it has on your ability to be mentally agile, resilient, energized, and a multiplier of energy.
When you reflexively form and share an opinion, you rely 100% on a bias that you have previously created based on a multitude of historic contributing factors. By doing this, you are destroying the Performance Mindset skills of challenging your biases, having a growth mindset, being open-minded, and being curious. You are robbing your brain of the opportunity to ask more questions and to do more research to update your thinking with the latest knowledge. You are building the walls around your “fixed” mindset, which reduces the expansion of your “growth” mindset.
Less opinionated means better critical thinking
As we have discussed many times, curiosity is the Performance Mindset skill that leads to openness, growth, new knowledge, innovation, and meaningful relationships. By asking great questions, you create a pause that allows you to learn and challenge what you may think you already know.
Similarly, when you quickly form an opinion and openly share it, you are diminishing the skill of humility. By forcibly being so opinionated, you are skipping the vital step of critical thinking, which is to ask yourself, “What if I’m wrong?” Humility tears down walls and provides an opening for people to approach you and create a relationship. It is vital for collaboration.
From a Sustainable Human Performance standpoint, when you quickly form and share your opinions, you are emphatically expressing that you are right, and that’s the end of the discussion. It forces your brain into defense mode and creates defensiveness in those around you.
Challenge your opinions to create deeper understanding
Sustainable Human Performers make another choice. Instead of hitting the send button, they hit the pause button (in their brain). They stop and consider the opinion of others (the intentions, the intensity, the knowledge, etc.). Then they ask themselves, “What do I think about this issue, and why do I think that?” In the pause, they examine this answer and ask other questions like, “What if I’m wrong?” “What am I not seeing? “If I were in their shoes, how would I see it?” “How can I learn more about this topic to challenge my own belief?”
The opinion pause is a great way to build your Performance Mindset and multiply the energy of those around you. It makes you smarter, makes others less defensive, and helps you think at a deeper level. In addition, it reduces your stress response and builds your compassion, empathy, patience, and listening skills. Sustainable Human Performance doesn’t happen by chance; it’s a choice, and choosing the opinion pause may be a good one for us all.
About the Author
Scott Peltin // Co-Founder and Chief Catalyst
As the Co-Founder and Chief Catalyst of TIGNUM, Scott has coached many top CEOs, executives, professional athletes, and others to Rule Their Impact. Scott’s unique blend of his 25 years in the Fire Service, education, and coaching experience helps him combine the art and science of Sustainable High Performance to help TIGNUM clients be better, for longer, when it counts the most.
About TIGNUM
TIGNUM is the major performance building block for business professionals, designed around a skill- and data-based approach that respects the individuality, focuses on the brain, evolves constantly, and creates lasting impact.
Its international team comes from a wide range of fields, including human behavior, elite athletics, special forces, performance medicine, executive coaching, change consultants, and more.
Discover how our solutions help you show up better and maximize your impact.
Contact us
Harnessing the Collective: Community as a Catalyst for Change
Jeff Keith embarked on a remarkable journey with a profound mission: to combat human trafficking head-on. His path began with five years of dedicated research and establishing crucial partnerships with key stakeholders, including law enforcement, public service, ministry, and the military.
Project: The Guardian Group
B-LD KITCHEN Member: Jeff Keith
Jeff Keith embarked on a remarkable journey with a profound mission: to combat human trafficking head-on. His path began with five years of dedicated research and establishing crucial partnerships with key stakeholders, including law enforcement, public service, ministry, and the military.
He soon recognized a critical gap in the fight against trafficking. While these authorities were tasked with solving the issue, they often lacked the essential resources and specialized knowledge needed to do so effectively.
The Guardian Group's pioneering approach was launched in 2022, and its impact has been extraordinary. In just the first quarter of 2023, it led to a remarkable 200% increase in victim identifications, a trend expected to grow exponentially by year-end.
Human traffickers can target anyone, but certain groups are more vulnerable, such as young individuals with high ACE scores (a measure of neglect and abuse in childhood), those experiencing homelessness, foster care youths, and those involved in the juvenile justice system.
Among the most disproportionately affected are minority populations, specifically Black, Latino, and Native American girls from underrepresented and underserved communities. Shockingly, victims are often openly advertised online, with approximately 150,000 new online advertisements selling women and children for sex in the U.S. each day. Law enforcement agencies were stretched thin, lacking the time, resources, and skills to locate, rescue, and support these victims.
It was clear that a fresh and courageous approach was needed to make a meaningful impact.
Jeff Keith firmly believes in the strength of community. His innovative solution was to unite the power of the community with the expertise, diligence, and experience of intelligence and law enforcement agencies. This combination created a force multiplier approach, empowering authorities with vital insights, data, and expertise.
The Guardian Group recruits, vets, and trains a dedicated team of volunteers who actively search for online advertisements to gather leads and information about victims. They call this Project 1951, named after the U.S. statute code that makes child trafficking a federal offense.
They assemble the necessary evidence and insights, which are then carefully passed on to the relevant authorities. This collaborative effort makes law enforcement more effective in apprehending the perpetrators.
Now, having developed a groundbreaking model for combating human trafficking, Jeff faces the challenge of scaling up to help even more victims. His personal motto is: Until All Are Free.
Jeff knows this endeavor will demand incredible mental agility and unwavering determination. Expanding will require fresh inspiration, innovative ideas, and support from unexpected sources.
The project is rooted in the belief that diverse thinking is the key to overcoming this challenge. This is precisely why Jeff has joined TIGNUM’s B-LD KITCHEN. He recognizes that the diverse collective and inspirational dialogues within it will uniquely empower him and the Guardian Group to have a lasting impact on people's lives.
There are various ways to support this project, as an individual and an organization:
For more information, contact
Jeff directly at:
jeff@guardiangroup.org
You can learn more about
the Guardian Group:
https://guardiangroup.org
ABOUT TIGNUM’S B-LD KITCHEN
Ever wondered how top performers reach success? It’s not luck; it’s their boldness and constant readiness to face challenges in a complex, uncertain, and volatile world.
We get it—nowadays it’s tough to stay on top of things without the right energy or tools. That’s why our TIGNUM experts have created the B-LD KITCHEN. Packed with constant inspiration, ongoing conversations, and expert-designed human performance tools and strategies, we aim to significantly impact your work and life, no matter the challenges.
ABOUT TIGNUM
TIGNUM is the major performance building block for business professionals, designed around a skill- and data-based approach that respects the individuality, focuses on the brain, evolves constantly, and creates lasting impact.
Its international team comes from a wide range of fields, including human behavior, elite athletics, special forces, performance medicine, executive coaching, change consultants, and more.
Key Ingredients for Dynamic Work Culture Building
In this conversation, Sandy Ogg (Founder, CEO Works) shares his insights on the future of work. He explains how businesses can match the right talent to the right roles and how Sustainable Human Performance helps people perform at their best and make a bigger impact.
Sandy Ogg
Founder, CEO Works
"Change hits, value shifts, money moves. We need to be continuously adapting to what's going on around us. This can be exhausting and mind-numbing if you don't have the habits of Sustainable High Performance."
Sandy Ogg has spent 30+ years working and learning with Fortune 500 executives around the world. His experience and success in Human Resources led him to develop Connecting Talent to Value™, a methodology that helps organizations bend the value curve by getting the right people in the right jobs.
When we first met Sandy as CHRO of Unilever, he had a simple and surprising request: to be able to play catch with his son into his 70s. In this conversation with Scott Peltin, he shares his insights on the future of work as it relates to matching talent to value and the impact that Sustainable Human Performance makes on that talent.....He also shares an update on his fastball.
ABOUT TIGNUM THOUGHTCAST
TIGNUM ThoughtCast is a series of short interviews in which TIGNUM co-founder Scott Peltin sits down with friends, clients, and human performance experts to explore the application of Sustainable Human Performance.
Discover how our solutions help you show up better and maximize impact
Contact us