[00:00] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So you’re basically like, you’re a little bit of a real life Ted Lasso. I mean, you’re the first full time American performance specialist in the English Premier League. Like how did that come about?

[00:10] Steve Tashjian: It’s a mix of knowing the right people being in the right place at the right time, but then what I also always follow it up with is at any given time, when you get an opportunity, uh, your reputation is going to get pressure tested.

[00:23] Steve Tashjian: And, and I think at that point, I’ve always been in a place where, um, you know, my, my reputation helped me. Um, you know, seize opportunities like that. I had just finished. Uh, you know, two and a half great years with Columbus crew under, um, uh, Ziggy Schmidt, God rest him. Um, and we had one MLS cup in 2008 together.

[00:47] Steve Tashjian: And then, you know, I had spent two preseasons, 2008, 2009, um, in the UK with the crew as a part of our preseason. And we. Spent both of those preseasons either playing or training at Everton Football Club’s training grounds. So we got to meet those folks. We got to meet David Moyes and his staff and the high performance group.

[01:10] Steve Tashjian: And when I caught wind, you know, that the opportunity was available, it was because David Moyes had already hired an American company at the time. It was called Athletes Performance. Now it’s called Exos. He had already hired that company to be a part of the high performance team at the club. There was a point in 2009 where the relationship with the individual that was filling the contract just Soured with the club and they had moved that individual on and now there’s this opening and the company, Athletes Performance, along with Everton was just looking for the person, the right person to fill the role.

[01:42] Steve Tashjian: I have known folks at Athletes Performance for a long, long time and they reached out and said, you know, would you be interested in applying for this? And at the time I had just signed a brand new contract with Columbus and so I had to say no, but I don’t know why I did it, but in that new contract with the crew, I stipulated that at any point if I We received an offer to go abroad or I received an offer for the men’s national team.

[02:07] Steve Tashjian: I could exit my contract and thank God I did that. The only rule was I couldn’t leave until May 31st. So when they reached out, I said, I’m really interested, but I can’t do anything until May 31. You know, if it doesn’t get filled, please let me know. Uh, June 1st, I got a phone call. I said, do you still want it?

[02:25] Steve Tashjian: So thank goodness. Uh, I think there’s, you know, a lot of people. Uh, on paper that were probably more qualified than I, than I was to be honest, but in the end, I had a lot of people pushing for me to be the one. In addition, I had some things on my resume, you know, in performance coaching, I’m also a physical therapist, which is pretty rare for a performance coach.

[02:45] Steve Tashjian: I think it’s separated me from the group and long story short, I had people. Right circumstance, right opportunity. But at the same time, when they called and investigated who I was, you know, my reputation, thankfully was able to, you know, seal that, seal that for me. So there it is. You know, I ended up in Europe and it changed the course of my career.

[03:05] Steve Tashjian: Changed the course of my family. My daughter was born in the UK and all of a sudden now we have this connection to, uh, to people. Thousands and thousands of miles away on a different continent.

[03:15] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Well, that’s the case. I think a lot of times with, with breaks, like whenever you get a break, it’s like, am I good at what I do and do I know somebody?

[03:24] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And then you get the break. Like you have to be good at what you do. Like you said, there are probably other people more qualified, but it’s like, maybe they were more qualified on paper, but obviously people that, you know, they interacted with you, they saw how you carried yourself and that’s important.

[03:35] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Like somebody who’s always watching, like somebody who’s always watching. Do the right thing, show up, do your work. Be integrous with, with, with how you go about yourself and, uh, in good things can happen, and there’s also another concept that I interviewed a guy named Josh Bonita recently, and he brought up this concept of, um, of sort of, uh, I forget what he called it, but it’s like this idea of like sort of triangulating, like, what am I?

[04:01] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Where can I be the best, like the top in the top 1 percent in the world? Maybe you’re not in the top 1 percent of the world, uh, of physical therapists or maybe, and maybe not in the top 1 percent of the world in, in sports psychologists or sports performance coach. Um, but you put those two things together and you’re already working with a soccer team and it’s like, Hey, there’s, there’s.

[04:19] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You’re in the top 1 percent in the world of the people who we need. Like you’re the right guy. And so I think it’s really helpful to think about that for the listener. And if you think like, yeah, how do I become the best financial advisor or teacher or sales manager in the world? Well, maybe you don’t need to be the best.

[04:36] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You gotta be good at what you do, but what else? Is it about you and your background that makes you among the best in, in the world at, at what you do? A quick interruption if you’re too busy to set goals or if you’re unsure what the right goals are for you, or if you’re just not clear on what’s next for you in your business, in your life, I’ve got the solution you’ve been looking for.

[04:54] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Join my free seven day course. Designed for athletic minded men who want to maximize their potential in business and life. And I’m going to help you create a clear plan for achieving your biggest goals faster. So if you feel like you’re driving with the parking brake on, if you feel like you’re going a hundred miles an hour all day long, but not really moving the needle in your life.

[05:13] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Get started with me today. Get instant access to this seven day course where you and I will get to interact live with each other. Plus you’ll have access to a community of like minded, high performing, athletic minded, competitive men looking to unlock their next level as well. Just visit jimharshawjr.com/free. That’s jimharshawjr.com/free. Now back to the show. So what was that like working in English Premier League? What was it like standing on the sidelines of a game and being at those games and working at, you know, this is, this is the, I imagine by a lot of standards, it’s the biggest sports league in the world.

[05:51] Steve Tashjian: Yeah. My hair was on fire at first, to be honest, you you’re just, you’re in it. And. Every day seems like you’re on another planet. You know, as, as far as I was concerned, you know, I’m in my, my mid thirties at this point. I’m trying to get comfortable with, you know, something as simple as I’m driving on the opposite side of the road, , I’m, I’m asking for chips and I’m getting french fries.

[06:16] Steve Tashjian: I, you know, I don’t know what, I don’t know what’s going on here. The entire staff was Scottish. I don’t understand a single thing anybody’s saying. And their accents were super thick and heavy and there’s times when we’d be at the table and you know there’s discussions taking place and coaches need to talk quietly they don’t want players to hear so they’re all discussing something their volume is so low already plus they’re speaking with an accent I can’t understand and then they look to me and say isn’t that right Tash?

[06:45] Steve Tashjian: I’ll go absolutely, absolutely boss yeah absolutely and I have no idea what anybody said so that’s a big part of you just trying to you know grow accustomed to a culture first and foremost. Then I’m there without my wife. You know, I had to go ahead without her and, and, and I’m traveling. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

[07:03] Steve Tashjian: They don’t traveling with, you know, with, you know, I’m living out of a suitcase for quite a long time. And then you’re just trying to come to grips with a whole new squad of players. Uh, you’re trying to come to grips with a whole new culture, uh, of sport. Um, I hadn’t been in an environment where sport, it was such a heavy influence in the day to day happiness or sadness of everyone, not just in Liverpool, but in the entire country.

[07:28] Steve Tashjian: I had never experienced that before. So the pressure to perform was at a level I had also not experienced. The consequences of actions. Um, you know, we’re now tenfold greater. And so this, the things like, you know, the things like what it would be to experience each stadium for the first time, there was newness to that.

[07:50] Steve Tashjian: There was excitement to that. There was the, you know, even the interaction with players that I’d watched on television for a long time as a fan. Now I’m coaching them, which was, you know, a different, much different experience. Then I’d had in the past, but overall, I think, you know, you, you just, it, it was a good lesson for me in how little process and routine I had up to that point.

[08:14] Steve Tashjian: In my career, you know, I, I was sitting there thinking, what do, you know, I’ve got 10 options to solve these issues. And because I don’t, hadn’t really settled into a professional routine, it took me longer than it should have to really settle into that group, settle into my role in my process. And I learned a lot in that first, you know, six months, but once you kind of get a grip of it and you start thinking, then there’s some good people there that, that helped me.

[08:43] Steve Tashjian: Focus my thoughts, focus my attention to how to get things done. And, and I was lucky that they, you know, they didn’t have their own agendas. They were very selfless, like super great people at that club. Incredible club, incredible people. I’ll never forget that experience there. Their, their, their family for sure.

[09:01] Jim Harshaw Jr.: This is such a critical piece of performance. And now we’re not talking about the player’s performance. You’re talking about your performances. Like you had people there to support you, to guide you. Like it’s so important to have that in our, in our work environment and in our lives, like to have coaches, to have mentors, to, to help you along and you are now thrust into a situation where.

[09:25] Jim Harshaw Jr.: It’s about your performance. And for my listeners, it’s the same thing for them. Like they’re showing up at work and it’s about their performance, whether they’re in sales or they’re a leader, or they’re trying to become a leader. It’s about your performance. And like, you’re talking like when, when most people go to work, there’s not, you know, millions of people that, you know, their, their lives, their, their, their happiness and sadness and emotions rides upon the winning and losing of the team.

[09:53] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And you’re now an integral part of this team. Like, did you have the, the, the awareness in those moments to think about, okay, this is about my performance. Now, now I have to kind of take my own medicine and, uh, Apply this stuff that I’m teaching to, to myself. And it’s hard to do. It’s hard to coach yourself.

[10:14] Jim Harshaw Jr.: That’s why I think we, we all need that person outside of us. Who’s, who’s on the outside of the jar. We’re on the inside of the jar, trying to read the label, you know, they’re on the outside of the job. But anyway, did you apply any of that? Did you try to, do you, do you look back and kind of wish you did, or tell me, tell me about that part of the experience?

[10:30] Steve Tashjian: I think it was a mix of some of my better qualities. Taking over as well as serving in these positions to really model some of the things I was seeing from people I was learning to respect there. And it was a combination of those two. I don’t, the one thing I’d say is regardless of whether I really had an idea of what my process was and what my routine was for solving difficult circumstances, what I always had was a standard for What was acceptable and not acceptable from my effort.

[11:07] Steve Tashjian: Like what, what’s an acceptable standard of performance? And um, I remember speaking to Steve Round at the time, who was the assistant manager there, he is now the assistant manager at Arsenal. And when I was, you know, speaking to him for advice, I, I said, well, I make the right decision or the wrong decision.

[11:25] Steve Tashjian: What I’ll never sacrifice is the standard of the work I’ll put towards it, the standard of the detail that I’ll and attention I’ll put to it. And when I said the word standard, he. He immediately put Bill Walsh’s book in front of me. Uh, the score will take care of itself. He says, you need to re you need to read this book.

[11:42] Steve Tashjian: That was the start for me of understanding the true power of having process, the true power of having a dedication to the standard at which you fulfill and execute your process. It’s not about winning and losing. It’s about day to day execution of your role, day to day execution of the details of your role.

[12:04] Steve Tashjian: And. I, I will say from that point forward, I had a completely different perspective on how I was going to approach my days. And then he gave me, he gave me, they call me coach. And I had this, you know, now I have these two books that probably guided my, uh, early foundational philosophy on what process looked like on what, you know, winning looked like, but then it also made me more curious.

[12:32] Steve Tashjian: About what does it really take to be a great leader, a good person? And what does it look like? Um, and that, that was, that was the start of it. And I think from that point on, it gave me a totally different perspective on how I evaluated what I was hearing. And when I, when I would listen to people, I could now immediately evaluate it from a place of one.

[12:56] Steve Tashjian: Does this sound like a standard that I find acceptable or not? You know, I started to separate myself. In a way to make sure that I wasn’t going to be negatively influenced by individuals that, you know, felt comfortable with a different standard than I did. And, and that was the beginning of me just focusing on, listen, you know what your role is.

[13:17] Steve Tashjian: It’s here, just you’re here to serve. So if that’s the starting point, I need a whole foundation that allows me to serve. And what’s my process going to be to serve the best way possible. And that’s kind of the way I moved forward. Right around that probably eight month mark in my first year, I think exponentially things changed for me and how I approached my day to day.

[13:37] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So is it fair to say that you start with the end in mind, you know, Stephen Covey, one of the seven habits of highly effective people start with the end in mind, you have the goal. And then you kind of reverse engineer. What is the standard that I have to live up to and execute at? What is the process that I need to do in order to give myself the best shot at achieving that?

[13:59] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I mean, that’s, that’s, that’s how I think of it. Is that how you think of it? Or do you have a different take on that?

[14:04] Steve Tashjian: I would definitely say, I wouldn’t call it that. I start with a goal because, uh,

[14:10] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Do you believe in goals? I mean, do you set goals? Do you believe in goals?

[14:13] Steve Tashjian: I believe in knowing what you want the outcomes to be.

[14:16] Steve Tashjian: I believe in that. I believe in spending as much time as possible, understanding first personally, what your purpose is, what values you align with as an individual. Secondly, the purpose of the organization or department you’re in and focusing on That vision, mission, and values of the organization. Those to me, replace what I think are, are, you know, a great way of looking at it in terms of my perspective is either an Olympic cycle or a World Cup cycle.

[14:54] Steve Tashjian: We just went through if your total, if your, if your focus is always on some sort of a result at the end, makes it very difficult to focus on a four year period. It’s just too long. It’s too big. So, in that sense, I don’t love the idea of starting with goals and working backwards. Because I’ll tell you this right now, if you were to tell me, if you were to say, in four years time, it’s going to look like X, back at the beginning, I would never have believed you.

[15:26] Steve Tashjian: It, it, it, I could not have predicted where we ended up. It would have been impossible, but the road made it more and more and more clear, the needs and expectations changed constantly.

[15:38] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah.

[15:38] Steve Tashjian: The goal for me, you can’t

[15:39] Jim Harshaw Jr.: see step 10 from step one,

[15:41] Steve Tashjian: you can’t see step

[15:43] Jim Harshaw Jr.: 20, 30, 50 from step one.

[15:45] Steve Tashjian: Right. So I think as it relates to the, you know, I don’t call them goals.

[15:48] Steve Tashjian: I call them milestones. I think that’s, that’s more appropriate for what this really is for most of us, you know, for organizations, for individuals. We’re just working through a book. We don’t know how it ends. We’re just writing chapters and we have no idea what the next chapter is going to look like.

[16:08] Steve Tashjian: Even when I started my career, I started my career as a physical therapist. In a private outpatient facility in Pasadena, California, there’s no way I would have predicted in, you know, 20 something years, I’d be right here in front of you doing what I’m doing now. Absolutely no chance I would have gotten anywhere close to predicting it.

[16:28] Steve Tashjian: But along the way, I tell you what, if I would have had some sort of long term goal of what I thought I wanted my life to be, I would tell you I would never be where I am right now in front of you. It would have, I think, you know, would have been square peg in a round hole. I think that’s something that I try to, to communicate to folks that I work with now.

[16:54] Steve Tashjian: Spend less time worrying about, about driving what this is going to be in your life per se. Instead, be very, very clear about what makes you happy. Be very clear about what brings you joy. Be very clear about what’s going to make you happy. Your whole holistic universe, including your family, including your friends, including what is going to move that towards joy.

[17:17] Steve Tashjian: That’s all that matters. And, and, and I don’t mean to get philosophical, but if we, if you try to like pinpoint what that’s going to be, when you’re 25 years old, like when I graduated from grad school, I wouldn’t weigh off and I wouldn’t have enjoyed my life, you know?

[17:33] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah, I think so. I very much. Believe in setting goals.

[17:37] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Um, but I think it’s really a matter of semantics and I think our philosophy is aligned because here’s, you know, so we talk about purpose and values. I mean, this is literally where we start my, my coaching program is with like vision, vision for your life, values, like what do you want? And so, And then it’s like, in order to extract the core values and then say, okay, now let’s design goals around those core values in every area of your life.

[18:01] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Not just sport. Now there’s, you know, in the real world, we have, you know, families and health and wellbeing and so many things pulling at our time, not to mention our career. But then you go, okay, you know, what is the goal knowing that. Like Steve Jobs said, you can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect the dots looking backwards.

[18:19] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So we have the goal. We have the target. Now, as I walk down the path, you know, to use that analogy, reveal your path is the name of my coaching program. So that’s why I like this analogy is like, you can’t see 10 steps down the path from step one. You know, you, you take three steps down the path and you go, ah, okay.

[18:34] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Wrong goal, wrong target, wrong milestone. That doesn’t feel quite as good. This over here, this door just opened. This better aligns with, with my values, my purpose, what I want to do, what makes me happy, all of that. I think people have to understand. Like you’re saying, like, you can’t be so locked in on one thing that you’re going to miss the better thing, the right thing.

[19:01] Jim Harshaw Jr.: That’s harder. That’s harder in the real world. And, and, and, you know, we see what’s posted on social media. We see what’s parked in our neighbor’s driveway and we start aligning ourselves and our goals with. What is supposed to make us happy or what we think is supposed to make us happy or what makes our parents or our neighbors happy.

[19:21] Jim Harshaw Jr.: But, but maybe, maybe not me. And, and I think that’s where a lot of people struggle. So do you encourage people to actually do the core values work and the purpose work? Or is that just something you think people should know?

[19:34] Steve Tashjian: I have found that not many people know. Not many people spend time at all. Um, and I think a lot

[19:42] Jim Harshaw Jr.: of people think they know until they get into it and actually start doing the work

[19:46] Steve Tashjian: or until somebody asks them the question.

[19:48] Steve Tashjian: Like, what does that mean?

[19:49] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah.

[19:49] Steve Tashjian: Right. I, you know, I think that’s the big one is, uh, on the spot. It’s yeah, it’s this, this, and this, and I’ll go, well, what does that mean? Define it. You want to inspire people? Well, what does that mean? Well, well, you know, I want to, you know, I want to, I want to inspire people.

[20:05] Steve Tashjian: You can’t use the word to define the word. What is, what do you, what do you, I, I would say this, I’ve spent less time trying to connect goals to something, um, quantitative, to be honest. You know, if somebody said, I want to, you know, my goal is to, to earn this much in this quarter of profit revenues, whatever it might be.

[20:29] Steve Tashjian: And I, and I, and I do, I do love that. Like, don’t get me wrong. Like there’s always this motivation to try to achieve something tangible. But what I, what I say to that is, guys, that’s easy. That’s, that’s an easy thing to do, right? You evaluate what things have looked like from quarter to quarter, what things have looked like from year to years past, and you just evaluate what would be a great increase.

[20:53] Steve Tashjian: That’s easy. Instead, set goals for how you want to, how you want to make people feel. Set a milestone for how you want to affect something else or someone else. I want this individual’s, um, you know, life happiness to grow. You know, if you’re going to set goals for your team, set goals for yourself and how you want to affect your team, I think it’s, it’s take, and it’s harder.

[21:23] Steve Tashjian: It’s more complex in terms of the, um, you know, contextualization of something like that. But as you’re trying to create a way for the milestone to create meaning for yourself as an individual, as a leader. Spend more time evaluating a milestone that’s defined by how you’re going to make other people feel.

[21:46] Steve Tashjian: How you’re going to affect other people or the institution as a whole. Those, those to me, create more power. They create the ability for, uh, For a sustained energy, you know, a lot of times we just run out of gas at a certain goal either because it was the wrong goal or we projected too far forward and it’s difficult to feel connected to it because it was so far ahead.

[22:10] Steve Tashjian: A lot of the, a lot of the times it’s because it’s not really connected to anything that, you know, has some sort of meaning beyond yourself, right? I think that’s what’s great about thinking about other people first in these milestones is there’s so much traction and, and, and magnetic pull. When, uh, when you realize you’re in, you’re involved in something that’s bigger than yourself, that’s, you know, it’s pretty motivational.

[22:34] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So for the listener, who’s saying, okay, I’ve got revenue goals and my boss has, or I have revenue or whatever it might be, right. Units moved, whatever, whatever it is. listener’s world, they may be listening and saying, I can’t set goals, they might be saying on how, how I make somebody else feel. Right. To me, it sounds like, well, if you, if you’re setting goals around how you’re making other people feel, if you’re, especially if you’re a leader, then they’re going to execute well, want to show up for work on time, you know, happy, you know, job satisfaction.

[23:12] Jim Harshaw Jr.: They’re going to want to stay there. You’re going to increase retention and performance just goes up when you focus on. People. Am I right? 100%. Is this where you’re coming from or? 100%.

[23:22] Steve Tashjian: Yeah, you know, if let’s, I’m leading a team of seven or eight people, let’s say, and regardless, I’m going to have to set.

[23:30] Steve Tashjian: Because I have to please senior VPs, senior executives,

[23:36] Jim Harshaw Jr.: whatever.

[23:36] Steve Tashjian: I have to please the board. I have to have targets quarterly. I have, you know, I have to hit target. I have to set them. I have to hit them. I have to set them for everybody. But what I try to do to get people understand what I’m saying is, are you also thinking about how you accomplished it?

[23:54] Steve Tashjian: That’s an important piece. So in that, in that space, If you were to take the example you gave and you were to say, all right, for X individual on my team, what I think would be a great year would be that by the end of the year, because of how much effort I put into this individual, feeling a sense of belonging in this organization, feeling a sense of empowerment, feeling a sense that out of all the decisions they’ve ever made, they’re in the right place.

[24:35] Steve Tashjian: If I accomplish that as a leader, I’m probably going to accomplish all the other quantitative goals. And I think that’s a perspective that’s difficult when you’re young. I, I, I would have had a really difficult time kind of letting go of the quantitative side of it. But the funny thing is, is you’re not, you’re not really going to be able to get away from the quantitative milestones you have to set in, in the corporate space.

[25:03] Steve Tashjian: Like that just, that, that’s natural. I think it’s, and it’s healthy to do that, but I could also hit every single target. And not become a better person. I, I might even become worse because of my drive towards this quantitative goal.

[25:21] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So this is going back to purpose. This is connecting your work to who you are, who you want to be in the world, how you want to live, you know, the legacy that you leave, all of that is so much bigger than.

[25:34] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah, for

[25:36] Steve Tashjian: sure. And I think personal growth. Like my goal for somebody on my team isn’t just about whether they hit financial targets. Like I have a personal responsibility to nurture the growth of this individual that they wouldn’t be here or they will leave. If you don’t engage in that as a priority, number one objective for me, I provide safety in this organization.

[26:02] Steve Tashjian: I provide belonging in this organization. I provide growth as a leader. I wouldn’t be in this position if I wasn’t good at making money for the company. I’m a leader and I’m doing that already. If I want to go to the next level, I’m going to empower people on my team to become leaders like me, because if you want the company to grow and be sustainably successful forever, keep developing and nurturing great, great leaders, you’re going to be, you’re going to be well on your way.

[26:31] Steve Tashjian: And, and sometimes it just, it depends on where you are in the corporate space in terms of how much. You know, bandwidth, you can dedicate towards these types of personal conceptual milestones for people versus, you know, me, listen, it doesn’t matter. If I don’t hit targets, it doesn’t matter if I’m a good person, right?

[26:52] Steve Tashjian: But I won’t move up in this company if I’m not executing. Like things of that are, I get the balance. Don’t get me wrong. I get the balance. But as soon as you start getting, um, you know, higher, higher up into leadership areas, what you and I both know is it gets lonely, right? I’m sorry, like the higher and higher up you go, it’s not, it’s not necessarily, you know, it doesn’t get better and better from a personal perspective.

[27:17] Steve Tashjian: It gets lonelier and lonelier, it gets harder and harder, and the pressure gets worse and worse. Well, so now in that space, what is it that I really want to try to accomplish as an individual leading in that type of an environment? Is it numbers? Is that really going to make it better? Is that really going to make it joyful?

[27:40] Steve Tashjian: My experience is no. When you get to that level, it’s about how much influence can I have? In, in, in making things better. And what does that mean for each individual? It’s, you know, it’s like a snowflake, but what I’d say is if I’m focused on, can I make things great? Can I really bring joy? Can I bring purpose to this space that I’m in?

[28:08] Steve Tashjian: Can I connect people to something super sustainable in a way where everybody’s experiencing a high level of connectedness and, and joyful experience? You know, that’s going to make this whole thing feel less lonely for me at this position that I’m in, you know, and that’s what I’ve experienced my whole career.

[28:27] Steve Tashjian: Stress, pressure, like high level pressure, oppressive pressure that, you know, that crushes a lot of people.

[28:38] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah. One of my first clients ever called me up and, and asked me for coaching out of the blue. And he’s the Olympic, the head coach. Olympic coach and said, it’s, it’s lonely at the top. That was the, that was the reason he gave me.

[28:51] Jim Harshaw Jr.: He’s like, this is this, I need you. I need you in my corner here. Cause it’s lonely at the top. And I want to point out to the listener. Who’s not, if you’re not a leader, you maybe you want to be a leader. You can still do all of this. Like this is all part of the process. This is all part of, you know, becoming a leader, proving yourself, positioning yourself for, for the next promotion, be given the title of a leader, even if you’re not a leader.

[29:14] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Um, And it’s very easy to think that you can’t do anything from where you are, but, but you can’t, you can’t for sure. So I want to shift a little bit, Steve, and talk about routines and habits, routines and habits for peak performance in the real world, in business, in life. Are there any things that you do, whether it’s morning routines or habits that you do now, or have done over your career?

[29:44] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Sure. That you feel have really helped you perform at your best?

[29:48] Steve Tashjian: I was definitely a product of that period when General McRaven’s, uh, Make Your Bed speech came out and was, and went viral. You know, and I was one of them. I, every morning I got up, I made my bed. I was, you know, and, uh, you know, it was, it was the execution of a, making my bed just really was setting the stage for me to understand the bigger message.

[30:12] Steve Tashjian: And the bigger message was creating the opportunity for yourself to have, uh, Stability in your life so that you’re ready for pressure. This is what I think routine does. Cause the biggest question I get asked is why, why do I need a routine? I’ve talked a million people that said, Hey, I read that. If I wake up at 5am every morning, I’m going to be more successful because I read that study that most successful people are early risers.

[30:39] Steve Tashjian: Well, what I’d say is I don’t think it’s because you woke up at 5am. It’s based on what you do when you wake up from the time you go to sleep. That, that’s my personal perspective on this. I know many, many super, super successful people that don’t wake up at 5am. It’s personal choice. I, I can’t help it anymore.

[31:05] Steve Tashjian: My life required me to wake up early because that’s what professional sport does. I don’t wake up early because I want to. I wake up early because my body says you’re waking up and that’s kind of, that’s what happens now. But at the end of the day, it’s about what you do when you wake up. Jim, one of the most important things I do every morning is I make coffee for my wife.

[31:24] Steve Tashjian: I, does that contribute to me being a great leader? Does that contribute to the fact that even though I make coffee at 7am, does that contribute to the fact that I crushed it when it came to 6pm? I don’t know. But what I’d say is there’s a

[31:39] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Contributes to your wife being happy or not giving you hell whenever she wakes up.

[31:42] Jim Harshaw Jr.: But

[31:43] Steve Tashjian: what I’d say is I’ve committed to, I’ve committed to things. That put me in a head space to be able to deal with pressure and stress. We are complex biological organisms and my job, my whole life has been to sustain the performance of human beings, to sustain the performance of complex biological systems.

[32:08] Steve Tashjian: And there’s no easy answer to doing that. And over time, what I’ve found is that as you develop process, And for us, I’ll use the, you know, you know, the, my personal situation as high performance director over time. My process is how do I evaluate the load that’s being given? How do I evaluate the response, the player’s response to that load?

[32:36] Steve Tashjian: And then how do I rectify what I found out from that response and create the cycle that creates physical success? At some point, your whole entire world is going to get tested. And when it does, that’s the point where you realize. Where your system is fragile. Well, what I’d say is dealing with pressure and stress is about the, how you’ve built in your ability to have flexibility, adaptability, agility in, in your department, within your role, within your company, what I’d say is it’s very difficult to be agile, very difficult to be adaptive and flexible on an unstable foundation.

[33:18] Steve Tashjian: So what does process and routine give you? Process and routine gives you a home base. So soon as. Things go, Oh crap, you can settle yourself and go, what do I know? What can I bank on? What’s predictable? And you want to create as much predictability as possible. So that as soon as things look different, you know what you don’t need to worry about.

[33:45] Steve Tashjian: Now I’m just going to focus on the agility that’s necessary to refine, to solve this new issue that’s, that’s come. That’s what routine does for me. Why does it, why does it allow me to be a better leader because I made coffee in the morning because That particular part of my day was stable. That particular part of my routine was in line.

[34:08] Steve Tashjian: And there’s all kinds of things that come from that. You know, you, there’s a meditative process. That, that takes place in, in, in just knowing that I have clarity. I don’t have to dedicate my brain power towards that, towards those things. And it frees up that headspace for me to focus it on something new, that’s not predictable.

[34:30] Steve Tashjian: Right? Well, if everything’s unpredictable, I’m sorry, you’re in trouble. When, when more chaos arrives, you’re, you’re not in a position to really be able to handle it. That’s what routine does. And those are some of the things that allow me to be successful. And it drives my wife crazy. I’m very, very routine oriented.

[34:48] Steve Tashjian: You know,

[34:49] Jim Harshaw Jr.: what are some key routines that you do other than making the coffee?

[34:51] Steve Tashjian: You know, I, if you were to look at my schedule on, on my calendar, and I’ve had to do this as I transitioned into consulting, cause you, you know, it from your experience, you can get lost in the freedom that, that you have in your schedule, you know, I regiment on my schedule, the things that I’m going to do to stay grounded.

[35:14] Steve Tashjian: I’m going to read the newspaper and listen to a record from, you know, eight to nine every morning, right? After I make coffee, that’s what I’m going to do. And I don’t let anything jeopardize that. And then I have a window where I’m open to do my work. When I’m open, when I’m doing my work, I don’t have other things, TVs.

[35:33] Steve Tashjian: I don’t, I mean, I have a lot of things going on, just not as a consultant, but as a musician and a lot of times I’m, I’m working on something consulting and I get, I get a melody in my head. I get, and I’m, I’m tempted to just reach out because my keyboard’s over here. And I get tempted to, maybe I should.

[35:47] Steve Tashjian: And it’s like, no, that I scheduled those things in a way to keep me in a position where I know what’s predictable and what’s not, I do the same thing for my workouts. I do the same thing for music time. I block it out. Okay, great. I don’t care if you’re three quarters away through and you’re crushing it on this report, you’re supposed to do proposal, whatever it is, I’m going to stop, I’m going to put it down and I’m going to transition so that I can maintain just this balance that allows me to be happy.

[36:15] Steve Tashjian: I’m better for my family. If I’m balanced, I’m better for my family. If I’m not thinking about that thing I should have done. But I sacrificed that music time to finish the proposal. Now, I, I know my kid wants to spend time with me, but I really want to go back and lay that little melody down that I heard and those are the, those are the processes that, that helped me.

[36:36] Steve Tashjian: Right.

[36:37] Jim Harshaw Jr.: They’re different for everybody. And I like to use the word balance. I think there’s a lot of talk out there these days that it shouldn’t be called balance should be called integration or alignment or harmony, whatever the term people, I think we’re all talking about the same thing. It’s a matter of like, yeah, it’s a matter of semantics.

[36:51] Jim Harshaw Jr.: It’s a matter of, of, of fitting the things in your life, into your life that are, that are most meaningful to you in whatever cadence that, that, that. That works for the individual. Steve, I feel like there’s so much more to unpack here. You’ve got so much to, so much wisdom in there. Where can people find you, follow you, uh, hire you, et cetera?

[37:10] Steve Tashjian: You can find me on LinkedIn. That’s a, that’s a really, really quick way. Um, not many people in the world named Steve Tashton. So if you, yeah, if you search it, you’re probably going to find me. Uh, and then my website. Elevation pro x. com the company elevation project, which was started, uh, really in that in 2019, to be honest, but really went, went full, full scale at the beginning of 2023 elevation project is at elevation pro x.

[37:39] Steve Tashjian: com. Uh, those are probably the two best spots.

[37:43] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Excellent for the listener as always. We’ll have those in the action plan. Steve, it was great to connect with you. Thanks for sharing with

[37:50] Steve Tashjian: us, Jim. Thank you so much for the opportunity, man.

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