Saved by Belief

It’s no secret I am a student of high performance and high performers. So recently, when I got tickets to attend a taping of Oprah’s LifeClass, with Oprah and Joel Osteen, I was really excited. It was another opportunity to study not one, but two, high performers. In the two hours they were on stage they both said a lot of things that were amazingly valuable to the audience. Heck, they were valuable to me, but they weren’t about high performance, they were about making a good life a little bit better. Don’t get me wrong, that is a good thing. It’s just not what I was there for; I was there to study two high performers. Not surprisingly, the three things I learned about high performance from Oprah and Joel were not obvious from the content of the LifeClass.

Everyone needs a warm-up.

We know athletes, singers and musicians need warm-up. People who produce live TV also know the audience needs a warm-up, and Oprah’s Audience coordinator, Sally Lou, Senior Audience Supervisor did a great job of warming us up, getting the energy moving and telling us the expectations for the day. It was fun and got us pumped up, but also grounded us and prepared us to be a good audience. When Joel and Oprah came on stage for the first segment, it was obvious someone “forgot” to warm up Mr. Osteen. He was stiff, stumbled over some of his words, and was not very clear or concise in his message. The best way I can say it was the first segment was a little rough, clunky, if you will. Most people didn’t notice. They were busy idolizing Oprah. But looking at it from a high performance perspective, I could see and feel he was just a little off, not at his best. As the second and third segments progressed, he got better. His ideas and message were more clear and concise, and he was finally getting warmed up. Of course I don’t know for sure, but it really didn’t seem like he didn’t do any sort of warm up and that clearly affected his performance.

High performance is all about the connection.

During the first segment, Oprah and Joel were not strongly connected. As the show went on their connection got better, and as a result the conversation flowed more smoothly and they started having a lot more fun with one another. Connection is critical to high performance, but we have to be very intentional about creating it BEFORE the cameras roll or the gun sounds. A team without connection will always underperform its potential. What is fascinating about this is that Oprah knows she has to have a great connection with her team before any show, but it appeared like she didn’t create a strong connection with Joel before the red light went on.

Always have your believer present.

On this particular day there were two shows taped back to back. The first show was pretty good, I’d give it a 6 out of 10. Between tapings there was about a 20-minute break. Oprah and Joel came back to the stage, for the next show. This show started out amazing and just got better and better. What was the difference? His believer was there. Victoria Osteen, Joel’s wife and main believer, had joined the audience during the break. Joel was a different guy in the second taping. He was concise, strong, clear and confident. He seemed like an entirely different guy with Victoria in the front row. Why? She believes in him, 110%, anywhere, anytime, no question. Everyone needs someone who pours their belief into them. Often it’s a husband or wife, it can be a mom or dad, a sister or brother, a best friend or even a teacher or a coach. The point is, to be your very best, to bring your best performance to the world; it’s not enough to believe in yourself. Someone else must believe in you, and they must be present for you and with you in order for you to bring your best to the world. Oh, and by the way, Oprah has her believer—Sheri Salata, the president of OWN—right by her side the majority of the time.

If these high performers need a believer, then what about us mere mortals? Who is your believer? Who are you believer for? If you don’t have one or aren’t one, you better go and find one and/or become one.