The Feeling At Home And Delivering High Standards Approach

There are many ways to do fine work. One approach is to focus on the activities where you feel at home and deliver high standards. There may also be further situations where you expand your ability to do these things in the future.

Different people feel at home doing different activities. Sir Ian McKellen described how he fell in love with the theatre from the age of three. He has since spent much of his life feeling at home on stage and in films.

Some people actually feel more at home when managing professional challenges rather than personal situations. One person expressed this in the following way.

“I feel comfortable when dealing with problems in my work. It is just my personal life that is complicated.”

Imagine that you want to focus on where you may feel at ease and yet able to deliver excellence. This can involve pursuing the following themes.

You can focus on
where you feel at home

What are the places where you feel at home? What are the activities or situations where you feel you were meant to be? Here are some things that people describe when exploring this theme.

I feel at home when:

I am working in Accident & Emergency … I am singing on stage … I am facilitating a counselling session … I am playing in my favourite position on the football pitch … I am sailing the high seas.

I am working in my garden … I am teaching a class at University … I am making a pitch for business … I am doing live TV news reports … I am helping leaders to clarify their future strategy.

How do you know when you may feel at home? Here are some of the characteristics.

You look forward to what you will be doing that day … You feel in control and able to shape the situation … You see patterns quickly and can predict what will happen.

You feel calm, clear and able to deliver the desired concrete results … You are able to helicopter above a situation whilst also being hands-on … You feel things are going slowly even though they may be going swiftly.

If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to describe the specific activities or situations where you feel at home.

You can focus on where you feel
at home and deliver high standards

What are the places where you both feel at home and deliver consistently high standards? Different people will do this in different situations. Here are some that people mention when exploring this theme.

I feel at home and deliver high standards when:

I am working as a career counsellor … I am performing surgical operations … I am doing certain kinds of scientific research … I am offering options as a trusted advisor … I am caring for animals as a vet.

I am doing mediation work … I am treating patients as an osteopath … I am creating wonderful food as a chef … I am coordinating multiple teams across cultures and delivering successful projects.

Let’s return to your own life and work. What are activities or situations where you feel at home and deliver high standards? If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme.

You can focus on where you may develop the
ability to feel at home and deliver high standards

People often want to develop. They like to build on their strengths, set stimulating goals and follow strategies that work. They are then more likely to add to their skills and achieve ongoing success.

Imagine that you want to expand the kind of situations where you feel at home and deliver high standards. You can take the following steps.

You can focus on a specific situation
where you want to achieve success

You can start by focusing on such a situation. You can choose one where you are able: a) to play to your strengths; b) to make sure you have both the desire and ability to achieve success.

You can clarify how to increase
the chances of achieving success

You can set things up to succeed. You can aim a) to clarify the real results to achieve; b) to clarify the strategies most likely to work; b) to rehearse following these strategies and managing any challenges along the way.  

You can do your best in the situation and keep
improving so that you deliver ongoing success

You can do your best in the situation. You can then aim: a) to build on what works; b) to tackle areas for improvement. You may get to a point where you feel at home in the situation and maintain high standards that deliver success.

Let’s return to your own life and work. Looking ahead, can you think of a situation where you want to follow elements of the feeling at home and delivering high standards approach?

If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to complete the following sentences.