People across the world from every section of society have transitioned into a new way of life over the past eighteen months. In the professional world, the majority of the functions have undergone a new mode of remote working and now, the hybrid system, and under different circumstances, it has been observed that people had to face different sets of challenges to survive this. Amid such a crisis in every aspect of life, it is highly crucial to stay motivated in order to perform well and win over every hurdle that comes across. 

Speaking at People Matters EX APAC Conference 2021, Shane Watson shares his experience and what motivated him to overcome challenges in fields and life. Talking about opportunities, he says that life gives many of those to everyone. Comparing life to cricket he shares that almost every player starts planning the second phase of life as “we all are already aware of the fact that we get to stay in the field only as long as we are fit and young to play.” So, he stresses backup plans as an idea to perform better in every phase of life and stay motivated to do so.

“We are taught several subjects in school but mental skills is totally one that would give us an amazing platform in our lives,” said Watson.

According to Watson, people should be taught to work on their mental skills which in turn helps them figure out what they are best at. It is important to motivate people to work on what they are best at because that brings out the utmost productivity giving them wonderful growth ahead. 

Talking about learning from life experiences Shane said that as a child all he would dream and get trained for were cricket skills. Sharing one of his experiences in his cricket career he said that by the age of 28 he was asked to stop bowling due to his injuries, but Watson being highly determined to be one of the best cricketers in the world would not accept a “no” for an answer. He said, “I  knew that I had to get to the aim that I had set for myself. If the ways and plans that I had don’t work something else has to and there definitely must be another way round to reach the goal. That’s when I started investing in physiotherapy.” He stressed that in order to reach the goal one even has to assess his leader and understand whether he is getting trained well and that was why he started gathering more opinions about his health. 

Though it is easy to control the self, it may be challenging to control a team with a single philosophy as a team may have heterogeneous thoughts. When asked about his way of translating the attitude of not taking ‘no’ for an answer into a high-performing team, he said that it is important to assess the way to get the best result that a team can possibly have. “It is all about your experience and knowledge,” said Watson. According to him, to get the best results one must eye for the best in him. However, eyeing for the best doesn’t only come with fixating on the outcome but also by observation. For example what’s trending in the market, what are the competitors doing and what is convenient as per the available resource. 

“When you bring out the best in you and so does the team, it eventually gives rise to a high performing team.”

Talking about motivating people to bring out the best in team members he expresses that the aims may vary from person to person depending upon various factors. For example, one may aim at winning a World Cup while another person may aim at making money. So, the prerequisite to guide and motivate is to understand the aims of the employees. 

Concluding the interaction, Watson said that in the end all people look for is achieving the target. To reach the goal one has to assess what his targets are because that is only how one can plan to make way for himself to reach there. So, pre-determining, where to go, is crucial for an individual to know whom to approach for guidance and where to go.