Vote of Confidence

Today, a group of medical-supply-company managers is meeting in the training center, and if their experiences are any barometer, Loehr has his work cut out for him. One man, a balding 50-year-old sales manager, says that his heavy client load allows him only 4 or 5 hours of sleep each night. A small blond woman confides that she has been taking naps in rest areas between office visits. Time for exercise? For family? For fun? They're incredulous at the very thought.

Stress, in and of itself, is not the problem, Loehr says. Indeed, stress can be a good thing. "If you think about the things that created your character, created your ability to fight, and made a difference, in every case, it would be the storms," Loehr says. "It's the things that pushed you the most, that helped you the most."

The problem, Loehr believes, is that we have conceptualized the notion of workplace performance as a marathon: a long haul that requires us to hoard our energy in order to avoid burning out too soon. Loehr suggests that we think of our workdays instead as sprints: defined periods of high performance alternating with short intervals of recovery. And, he says, leaders must train for that competition much as elite athletes do.

At LGE, clients begin their program with physical tests: blood work, aerobic testing, and a body-composition measurement in a space-age-like capsule called a Bod Pod. Then they are asked to fill out a questionnaire designed to identify their values. Most rank family, friends, health, and community up high -- even though it's work, work, and more work that gets their attention. Finally, they're confronted with the results of anonymous questionnaires filled out by colleagues back at the office. Are they antagonistic? Hypercritical? Impatient?

The program forces participants to compare their stated values with how they live their lives and to figure out where they are in conflict. If, for example, an executive says that he values time with his family but admits that he spends every night sacked out on the sofa in front of a ball game, Loehr and his team are quick to point out the discrepancy. "The tension between the vision they have for themselves and the reality of what's happening becomes intolerable," Loehr says. And that's when change can happen.

Loehr's program teaches participants to build rituals -- tangible actions that ultimately become automatic -- that bring those disparate goals together. They may be physical (getting up a half hour earlier to hit the treadmill), emotional (making a weekly inviolable "date" with your spouse), mental (taking a 5-minute break every 90 minutes at work), or spiritual (setting aside time for meditation, journal writing, or prayer). The net result is an uptick in energy, balance, and attitude that can fuel both high workplace performance and a more rounded life. Loehr likes to cite Aristotle: "We are what we repeatedly do," the great philosopher said. "Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit."

Loehr's message is finding an audience among confidence-hungry Wall Street executives. Rob Knapp, managing director of the Midwest market for Merrill Lynch, believes in the program so much that he has brought 40 high performers a year to Orlando for the past seven years. "I do it to save lives," he says. "My people tell me that given the world we're in, they don't think that they would have made it without this program." Some of his troops have dropped 30 pounds and dodged likely heart attacks. Others have salvaged troubled marriages.

Knapp concedes that the program is expensive. But he insists that his ROI is substantial. "I've had several million-dollar-producing financial advisers who have said that they were exhausted and wanted to retire. I took them to the program, and they not only transformed themselves but said that they were going to take their businesses to a new level. If each guy decides to stay on for five more years, it's worth $5 million each," he says. More important, he says, by caring for his people, he helps them care better for their clients.

Finally, Loehr says, one secret of confidence is simply acting the part. Several years ago, he went to Spain and got an audience with one of the greatest bullfighters of all time. "I asked him, 'What is the single most important thing you have learned when facing the bull?' The matador said, 'It's my look. That is the basis of my confidence. I believe in myself. I am in control. I have no fear.' "

Loehr says that when he returned home, he began training his athletes in the "matador walk." Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, trained to walk like a winner, lost the first set of her U.S. Open finals with number-one seeded Steffi Graf. "But if you look at the tape," Loehr says, "you would swear she had won." She came back and won the match for the first time in her history. "That's the look I want," Loehr says. "Particularly in the storm."

ST. LOUIS