W hen we think of peak performance, we visualise medal-winning athletes such as Kate O’Connor , Mark English, Rhasidat Adeleke and Andrew Coscoran. Their stellar performances at the European Championships follow years of physical, mental and emotional discipline.
Peak performance is something that we should target at work too. We know some of the proven ingredients for thriving at work: psychological safety and trust, purpose and autonomy, a learning and growth mindset, connection and respect.
Minding yourself is also important for productivity so taking proper breaks each day, exercising regularly, sleeping well and taking holiday time are known keys to success.
One less-explored area is how we fuel ourselves every day – with food. Corporates often provide free sweets and caffeinated drinks for their employees throughout the day. While free fruit and smoothies might not be as big a selling point as a barista on each floor, they’ll help you and your team perform better and more consistently.
Academics Adam Kingl and Jakub Radzikowski recently published Executive Eats: The Cookbook for a Better Working Life. Unlike most cookbooks, which focus on reducing calories, optimising time or saving money, Executive Eats examines how the right diet can improve workplace performance, including focus, clarity, energy and creativity.
“We know that 30 to 40 per cent of our performance is correlated to our body working properly,” Kingl told me. “I don’t just mean being healthy but being able to concentrate, having sufficient energy and not being overcome by anxiety.”
Yet leaders and managers never really talk about keeping your body healthy at work.
“How could we possibly look after our company, our team if we’re not looking after ourselves? Too many people make sacrifices, take shortcuts to serve the company or team, forgetting that the more often they take a shortcut then that becomes a bad habit.”
The “infinite workday” has become the norm, with work regularly spilling into evenings and weekends. “This blurring of professional and personal boundaries is making it increasingly difficult to switch off and recover. Yet carving out even one small moment each day to support mind, mood and body makes a meaningful difference – and cooking is just the way to do it.”
Too many “healthy” food fads come with little evidence to back them up, so this book – which they say is based on nutrition, cognitive science and gastronomy research – is refreshingly easy to embrace and use. It’s broken into sections including energy boost/ wake up, treats for the office, sustained energy, concentrate, mood boost, de-stress, creativity, detox, calorie conscious, comfort and solace, and celebrate.
During the writing of this article I tried a few recipes: peanut butter and jam French toast (energy boost); smoked fish on sourdough with tomatoes, capers and red onion in sherry vinegar (focus); citrus yoghurt bread (treats for the office); chicken with shallots and tomatoes (mood boost); tzatziki (creativity) and kimchi fried rice (detox).
They were all delicious and fast and easy to make. I felt good afterwards too.
The authors, both trained chefs, don’t just theorise around the science of food and performance, they’ve spent decades researching it and making the food for themselves. Kingl is adjunct faculty at University College London School of Management and Hult International Business School, Imperial College and the Moller Institute at Churchill College – the Unive…