Before You Blink, You Blew It: Mastering the Hidden Performance Gap

You think you’re calm. But you just blew it, and everyone saw.

Zen at 7, Fury by 8:30

You’ve nailed your morning routine: meditation, gym, cold brew, friendly smiles at security, you’re feeling unstoppable.

Then Greg from Strategy launches his 73-slide deck of doom at 8:30 sharp, leaving your roadmap in ruins and your will to live on life support.

In a blink, you've mentally fired Greg, questioned your life choices, and gone full Tarantino. Coffee spills. Chaos erupts. Welcome to Tuesday.

Faster Than You Blink

Shorter than your CFO’s patience in budget season, faster than your PR team scrambling after the CEO’s latest rogue LinkedIn post, quicker even than your panic at hitting reply-all to investors. Welcome to your hidden performance gap. (Spoiler: it’s been there all along.)

Emotional reflexes are faster than conscious thought. That's why they're hard to catch, unless you're trained. Most people miss it. They react. They regret. And they repeat. The same emotional mistake. Again and again.

How fast is this emotional trigger? Faster than you blink, literally. Your amygdala lights up in 40 to 140 milliseconds; a blink takes about 100 to 400 milliseconds.

That’s where your hidden performance gap lives, long before you deliver your first strategic soundbite. So the question is: what are you going to do with it?

Decision Velocity: Your High-Stakes Reality

In media, tech, or financial services, your decisions are like speed dating: fast, messy, and the stakes are sky-high. Revenue, risk, reputation, all riding on that next call. Misalignment slows you down. And in your world, slow is expensive.

Slow decisions burn money. Fast but misaligned decisions burn trust. Precision beats both.

And no, there’s no machine making these calls for you. Stop squirming, AI won’t rescue your boardroom blunders. ChatGPT doesn’t handle executive meltdowns. Execution is human; own it.

Every missed forty-millisecond gap turns brilliance into background noise. Your team doesn't see your strategic clarity; they see emotional shrapnel.

These blink-of-an-eye moments quietly build your reputation. Suddenly, you're the “Fearmonger-in-Chief” or the “Blast Radius Boss.” They’ll nod politely, while mentally reaching for the popcorn and thinking, "Here we go again."

You're Only Human: Harness Your Wiring

That emotional flare-up is not dysfunction; it’s your ancient wiring kicking in. They saved your ancestors from saber-toothed tigers. Today, they’re the reason you had a flash of hurling your laptop at Greg, before you catch yourself. You're designed to evade predators, not PowerPoint slides.

Awareness is the Win

A split-second pause, faster than a blink. Most people miss it. But in that gap lies everything, the chance to respond differently. To act with intention. To change your life's direction. If you're aware. The gap is small, but it's the gateway to your best self showing up when it counts.

The forty-millisecond gap is the ultimate slow-down-to-go-fast.

Your Impact Playbook

Here’s how to increase your awareness before it costs you the win:

Pre-Game: Visualise and Neutralise

• Anticipate what (or who) might set you off (write down a list of potential verbal stabs).

• Mentally rehearse your response when Greg inevitably strikes again, with the quiet confidence of someone who’s seen this movie before.

• Align your personal vision with what matters to the business (what's the bigger game?).

In-Game: Catch, Count, Calibrate

• Catch the emotional trigger before you go Kill Bill.

• Count slowly backwards from five (This isn’t an app. This is your brain on pause).

• Breathe, recalibrate, and choose your next move with intention.

Post-Game: Reflect and Refine

• Quickly debrief yourself (before your ego rewrites history).

• Find the one lesson.

• Sharpen your playbook for next time.

Want some real-life examples? Read "Dance on the Edge of Greatness" by Sophia Chin. 22 raw and revealing tales of leaders navigating emotionally challenging situations. These are the stories leaders don’t post on Linkedin: the sleepless nights, the sharp joy of small wins, the sting of being misunderstood, the heartbreak of letting someone go, or being let go. Not theory. Not strategy decks. Just the truth, messy, human and gloriously unforgettable.

Here's me throwing my toys out of the cot on a Tuesday.

Build Your Performance Reset Stack

Resetting isn’t weakness, it’s survival prep for your next big moment. If you don’t clear your system, your reactions will run the show.

This is how you keep your edge sharp:

• Sleep as a Weapon: Clarity starts with sleep. If you’re running on fumes, don’t be surprised when your decisions follow suit.

• Exercise to Complete the Stress Cycle: Stress builds up like a static charge. Move your body, or that energy will fry your circuits when you least expect it.

• Family Foundation: If home is chaos, your mind will be too. Your family is your #1 support structure; neglect it, and your game falls apart.

• Intentional Breathing Space: Quiet isn’t a luxury; it’s fuel for clarity. (And no, doomscrolling LinkedIn doesn’t count as stillness.)

Lets be real. If you are not sleeping well, exercising, under the influence, you will complete miss the forty-milliseconds gap.

Master The Hidden Performance Gap, Scale Your Impact

Catch the trigger. Save your quarter. Maybe even reconsider Greg’s spot on your 'Do Not Resuscitate' list. (P.S. Greg’s still your Keith Richards. Together? Magic. Apart? You're a wedding band with delusions of greatness.)

Increase your awareness of the gap. That’s where your clarity lives, and your best self shows up.

Ready to play bigger? Start with Personna’s Lead for Impact coaching series.

Let's make your impact personal and make it count.