Best Performance Award

The winner of last week’s Worst Performance Award is… me, for focusing on bad performance! So, this week I’m looking for nominations for the Best Performance Award. And just like last week, since it’s the first time I’ve done this, I’m open to any exceptional performance, no matter when it was.

I’m going to open the nominations with two of my own picks – the two most incredible performances I’ve ever seen in my life (and I was fortunate enough to watch them both live on TV).

The first is Franz Klammer’s gold medal winning performance in the 1976 Olympic Downhill event. He may have defined the term “on the edge” with this run. Click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVMJKIx34SE to watch it for yourself. Desire and commitment are words that come to mind watching Klammer’s run.

If Klammer was the first to define “on the edge,” my second nominee made it a way of life. No one has ever driven a race car consistently on the edge like Gilles Villeneuve. And his performance in the 1979 French Grand Prix, in his epic battle for second place over the last couple of laps with Rene Arnoux is legendary. Arnoux was driving a Renault, which was a faster car than Villeneuve’s Ferrari, and yet Gilles’ pure determination, desire, commitment (and some would say his lack of fear) is no match. Click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr_6mA8Q2tI - if this doesn't get your heart pounding, well I don’t know what will!

So, there are two nominations from the sporting world to get you thinking. Use the comment form below and send me your nominations for the Best Performance Award – from the world of sports, music, business, whatever. It could be someone you’ve observed, someone you know, or whoever. Since I've had so many Worst Performance Award nominations from the business world, I'd love to hear about an exceptional one - someone must know someone who performed well in the workplace?!

By the way, I’m still getting the odd nomination coming in for the Worst Performance Award, so I’ll keep the nominations open for another week. That gives you time…

Excuse me now… I’m going back to watch these two performances again... and again. They’re so inspirational!

Happy Holidays!