Achieving Your Peak Performance
Meet Author Bob Lesser
6 min readAug 20, 2021
The Collective Book Studio is based in Oakland, CA — in the heart of the Bay Area and known to entertain high levels of innovation and performance. The competition of local industries means that many of our neighbors experience burnout in their careers, but also in their personal lives. Executive coach Bob Lesser has experienced these stresses firsthand, and that’s what led him to write his forthcoming book, The Peak Performance Formula: Achieving Breakthrough Results in Life and Work. His advice, research, and 30 Day Peak Performance Challenge draw from research in Silicon Valley environments, yet can be applied much further. Whether you are a struggling athlete or a high-powered executive, The Peak Performance Formula will guide you to become your best.
The Peak Performance Formula will be released on July 27, 2021. In his book, Bob Lesser shares his analysis of the three pillars of success: purpose, values, and vision. He incorporates case studies from real-life peak performers and contextualizes his argument within neurological, psychological, and religious research. I asked Bob a series of questions to give readers an idea of his background and what else to expect from his upcoming title.
- Will you share a bit about your personal backstory and journey to becoming an author?
There were two things I wanted to do when I grew up, be passionate about my work and make a positive impact in people’s lives. To do that I spent the early part of my career in public service, working in New York City Government at the Correction Department, the Police Department, and at the Education Department. The work was interesting but in government it can be difficult to feel like you’re making an impact. So I decided to move from policy to practice and I founded and led a middle school. After that experience, I moved into Executive Coaching primarily working with founders to help them deal with the stress and pressure of start-ups.
About ten years ago I wrote and self-published a book on passion — helping people find more passion in their lives and work. I didn’t have real editorial support writing the book and no guidance on publishing it. So I really wanted to write a book that was as good as I knew I was capable of. And that’s my latest book, The Peak Performance Formula: Achieving Breakthrough Results in Life and Work. - What was the inspiration behind The Peak Performance Formula?About five years into my tenure leading the school I really hit a wall of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion. I deeply believed in the work I was doing and wanted to be successful but I was running out of gas. A couple of years later I transitioned out of the role and started coaching founders going through similar struggles. I knew there were ways to sustain high levels of performance over longer periods of time and I spent the next five years uncovering them. I wanted to be able to share the work I do in my executive coaching practice with a wider audience.
- Who do you think can most benefit from the lessons and advice shared in Peak Performance?
Really anyone who wants to get better at anything and who wants more satisfaction in the process. So this could be a student looking to improve their grades, someone early in their career who wants to be more intentional about their professional development and trajectory, an Executive who would like to bring more high performance and well-being tools to their work and team, or even parents who want to apply peak performance principles to their families.
- What do you hope readers will take away from The Peak Performance Formula?
I hope readers will take away that peak performance is about being one’s best, not the best. We are all working under limitations and constraints so it’s not about comparing ourselves to others. I want people to understand the power that lies in purpose, values, and vision and I’d like them to gain insights into the physical, mental, and training tools and techniques top performers use to excel. The final takeaway I hope readers have is that they will improve their chances of achieving their goals AND feel more fulfilled along the way. - You live in the Bay Area and have coached throughout Silicon Valley, which is notorious for hosting competitive job environments. How has this shaped your understanding of success?
Silicon Valley is home to some of the brightest minds at the forefront of innovation in the world which is really exciting. But start-ups are inherently risky and founders almost always feel they are on the verge of failure. They are trying to do something that hasn’t been done before, big dollar amounts are involved, and they have a relatively short amount of time to hit key milestones. So success has a lot to do with how one manages themselves in these high-stakes environments. There’s an exercise I do with clients that helps them reframe fear of failure and instead focus on Growth (what are they learning), Impact (what are they passionate about changing), Relationships (who are the people that matter most) and Joy (making sure they’re enjoying the ride). These are more controllable and durable qualities than traditional notions of success and failure. - Tell me more about how you devised the 30 Day Peak Performance challenge.
Change is hard. Going beyond your current limits requires getting to a new equilibrium. And building new habits takes time. Research suggests at least 21 days. So the 30-day challenge helps to build new habits in an area of life the reader would like to make significant improvements while also providing an explicit guide for how to apply the concepts in the book. - What excites you about working with The Collective Book Studio to publish your book?
The Collective Book Studio provided every support I needed to deliver a book of the quality I was aiming for. I know how to improve performance and they know how to publish books. So it’s been a great match. - What has been the most challenging part of writing and publishing your book? Most rewarding part?
I wrote much of this book during the COVID pandemic. On top of juggling an already busy schedule of coaching clients, we had our third child the week before lockdowns started. Having a newborn and two other kids at home while trying to run a business and write a book was not easy. Writing this now, I almost can’t believe I did it. But I consistently applied the concepts in the book to help keep me motivated, focused, and able to deliver. - What advice do you have for other authors considering partnership publishing?
One of the concepts I write about in my book is the importance of building a personal support team to help you achieve your goals. That’s exactly what the Collective Book Studio has been for me. So my advice is to build your support team that ensures your book gets written and published. - Can you share some other current projects that you are excited to be working on?
One of the projects I’m working on that I’m really excited about is a course I recently launched called Coaching with Confidence, teaching people coaching skills, either to start their own coaching businesses or to apply coaching skills in their current jobs. Coaching is a great opportunity to do meaningful, purpose-driven work. I share my secret sauce for coaching in the book and the course goes much deeper giving participants everything they need to start coaching.
Ella Gilbert
Marketing Manager
This article was originally published on June 21, 2021.
