Learning Peak Performance Through a Lizard on My Wall

My View

Recently, I was invited to present a keynote at the annual state conference for career and technical school leaders. I settled on the title “Becoming a Peak-Performing Leader” after a discussion with the conference planner.

As I stared at the screen for new thoughts about a familiar subject, I searched my mind for something analogous with peak performance.

As a resident of an Arizona desert for 40 years, I often take for granted the reptiles roaming around my backyard. Sensing that I was overthinking the peak performance analogy, I sat to write and there it was, a lizard of 12 inches on the office wall, defying gravity and exceeding expectations, a peak performer in plain sight.

I began my search for lizard attributes and behaviors to connect with school leadership. According to herpetologists, the science behind the lizard’s unique abilities includes Van der Waals forces, an interaction between the lizard’s molecules and the wall’s molecules. The lizard’s feet have thousands of tiny hairs, each with a microscopic pad at the end. These pads increase the surface area, thereby increasing the pull between the wall and the lizard.