Charlie Beestone

We help tech and AI companies reduce overwhelm and build sustainable high-performance cultures so that employees adapt to rapid change and demand without burning out. 

At Koru Performance, we help fast-moving tech and AI organisations to reduce overwhelm, improve productivity and create a high performance culture so that employees can adapt to the demands of a fast-moving market. Given the nature of the tech space, responsiveness to the market is absolutely crucial; however, the speed of change can increase stress, reduce engagement and stretch staff to the point where performance is impacted. Our role is to support companies to change that pattern by implementing systems and practical strategies to support individual well-being and performance, as well as organisational culture.

Our background is in elite sport – we’ve supported world champions, Olympians, professional sports teams as well as companies in tech and AI in the UK, Europe and Middle East. We aim to leverage the insights and strategies from elite sports to support organisations in achieving sustainable high performance. Working with athletes is a fine balance between providing them with structure and support to optimise their output, whilst also giving them autonomy to achieve that in their own way – and it’s the same with people within an organisation.

In elite sport, it’s no secret that a large amount of money is often spent on raising, developing or bringing in the best talent. Clubs and teams then provide varied and in depth support to get everything out of these individuals, allowing them to thrive and demonstrate their ability. Tech firms often spend considerable capital on acquiring the best talent to remain at the forefront of their industry and maintain their edge, however they don’t always have systems in place to help these people perform to the best of their ability. Often, we see the opposite, where the best talent is tied up in meetings, catch-ups, stand-ups, and left feeling like their hands are tied and they’re unable to do the work they were brought in to do.

Since COVID-19, we have seen an increase in focus on well-being, which is fantastic. Research suggests a healthy ROI (3-5x) on organisational well-being spend. However, a lot of well-being delivery is focused on raising awareness, which, whilst worthwhile – has limited practical application for your people. More recently, we’re seeing push back against what is perceived as ‘tickbox’ well-being provision that actually does more harm than good, as it doesn’t address the actual issues being experienced by people.

Performance and well-being are often seen as ‘separate’ or antagonistic, when actually they are intertwined. One of the cruel ironies of struggling with productivity is that looking after well-being helps our performance – but when we’re overwhelmed with work, these behaviours are the first thing to fall off our list, which keeps us stuck in the feeling of overwhelm. Similarly, it’s also important to recognise that people value their work, they want to feel like they’re performing well, progressing, learning and having impact – and if they don’t feel this, that also negatively affects their well-being.

At Koru Performance, we focus on providing actionable, performance-driven well-being support that addresses the real reasons that individuals are struggling with overwhelm and struggling to manage their workload.