Over 10,000 athletes will take part in the world’s greatest sporting event. Whether running, swimming, jumping, or – and heaven knows how they do this – backflipping, the Olympics represents the absolute pinnacle of human physical achievement.
Parallels are often drawn between elite sport and the world of business. There is no doubt there are differences – for instance, if every person in my own organisation were a budding 100m sprinter with dreams of gold, we’d get one thing done really well, and then fall apart as the thousand other things that need to be done are left by the wayside.
But that said, there are similarities – to take people with raw talent and raise their game (literally, in this case) is surely something that every business leader aspires to for their team.
The Olympic motto – “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together” – could apply equally to the business environment as to the sporting arena.
Three learnings to lead a high-performance team
It’s something I’ve been reflecting on recently – and this included the opportunity to talk to Leon Taylor who won a silver medal in 10m diving at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Since then, as well as being the “voice of diving” on the BBC, Leon has become a mentor to other athletes and an executive coach. From our conversation and my own thinking, three points stand out:
1. “Love, not fear” in a culture of continuous improvement and coaching
One of the biggest parallels between business and sport is that if you don’t continually improve you will effectively move backwards as the competition raises its game. Often, this improvement is about small things – the concept of marginal gains or what Leon termed as “precise interventions” that add up to make a decisive difference. Hand in hand with this, you can’t have continuous improvement without someone offering feedback, insight and advice, whether that’s a line manager, mentor or coach. Here, Leon made an interesting point. What sport does really well is give feedback on the performance – not the person. It’s essential that feedback is not taken personally, as a criticism or affront. “In sport, performance feedback nudges more to love than fear,” Leon said. “It’s not personal, it’s designed to help the individual unlock their potential and do better. You’ve got to avoid that fear factor or sense of failure.” We can learn from this in business. Often, people shy away from feedback because they are nervous about what they might hear; while if a manager suggests someone gets a mentor, the reaction can be “Why, what have I done wrong?” Instead, we should embrace the mentoring culture and use it to point up opportunity, not threat. Harnessed well, it can truly be transformational.
2. Success starts in the mind
You can’t perform well in anything, physical or intellectual, if your mental balance isn’t right. This means adopting a positive mindset, visualising success, clearing away self-doubt and barriers – and it also means looking after mental wellbeing. Anyone can get overwhelmed in our always-on world. Leaders and managers, in fact, have a duty to look after themselves – because otherwise, how can they properly lead and mentor others in their teams who rely on them? As Leon said: “The effects of stress and poor mental health are usually very trackable. It starts as feeling worn out and can quickly move to being burnt out. I’m encouraged that more leading athletes and also business leaders are speaking out about it. Making space for mental wellbeing opens the door to better performance.”
3. Highest performance comes when team and individual are in balance
Most Olympic events are individual competitions – but no athlete could succeed without the team around them. UK athletes compete as Team GB which has developed its own set of values and identity. As Leon observed: “On the back of my Athens medal is a lot of text in Greek – but really it should be a list of names of everyone that helped me get there: my coach, my team mates, physio, nutritionist, and many more. High performance depends on both support and challenge from others.” In the business environment, the challenge is to keep the team and individual in balance. You need to ensure there is a strong sense of team, with everyone understanding the big picture and the collective end goal, how they fit into it, and how they can help and be helped in achieving it. But within that team ethic, you need to give individuals the latitude to perform and excel according to their own strengths. It is a difficult balance to get right, but can be crucial to success.
Three personal tips for leaders
Business leaders need to enable their team members to excel – but this hinges as much on them as the people they manage. I would encourage leaders to reflect personally on three things:
- It’s your responsibility how you show up. Your own attitude makes a huge difference and rubs off on others. Be the change you want to see and it will have an amplified effect.
- Your words are important – your behaviours even more so. Think about your actions and what example you’re setting through them. These speak more powerfully than anything you say. For example, you may talk a lot about the importance of work/life balance – so do you need to send that email at 10pm or can it just as well go in the morning?
- Give people the tools they need to fly. Or dive, run, jump, throw… As a leader, one of the most important roles you have is to make sure people are equipped to do the job they’re there to do. Give them the right tools, the support they need, and the feedback to get better – and you will be amazed how well people perform.
Watching these Paris Olympics, I am sure we will all be moved and inspired. Think about how to translate that into the everyday at work – we can’t all be Olympians, but we can all aspire to perform at a higher level than we’ve ever reached before.