Olympian…

Did you enjoy watching the Summer Olympics?  Olympian – who wouldn’t want to have that on their resume?  What can we learn from Olympians that we can apply to our business world?

During Olympic coverage, the sports media poured tons of hyperbole over the gold medal performances.  The spotlight shined on those athletes that failed, too.  Either end of the extreme is good for the ratings business, I suppose. You know:  

The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat. 

                   Jim McKay 

But in Olympic competition, not every competitor can win every event; every day.  Their day is a lot like our day, true?  So following the closing ceremonies, what do you suppose Olympians are doing today?  Getting ready for their next competition, I’ll bet. 

Competition is about striving; preparing; competing; beating your personal best.  Winning (or losing) is simply the end result of competition (and preparation), yes?  You and me, we compete in our daily lives, don’t we?  And when we fail, what motivates us to try again?  Here’s Steve Richard’s view: 

            Who motivates you?  You! 

Yes, motivation can be a powerful force for all of us.  Of course, sometimes our family, friends, and mentors can play a big part in helping us leverage the power of motivation to overcome failure and pursue success.  As a sales professional, I advocated “hunting as a pack”.  I learned this approach from Joe Newton, who coached, “running as a pack”. 

You may have read my writings about “Tiger Joe” before.  He was one of the most successful high school boys cross country coaches ever.  Although I was not a runner, he was the person who most influenced my sales career. 

There were many elements to Joe Newton’s competitive approach; the principle of continuous improvement; the ability to earn great success yet go back out every day to compete again; etc.  One key element I remember was his focus on offering positive motivation to his kids.  His key to positive motivation?  Pretty simple, really. 

Every day at every practice, Coach Newton called out every kid by their first name - every day.  Every kid (and most of his teams had 100 runners or more) would hear his coach call him by his first name (or nick name), every day.  Joe Newton coupled this technique with saying at least one positive thing to every kid, too. Every day. 

It’s amazing how far a simple; “Way to go!” goes.  The motivation Joe Newton stimulated helped his runners, run; every day.  They were motivated to train hard – harder than their competition.  On race day?  They dominated. 

Returning to today’s Olympic theme - perhaps your remember Sebastian Coe.  According to Wikipedia: 

Sebastian Coe won four Olympic medals, including the 1500 meters gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984. He set eight outdoor and three indoor world records in middle-distance track events – including, in 1979, setting three world records in the space of 41 days – and the world record he set in the 800 meters in 1981 remained unbroken until 1997. 

The connection to Joe Newton?  Joe was the first high school coach to coach in the Olympics.  His star “pupil”?  Sebastian Coe. 

Back to business - Loren Brockhouse, a former colleague of mine, offered us this link to Inc. Magazine’s “9 beliefs of remarkably successful people” from back in the day. I particularly like Belief #9:

            The extra mile is a vast, unpopulated wasteland. 

Jeff Haden

Way to go Loren! 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.