Today’s Tuesday Reading is from Brian McDonald, Founder of MOR Associates. Brian may be reached at [email protected] or via LinkedIn.
In last week’s Tuesday Reading, Marcia Dority noted how team dynamics and coaching contributed to Olympic events as she watched these remarkable athletes. This week, we will explore what is required to be on a stage competing against the best in the world? How do these athletes prepare? As we unpack how these exceptional performers prepare, we’ll explore the correlation with how you and your colleagues work toward becoming great.
Let’s first marvel at some of the extraordinary performances of these world-class athletes.
Katie Ledecky has been phenomenal. What an outstanding set of performances. There she was, accepting her record-breaking 13th medal in swimming, where less than a second can separate the recipient of the gold from the silver. One amazing performance after another. How did she develop into an athlete who could achieve these feats?
Leon Marchand has won four gold medals while breaking a world record and electrifying the host country. France’s President Macron was in the arena to watch Marchand win the 200-meter individual medley while thousands were cheering him on across his home country. In the restaurants and bars, the French were jubilant as they joined in singing their national anthem as the flag was raised.
Simone Biles is another exceptional competitor who has, as of the last count, won eleven Olympic medals in her career. She dazzled the crowd as she leaps into the air with one impressive display after another. She not only portrayed these remarkable capabilities but also demonstrated an incredible resilience we can only appreciate from a distance.
Then there are those like Stephen Nedoroscik, who helped the men’s gymnastics team win a medal by flying through his performance on the Pommel Horse.
The list goes on and on as we watch these athletes compete to be the best in their sport, the best in the world. What does it take to excel at this level? What does it take to reach the top and become the best?
As Marcia noted in the quote from Jesse Owens, the four-time gold medalist, “We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.”
Long after Jesse Owens’ observation, Anders Ericcson devoted his forty-year academic career to researching what contributed to certain people outperforming others in their field. Ericsson was able to systematically demonstrate that people who climb to the top of just about any field eclipse their peers through something he called deliberate practice. Ericsson’s research suggests that if you spend enough time working through a very structured practice regimen, you can improve and excel at that skill. Yet it takes more than practice.
According to Ericsson, deliberate practice involves stepping outside your comfort zone and trying activities beyond your current capabilities. Ericcson said, “Wanting to improve isn’t enough — people also need well-defined goals and the help of a teacher who makes a plan for achieving them.”
In short, the five essential components of deliberate practice established by Ericcson are:
- Establish a compelling goal. Then, devote heightened attention to achieving it.
- Develop a detailed plan to stretch on specific aspects designed to improve performance.
- Develop the correct mental representations. This is used by the brain to orient itself, such as visualizing a successful run or anticipating a situation and path forward.
- Commit to regular, focused, structured practice sessions.
- Engage a coach who can provide real-time feedback.
Practice, as in repetition alone, isn’t sufficient. If your technique is off, you’ll simply be reinforcing a neural pathway that will be counterproductive.
These Olympic athletes have all spent countless hours with a coach, working on enhancing and refining their ability to perform at the highest level.
How is this relevant to becoming a more effective leader? The MOR Leadership Programs encourage participants to step out of their comfort zone, set stretch goals, adopt specific repeatable practices, and leverage their coach and colleagues to provide real-time feedback or feedforward. If you want to improve at making presentations or any competency, set a specific goal, identify the best practices, and create a feedback loop.
Katie Ledecky shared in an interview with Women’s Health, “I’m pretty good at staying focused on my own goals.” Katie spends 25 to 30 hours a week training. Three days a week, she works with coaches on weightlifting, while the other two days, she does bike sprints and circuit training, and it is always a full-body workout, not to mention the many hours in the pool. Simone Biles shared she trains for 32 hours a week.
Leon Marchand has the focus and the mental representations needed to excel. As a person who trains with him shared, “He obviously has it physically, he’s incredibly talented. But what sets him apart from everyone else is what he has up here-his mindset. It’s unlike anyone I’ve ever met. He has the “it” factor, this Je ne sais quoi.”
Marchand commented he wants to keep working on developing his capabilities. “I don’t know how to do the next part (of my sports career).” This is where an expert coach can make all the difference in helping us recognize what we could be doing differently or better.
If you were going to be great at one thing within your profession, as the Founder of MOR, I would wish for you to strive to become a great leader. Organizations are over-managed and under-led, as Warren Bennis observed years ago.
In one of Gallup’s surveys, the percentage ranking their bosses as “bad” was 40%. The percentage ranking their bosses as “average” was another 40%. The percentage ranking their bosses as “good” was a disheartening 19%.
The competition to be a great leader may not be as crowded a field or require you to spend 32 hours in the pool or the gym. If this became your compelling goal, you could leverage the 40-plus hours you are already engaged in your work as a practice field. What else would enhance your ability to excel?
On your path to becoming a more effective leader, what step in Ericcson’s deliberate practice is most important?
- Establish a compelling goal. Then, devote heightened attention to achieving it.
- Develop a detailed plan to stretch on specific aspects designed to improve performance.
- Develop the correct mental representations. This is used by the brain to orient itself, such as visualizing a successful run or anticipating a situation and path forward.
- Commit to regular, focused, structured practice sessions.
- Engage a coach who can provide real-time feedback.
Last week, we asked what you are watching the Olympics for.
- 22% said your favorite sports or athlete
- 21% said how the teams perform
- 21% said the inspirational stories
- 19% said the sports I only see every four years
- 17% said I’m not watching the Olympics
Whatever your reason, watching the Olympics is both entertaining and inspirational. In addition to your favorite sports, teams, and stories, we hope the Olympics are providing you an opportunity to think about leadership and coaching in a different way, yes, even the 17% of us who are not watching them.
