I was lucky enough to witness the wonders of the Paralympic and Olympic athletes and closing ceremonies. (Some pictures here on our Facebook page.) There’s no doubt that these events have inspired the entire country and for many people, transformed the way we view the ‘differently abled’. So what are the lessons for those in the business world? I’ve pinned down five messages from London 2012 that should resonate with the leaders of today and tomorrow.
1. Mind over matter
The whole idea of someone with no legs running 100m in less than 11 seconds, or swimmers with no arms or legs swimming faster than 99% of able bodied people is an instructive lesson in human willpower. The Paralympics were a magnificent demonstration of the fragility of the human body and in spite of that, the indestructability of the human spirit.
In business we should also believe that, no matter what the obstacles, if you set yourself a goal and absolutely commit to that goal you can achieve it. Start with the goal and then work backwards to establish what needs to be done to get you there. There are no real excuses if you are committed enough, just obstacles to overcome. As has been said before: failure cannot live with persistence.
2. Marginal improvements make big differences
The saga of Oscar Pistorius, luckily, had a happy ending. But there’s no doubt he made a mistake by using prosthetics which weren’t as good as his competition. The lesson is that a few inches really can change everything. Of course, more broadly every Paralympic athlete is not after a five second advantage. Instead they sweat and struggle for a few more milliseconds every month, because all those milliseconds add up to a golden medal.
The lesson for leaders is not to spend all your time looking for the big idea which will change everything. Ideas like Facebook and cloud computing only occur once every few years. Instead a real leader will look at making a 1% improvement in 20 performances rather for a one off 20% rise in performance. Incremental improvements can be achieved by tightening up every aspect of your business.
3. Build a talent team
There are more ‘differently abled’ people in China (84million) than the entire population of the UK (70million), so for Paralympic Team GB to come third in the Paralympic and Olympic medal tables with our proportionally tiny population is testament to the team and network dedicated to finding and fostering the best talent available in recent years.
This lesson is clear. In today’s marketplace, the main USP of your company is your small team of top performing people. Find that talent, foster it and develop it, and you’ll have a team you can entrust with success. Talent mobility is also important – align the right people with the right roles and the ‘gold medals’ will seem to magically fall into your lap!
4. Concentrate on strengths, not weaknesses
Usain Bolt is a perfect case in point – Bolt is not famous for his fast starts. Other people are better. However, his coach does not spend a disproportionate amount of time trying to improve his start, and instead spends the majority of training time focussing on his finish which is his strength. This tactic of focussing on strength rather than weakness has worked. Usain Bolt, of course, being double gold medal winner in 2012 and 2008 and world record holder for both 100m and 200m. All from someone with a ‘slow start’ in a sub 10 second race!
The same applies in business. Too often we focus on weaknesses rather than strengths. For example, if someone comes up with a new idea there’s the infamous phrase “Yes… but”. This phrase is the single biggest barrier to innovation and as leaders we are often the main perpetrators. ‘’Yes…but’’ focusses on the 20% of the idea which needs work, rather than the 80% of the idea that is good. Instead we should flip that and spend the majority of our time pushing our strengths, and spend just enough time to manage the weaknesses.
5. Focus on your own game
As an ex-cox for Henley winning crews I know that if you’re on the rowing team, you have a race plan that you focus 100% on executing, regardless of what is happening around you. The one call I used to make more than any other during a race was to instruct the crew to ‘keep your eyes in the boat.’ If the boat next to you has a ‘push’ and overtakes you, you don’t ignore your plan and suddenly have an unplanned sprint. In business it is the same. Make a plan you have faith in and execute. Of couse, agree a time frame under which you will review and modify that plan. But if you modify it too many times, what are you left with? No plan at all.
So if a press release from a competitor announces that they’ve launched a new feature to their product that you were not planning on delivering, don’t be distracted. As Jack Welch once said ‘’In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell’’
