Whether you are a sports fan or not, it would be difficult to escape the fact that history was made this weekend when Andy Murray ended a long, long wait for a Wimbledon winner and the British Lions finally beat the Wallabies.
Once my excitement abated (well, to be honest, it hasn’t really!), I pondered on the key elements to these achievements. The parallel that stood out for me, during all the interviews, was the importance of the respective coaches in these victories.
At the Living Leader we believe that the mark of truly outstanding leadership is not just how good a leader you are, but how many leaders you develop. Coaching skills are critical in developing others. So often, in a genuine effort to help and support people, we volunteer our experience and thoughts on how things should be done. However, ultimately if we want to truly inspire them to dig deep and be the best they can possibly be, then how we do things and the success we have had, is of little relevance.
As leaders, we need people to perform whether we are there or not. We need to be helping them to have confidence to find their own answers and solutions. If we are constantly telling them what to do, this will never happen. Ivan Lendl and Warren Gatland, could only sit back and watch on the day. There was no longer anything they could do to influence the result, but you could see their quiet confidence that they had done enough to support their champions in making all the right decisions in their respective arenas and doing everything they needed to do to find the performance of their lives.
This kind of leadership is more about helping individuals to find their own answers and develop total self-belief. A lot is said in sport about the mind being as important as the physical ability and preparation. So often, we see someone who clearly has amazing talent, unable to bring it to the fore on the big occasions because they are unable to ignore the so called ‘gremlins’. We all have doubts and fears, but those of us who can move beyond these blocks and free our thinking so that we can be absolutely present in the current moment and focus totally on our performance, with confidence and conviction are likely to create outstanding results.
We need leaders who understand these coaching and development skills and have the ability to listen and ask the challenging questions that will support their teams to find their own solutions, so that they can perform at their very best without the need for constant guidance.
Emma Littmoden is a partner at leadership programme provider, The Living Leader.
