Last night Joannie Rochette won a bronze medal in women’s figure skating. If I was to leave it there, you might have a number of opinions about that result. The background to this story, as you probably know is that Joannie’s Mom and Dad had joined her in Vancouver late last week. On Saturday night, three days before Joannie was to be on the ice, her mother died of a heart attack. Her Mom was only 55. Joannie could have reacted in so many ways including completely withdrawing from the games. Joannie chose to continue her Olympic quest and in fact laid down the two best performances of her skating career. And she won the bronze medal, however for Joannie, and for Canada it was golden in every way possible. For Joannie, she said just competing was a fantastic result for her.
I asked the question ‘what does a gold medal performance look like to you’ because it is an interesting inquiry into ‘results’. Before you knew the background to Joannie, you may not have thought that her result was outstanding. When you hear from it the context of what has happened in her life over the last week, suddenly it changes light, and you realize she was brilliant and inspiring. Therefore the leadership lesson from Joannie’s experience is keep the context in perspective when looking at results. Know what ‘gold’ looks like for you and your business team, and why that is important. Finally whatever ‘gold’ does look like, ensure everyone understands it, can be inspired by it, and knows how to work towards it so they can work ‘inside’ of that shared commitment, instead of just ‘working’. That transparency, engagement and focus has the greatest chance of allowing results to emerge that may even pleasantly surprise you.

I’ve just finished watching the I’ve just finished watching the exquisite gold medal win of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir in pairs dance (skating). They were flawless, powerful and magical.
For me, the tears started to flow when the ’story’ came forward. These two have been skating together since they were about 10 years old. In a video clip of them when they were about 13 years old, they spoke of the Olympics coming to Canada and how they’d love to skate for the gold. They had a vision.
Christina Groves watched the Calgary Olympics and at the age of 8 decided she wanted to compete in the Olympics. Her mom says she was seen with a hammer in her hands, running around her neighbourhood streets, pretending she was carrying the Olympic flame. Christina has already won a silver and bronze medal and has another race on Wednesday which is a favourite in.
These athletes have a dream, a vision, and have been willing to put in the hard work and persistance to bring it to life.
Do you have a dream? Is there a vision that you have for your future that inspires and ignites you? If you don’t, why not dip your toe into exploring what that could be for you. Ask yourself questions like:
*If I could wave a magic wand, and make anything happen, what would that be
*If in 4 years you were looking back at your life, what would have happened that would leave you satisfied and fulfilled?
*If you make an impact what would it be?
Big questions indeed, however they are meant to tweak your own creative thinking so that you too can have a dream!!equisite gold medal win of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir in pairs dance (skating). They were flawless, powerful and magical.
For me, the tears started to flow when the ’story’ came forward. These two have been skating togther since they were about 10 years old. In a video clip of them when they were about 13 years old, they spoke of the Olympics coming to Canada and how they’d love to skate for the gold. They had a vision.
Christina Groves watched the Calgary Olympics and at the age of 8 decided she wanted to compete in the Olympics. Her mom says she was seen with a hammer in her hands, running around her neighbourhood streets, pretending she was carrying the Olmympic flame. Christina has already won a silver and bronze medal and has another race on Wednesday which is a favourite in.
These athletes have a dream, a vision, and have been willing to put in the hard work and persistence to bring it to life.
Do you have a dream? Is there a vision that you have for your future that inspires and ignites you? If you don’t, why not dip your toe into exploring what that could be for you. Ask yourself questions like:
*If I could wave a magic wand, and make anything happen, what would that be
*If in 4 years you were looking back at your life, what would have happened that would leave you satisfied and fulfilled?
*If you make an impact what would it be?
Big questions indeed, however they are meant to tweak your own creative thinking so that you too can have a dream!!

An athlete wins the gold – they celebrate!  An athlete wins the silver – they celebrate!  An athlete wins the bronze – they usually celebrate.  An athlete posts a personal best, they celebrate.  In a team game like hockey, a goal is scored, the team celebrates.  Celebrations can look like hands going in the air, high fives, taps on the shoulder, shout outs, screams, tears and bigs smiles.  No matter, there is an acknowledgement of ground taken or success towards a goal.  And as a spectator, the bigger the celebreation the better!  It’s a wonderful feeling to celebrate and it results in increased energy, a sense of accomplishment and a general feeling of  ‘I can do it’.

What could be possible if just a little more celebration was brought into the day to day or even week to week of our place of doing business?  Often success in business is barely recognized and in fact, hardly acknowledged.  It’s almost like nothing happened, or results are expected and if results don’t happen, that’s where all of the attention is put.  Problem with that if you don’t acknowledge success, you rob yourself and your working team of a very important opportunity to have a team bonding moment and get all of the good stuff that I spoke of earlier. 

I would encourage a 4 week challenge are your office – celebrate your successes and at the end of it, discuss how it feels for everyone.  What did they get from it, and why was it valuable?  You might be surprised by the impact on productivity too!

“From skiing to sliding, from hockey to figure skating, Canadian athletes have been honing their game-day routines for months to keep the pressure in check. While the Olympics have begun, the mind games began as many as three years ago.” The Globe and Mail
It seems that any athlete in these Olympics, or at least the ones who say they are committed to winning, always reference their preparation. Lately, on top of the rigorous physical preparation they take on, they are also taking on the mental preparation. And it didn’t just begin a couple of weeks ago. Now athletes embrace the concept of mental preparation being as important as the physical preparation.
I marvel at the amount of time athletes prepare and practice in their pursuit of excellence. Raw talent can only take you so far. To be a leader takes a commitment to the day in and day out preparation and practice. Results sometimes are anticipated 2 to 3 years out and the strategy to get there is well planned and thought through.
Looking inside the doors of business, the concept of preparation is not as frequently practiced. Most of the time business is operating in ‘game mode’ meaning there is lots of action in making things happen. Action is good, however, a lot of the action isn’t thoughtful, it is action for action sake. Here’s some of what I think preparation could look like in business:
*Understanding the real challenges, needs, wants and desires of your end user
*Looking at the gaps in your company, and where you might need to take create new capacities to address these gaps
*Not just fixing a problem, but taking a step back to understand the root cause of the problem and exploring possible solutions, not THE ONE answer
*Gathering feedback from a diverse group of company team members to hear their thinking about problems and challenges the company may face
*Working to impact communication so the whole company is operating from the same values, vision and purpose and have the muscle to support these key areas in all areas of their work
*Taking time to be in different environments and be influenced by these spaces and how you might think about your own business
*Have some fun, be playful, and get to know team members beyond their job title

Business can be much more complex than competing in a sport, however, that makes the need to prepare, prepare, prepare and prepare even more pressing. And while doing so, watch the kind of leadership that emerges!

Alexandre Bilodeau won Canada’s first gold medal of the Olympics in skiing freestyle (meaning go as fast as you can down a hill of moguls and throw in some major jumps). And behind the gold was an even bigger story. In a sport that could best be described as ‘kick ass’ and possibily loaded with bravado, comes a young 22 year old man from Quebec who is mature, sophisticated and humble. When asked about winning this gold, the first for Canada in a Canadian Olympics, without hestiation, Alexandre deflected the glory, and acknowledged his family, his brother who he adores and gets inspiration from as he battles cerebral palsy, the other Canadian athletes, the VANOC crew, the volunteers, the support program in Canada….in a nut shell, The Team behind him.
In all of the interviews I’ve heard with athletes, the team behind the athletes are always at the forefront. These athletes know they will not be on the podium if they don’t have a team behind them. What is very powerful is that they don’t hesitate to acknowledge this.
This is a critical lesson for business too. To be an on-goingly successful company, an empowered and multi talented, commmitted team is a must. You’ve got to know who you need on that team and how to hire them. With the right team, the uplift will be amazing!

The day has arrived, the opening of the 2010 Olympics in our Vancouver and Canada is the only country to host the Olympics twice and never win a gold medal. However that is the past, and as a nation, we are as optimistic as ever and focused on NOW. It seems Canadians aren’t the only ones. The Globe and Mail, on page one declared, 3 BILLION VIEWERS EXPECTED FOR OPENING CEREMONY.
How does that happen, and why you might ask?
Well I think there might be a fairly straight forward reason so many people watch from around the world. The Olympics offer a time when most of the world can come together in the spirit of good will and possibility. At this stage, our attention is on the future, and no nation is ahead of the other, it’s about taking a moment to reflect on the unifying and powerful affect of bringing many nations together from around the globe to celebrate and be proud and then compete. There is tradition, there is beauty, there is celebration, there is pride, there is hope and there is purpose. This engages people, and it inspires people. We get to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.
The leadership lesson is short – if you want to engage and inspire, consider what is important to the people you want to impact. What is it that they would be interested in? What reason is there to care? How could they get excited? There are all key elements to creating change too. It’s ground level work, and puts in the foundation for more. The opening ceremonies are the foundation and context for the next two and a half weeks of events. Watch for it tonight – you’ll see it everywhere!!

I love the Olympics, especially the winter Olympics. There are so many reasons that I find myself glued to a range of sports, many I haven’t seen for about four years! I’ve been involved in team sports since I was 8 years old, and really have never stopped as I play hockey weekly these days in a women’s league that gives me a good dose of competition and challenge. Why I love sports, and why I’ve dedicated my blog to leadership lessons from the Olympians resides with the fact that sports is a domain where constant growth and development is considered a must for continued success.  And they just don’t talk about it, they do it!  Athletes frequently review their past performance to assess gaps, and look at new or different approaches.  They appreciate and deepen the kind of mindset needed for improvement, and allow themselves to be coached and corrected by others (coaches and trainers) in their commitment to get to the next level.

I frequently find myself referencing sport for analogy or example with my clients.  So the Olympics marks a steady flow of inspirational stories and leadership lessons.  I will do my best to map these onto the domain of business in the coming weeks. 

I will begin with one such athlete, Jennifer Heil. Jennifer won Canada’s first gold medal in freestyle skiing in 2006 in Turin. At the age of 22 Jennifer ripped down a set of moguls with such velocity and elegance that she earned the elusive title of Olympic champion early in her career. Inspiring indeed.
However, what’s behind this woman is what I find truly inspiring. I found out what makes Jennifer tick from an article in the Globe and Mail on January 9, 2010. After her gold medal, Jennifer was getting injured a lot. The source of the injuries were from how she walked. Yes, that very basic thing that we really don’t think about much. The only way for Jennifer to stop getting injured and continue to compete at a world champion level was to re-learn how to walk. For many of us, that one gold medal may have been our big moment, and we’d be satisfied to change careers. Not Jennifer. She was committed to the next challenge which was the Olympics in Vancouver. Jennifer spent about 8 months reprogramming her lower body mechanics with exercises and she relearned how to walk. She said, “I’ve committed to this, and I’m doing everything I can. And at the end of the day I’ll know I’ve done my best effort.”
So Jennifer didn’t throw in the towel and embraced that the way she walks may not be the way she is – she was open to another possibility. But only because she was so committed to something very important to her. I have often heard inside the world of business ‘that’s just the way I am’ or ‘it is what it is’. And the results remain the same.  It’s no gold medal performance, I promise you that!! So I say what if there was another way to be, and another way to operate?  Like re-learning how to walk for Jennifer, it will take a lot of work, a lot of letting go of the way you think things should be or ought to be, a heavy dose of humility, persistence and hard work, and a definite clear understanding of what you are committed to. I also believe the journey is one that makes life rich and meaningful no matter what domain you are playing in.