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.
Great post! I find that a lot of people would prefer to believe “that’s just the way I am” over making the changes that make it possible for a professional performance.
And, not only do people say “that’s just the way I am” but sometimes the people around us would like to pigeon hole us as well. So, it’s a difficult change to make sometimes.
Kudos to Jennifer for this! And, for being able to last on the Jacob’s Ladder for over 30 minutes – something I read in the paper about her. I’ve tried that equipment. It’s brutal.