Think Like An Athlete To Be A Better Leader

How athletic CEOs have the same mindset as top competitors

Like top athletes, athletic leaders thrive in competition, push themselves and their organizations to the edge, and stay focused on the goal regardless of the external distractions. Mental toughness creates a very stable base for athletic leadership, making it focused on winning, concentrated on results, robust and stress-proof. At the same time, athletic leaders demonstrate high levels of flexibility in goal setting, strategizing and organizing execution. They exhibit mental adaptability, which is the skill of absorbing new information, updating mental models, and adjusting goals and ways to achieve them under changing circumstances. This tension between toughness and adaptability forms the mental foundation of athletic leadership.
 

The mental toughness can be broken down into several distinct components: 

Super-sized Ambition
Just as Olympic and world champions are confident about their abilities to perform and succeed at that level, an athletic leader is sure about his capacity to bring an organization to the highest level of performance regardless of external circumstances.  

Ambition (some scholars use the more politically correct term, ‘belief in ability to win’) makes athletic leaders consider difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than threats to be avoided. They set challenging goals and maintain a strong commitment to them; they sustain effort in the face of failure; and they quickly restore a sense of efficacy after setbacks. 

Passion
The leaders we've studied are passionate about their business, the organizations they head and people they lead.  They speak about them with enthusiasm, devote most of their time to them, and willingly accept minor and major suffering for them. Passion gives them motivation, energy and focus.

Focus
A focus on performance and total concentration are the cornerstones of daily life, training and competition for top athletes. A number of recent studies show that they have powerful strategies for getting back on track fast when their level of performance drops or external distractions get in the way. Athletic leaders demonstrate the same exceptional level of concentration and focus. Bombarded with myriad ideas, requests and demands on their time, they stay centred on a limited number of priorities, which they pursue with unparalleled passion. A focused mindset allows leaders to work with issues they cannot control, block out distractions, minimize stress when things are not perfect and, most importantly, keep their organizations concentrated on a few key issues.

Cool-headedness
Passion fires up athletic leaders, but just like athletic champions, they master their emotions when the time comes to make important decisions or negotiate significant deals. Keeping a ‘cool head’ means that a leader has a strong ability to stay calm and think clearly under very stressful conditions. A leader with a cool head applies logic to the situation, analyses available data, seeks expert advice, considers different options and synthesizes a solution.

Studies show that top athletes are ready to subject their bodies and brains to strenuous exercise, despite knowing that this may result in injuries, illnesses and loss of some important functions.  As well as being merciless to themselves, champions do not spare their support teams – not to mention their competitors. LE

Author Bio

Stanislav Shekshnia is a professor at INSEAD and senior partner at Ward Howell International. His research concentrates on leadership and governance in emerging markets and organizations. He is the author of Athletic CEOs: Leadership in Turbulent Times Connect Stanislav Shekshnia