2-24-10 Lessons from the Olympics

If you are like me, and probably billions of other people, you have spent a fair amount of time watching the Olympics. And while I mostly watch it just for the joy of watching world-class athletes in action, I must admit that I’ve also been drawing some parallels with the functions of the executive. There are a few things that come to mind for me…….

Bad things will happen in your life. Think of the ice skater whose mother died unexpectedly of a heart attack a couple of days ago. I watched her perform last night. Gotta tell ya that while my heart was going out to her, I was also admiring her poise and ability to go on. We will all be faced with either physical or emotional catastrophes in our lives. How we handle them says a lot about our abilities to handle crises as an executive. Remember, it IS okay to show emotions. It ISN’T okay to let them cripple us.

You are going to wipe out occasionally. All we have to do is watch the skiers or skaters and realize that. And while, as executives, our wipe outs aren’t generally physical….. We will all have occasions where we go down in flames at work. What happened the last time your brilliant idea was publicly shot down at work? Did you abandon it, even though you KNEW it was the right thing to do? Or did you dust yourself off and figure out a different avenue for implementing the idea?

Endurance vs. sprinting. The Olympics events demonstrate that there are endurance racers and there are sprint racers. As an executive, you have to be both. For example, when implementing a culture change, you have to be an endurance executive. Or when fixing a line-stopping problem, you have to be a sprint executive. Both skills are equally important for the executive. And if you get to be better at one over the other, you will likely find yourself pigeon-holed as the “guy that fixes line problems” or the “guy that is good at policy changes”. And while being pigeon-holed isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it can limit the opportunities that you will be given.

It doesn’t hurt to be a class act. I’m thinking of the snowboarder, Shawn White, here. He was the last one to go on the second/final run. He had already won the gold with his scores on the first run. He could’ve played it safe and just boarded down the middle of the pipe, but he didn’t. Instead, he gave the fans a helluva a run. One that included the unveiling of a new trick. That’s a class act --- thinking of others and giving them what they came to see.

A little pageantry is good for everyone. From the opening ceremony to the medal award ceremonies, the Olympics has major pageantry. Beyond the show it puts on for all of us, think about what it does for the athletes -- the celebration of what is to come, the celebration of winning, the national pride. When is the last time you had an all-out, over-the-top celebration for your people? The closest I’ve come is a first airplane roll-out or a first jig load. The aerospace industry DOES know how to celebrate, when appropriate….. With music, smoke, light shows, suspense, and unveiling. As an employee at these celebrations, the pride I feel is huge. And I know from experience, that those around me really appreciate the effort and expense that the company goes to in order to create the pageantry.

Being the best in the world is pretty darned cool. I can only imagine what those athletes must be feeling when they stand on the podium and receive their gold medal. For that moment in time, they are the absolute best in the world at what they do. The closest I’ve come to that is during my research phase for my PhD. One of my committee members/professors told me that when I completed my dissertation, at that particular moment in time, I would be the person that knows the most about my particular subject. That I would be the best in the world. Gotta tell you, that feels pretty darned good. So what are you doing to prepare for your moment of being the best in the world?

Cheers!