Channel Your Inner Olympian

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games attracted more than 3 billion global viewers. Steeped in history and tradition, athletes from 206 countries competed in 32 different sports with 339 events in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. There’s so much to love and appreciate about the Olympics: it’s a special and limited event that showcases physical greatness, mental toughness, and dedication to craft, and promotes unity and teamwork.

While most of us will never physically compete at an Olympic level, there are many ways to apply the mindset and methods that elite athletes use to ensure consistent, excellent performance in our professional and personal lives. In essence, the idea is not that an accountant, management analyst – or, say, a facilitator at a certified, woman-owned small business – should focus on developing elite technical skills, such as kneeling in a canoe while using a single-blade paddle on one side of the vessel, or performing on a trampoline and executing routines with ten different techniques. What can help us elevate our performance at work are those secondary competencies, such as endurance, strength, flexibility, self-control, and focus.

Let’s focus on four strategies that elite Olympian athletes incorporate regularly that can enhance our professional growth and perform like champions.

1. Recovery is as important as exertion.

Certainly, there are considerable distinctions between athletes and those who hold a “regular day job.” Most of an athlete’s time is spent in practice, while the typical worker has little time to practice a skill or an idea before “performing” – meeting with a client, responding in real-time, or implementing a new policy or process. An athlete’s “season” is quite short, with more time for recovery, while the average American worker gets 11 days of paid leave a year. An athlete’s career lasts a relatively short time; a typical working career can last more than 40 years.

This results in a whole lot of exertion, and not a lot of recovery. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), 77% of workers reported experiencing work-related stress in the last month of 2023. The negative impacts of work-related stress include low motivation or energy; less engagement, effort and work; and mental and physical fatigue. In the fast-paced world of work, with the additional complexities of working on remote or hybrid teams, how can we find the time to recover sufficiently?

One study of the “corporate athlete” developed the theory of effective energy management, which has two elements: movement between energy expenditure (stress) and energy renewal (recovery). Effective energy management is “oscillated” and requires the development of rituals that promote oscillation; the enemy of better performance is not stress; but the absence of disciplined, intermittent recovery.

Oscillation asks us to develop routines that become automatic over time. These rituals provide recovery; the current thinking is that the body and mind need recovery every 90 minutes to two hours. Oscillation means balancing the rituals for recovery without promoting atrophy. (So, no using this theory to take a week off after every difficult meeting or project!) Consider scheduling and honoring a “duty-free” break each day, spending time doing something that restores you: whether that’s meditation or a workout, a walk around the block, calling a friend, reading, prepping the evening’s meal, engaging in visualization or “act as if” mindfulness exercises. For more ideas and resources, check out Careerstone’s May 2024 blog on reducing stress!

2. Request and remain open to feedback.

For elite athletes, feedback is a necessity and an expectation. The legendary NBA player and coach, Doc Rivers, describes it this way: “Average players want to be left alone; Great players want to be told the truth.” Being receptive to feedback contributes to development, improvement, and engagement. 80% of employees who say they have received meaningful feedback in the last week report being fully engaged at work. Meaningful feedback is specific – “good job” doesn’t help Olympic athletes like Simone Biles or Katie Ledecky advance in their athletic endeavors. And “good job” doesn’t help you, either. Know your goal in asking for feedback and identify the appropriate folks who can provide that feedback to you. Hint: it’s not only your supervisor who can provide you with viewpoints that can improve your work performance with future-focused feedback.

3. Put me in, Coach!

Elite athletes rely on coaches not just for technical guidance, but also for the broader support and strategic insight that can help athletes perform (and recover) more effectively, increase and enhance motivation, and set and achieve goals. How might a coach help you in the same way?

Working with a professional coach provides opportunities for continued development, no matter where you are in your career. Coaches meet employees at their current level of expertise and need and provide guidance tailored to an individual’s specific context and challenges.

A good coach can help individuals with their recovery process because the coach’s goal is to work with the whole person to determine how to best enhance “effective energy management.” This is different for each person, and a good coach works to create an individualized plan and resources to support each specific client.

So much of today’s professional responsibilities involve thought work and managing diverse relationships. This means self-awareness and reflection are imperative to success in the workplace. The right coach provides guidance and perspective when partnering with clients who are keen to improve their skills and relationships in the workplace.

4. Be a dynamic team player.

Track and field, swimming, gymnastics, even break dancing (who knew this was an Olympic sport?!) involve individual competitors who contribute to the success of the overall team."

While the benefits of flexible workplaces are myriad, work can be isolating. In 2023, 1 in 5 American workers had fully remote or hybrid workplaces. The isolation of remote work can contribute to feeling the weight of the work as an individual. Increase the frequency of highlighting team members’ individual strengths and discuss ways to manage projects that leverage the strengths of each person. This creates space for active recovery; when each person expends the energy of their expertise, there’s quicker recovery time to tackle the next project.

Commit to being a team player and consider ways to build an Olympic-quality team. Design opportunities where each team member can maximize and leverage their strengths. Remember, Steph Curry doesn’t play center, and the US Olympic Team doesn’t need him to.

Make time to celebrate wins, big and small, for individuals and small groups. Individual wins are team wins. Strong team players celebrate the professional accomplishments of others, without feeling threatened or competitive. The US Olympic Track + Field Team is comprised of athletes who run hurdles, marathons, race walk, pole vault, and throw the hammer, javelin, or discus. Success for one contributes to success for all. In the workplace, acknowledging individual contributions to the team and organization’s success increases the likelihood of repeating or amplifying the task or product. People recognized at work are 2 times more likely to bring a new idea or innovation to the team; more than half of all employees place value on a work culture that actively celebrates the achievements of individuals and teams, and counts continued learning and encouragement among their reasons for staying in their current role.

Today’s professional has much more in common with Olympic athletes than previously thought. By embracing the principles of recovery, feedback, coaching, and being a team player, we not only elevate our individual performance but also contribute positively to the teams and organizations we are part of, fostering a culture of excellence and achievement.

Authored by Kristen Shattuck, Director of Training & Facilitation, Careerstone Group, LLC

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