How to Leverage Your Strengths For Extraordinary Performances
Mandy Napier BSC
?? Helping Entrepreneurs, Professionals & Athletes Achieve Extraordinary Results & Peak Performance ?? Executive Coach ?? High-Performance Mindset Coach ?? Breakthrough Results Coach ?? Speaker Educator ??Author
Have you ever wondered just how to achieve exceptional results in a way that don't require massive effort or a focus on just one strategy? Wondering if you put everything into this project or focus area, will it work? Today, I will share another strategy, which created extraordinary success for one team.
As the saying goes,?‘Success leaves clues.'
The clues here come from the triumphant results of Team Sky, the UK cycling team and a powerful strategy behind their phenomenal success.
No British Cyclist Had Won the Tour de France
It all started back in 2010, when David Brailsford was appointed the General manager of Team Sky, Great Britain’s professional cycling team. He was given the tough task of changing the statistic that no British cyclist had ever won the Tour de France. David’s intention was to get someone from Team Sky on the winner’s podium of the Tour de France.
To achieve this, he gave himself a five-year time-frame. He embraced the mindset of making small improvements, solving problems, and taking full responsibility for his attitude. He intentionally focused on this question:
"How to achieve excellence in human beings?’?
David looked at every aspect of the team. From individual bike setups, the water each team member drank, the food they ate, the massage oil used and other recovery strategies. He also looked at the beds they slept in and the pillows they used. They redesigned bike seats, equipped team?members with electrically warming?overshorts to maintain ideal muscle temperature while riding. Every minute detail that goes with life on tour was scrutinised with the intention of making small incremental changes across the board.
Consistency Was a Key Strategy
During the tour, a support team travelled ahead to prepare everything for the athletes, to maintain consistency. The hotel rooms were stripped and beds, pillows and bedding were changed to suit each individual athlete.
David believed a?good night’s sleep?was essential to his team performing at their peak every day. This meant, wherever they were on the tour, their beds and pillows would be the same every night.
While changing the bedding in itself wouldn’t win the tour, this small change, along with all the other changes, added up to remarkable improvements.
The Aggregate of Marginal Gains
He called this the?‘aggregate of marginal gains’,?and considered it more of a philosophy than a single strategy. A philosophy of searching for a tiny margin of improvement in every aspect of the team.
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“It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen." John Wooden (Former Basketball Coach)
The result? Bradley Wiggins, from Team Sky, won the Tour de France in three years, two less than the five-year target David originally set. The first British cyclist to achieve this win. The same year, David Brailsford coached the British cycling team at the 2012 Olympic Games. The team dominated the games by winning around 70 per cent of the gold medals available.
David Brailsford and Bradley Wiggins were both knighted for their achievements. After this win, they went on to achieve further great successes in the cycling world. Chris Froome, who helped Wiggins win in 2012, won the tour in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017. That gave Team Sky five wins in six years.
‘When you strip back everything you can think of and improve it all by a marginal amount;?when you clump it all together, just like compound interest, you get a vast improvement or growth’.?David Brailsford
Finally, remember this. At 212 degrees, water boils, and it makes steam, which can power turbines.?However, at one degree less, 211 degrees, water doesn't boil and cannot power a turbine.?
That tiny one degree could be the difference in your business. The difference between achieving the result you want, or turning ordinary into the extraordinary.
Now it’s over to you. What area of your business or life could you improve on first? And then? Embrace a bit of Brailsford's philosophy and watch your results improve.
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CREATE YOUR OWN HIGH PERFORMANCE MINDSET
Mandy Napier is a Global High Performance Mindset Coach, author and educator. With over 16 years of experience helping business professionals and entrepreneurs achieve extraordinary results professionally and personally, transformations are the norm, and results guaranteed. To inquire about working with Mandy to help you and/ or your team create a High Performance Mindset, contact her here
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