The Leader As Coach

It is the dead of winter around 5:00 am, and my alarm rings. It's time to wake up, brave the fog and head to Meru Crossfit. I still remember the day I chose to pursue CrossFit, I used to pass Meru every day on my way to work and on one such day, I picked up the phone and called Meru to come and check the place out. The first day I was given Man Makers to do, still gives me nightmares. But, I showed up the next day and the day after that and so on, it became my go-to place. CrossFit gave me many things, community, a sense of belonging, life-long friends and deep insight into who I needed to be, both at home and at work. CrossFit is not just about fitness it is about building a mindset, building better versions of yourself every day that is a constant learner, is coachable, and is above all else not afraid of failure. It is during my journey as a CrossFit athlete I learnt the term Fail Forward.

In today's little excerpt from a conversation I had with Arjun ( Arjun Lal ), now the one-man army at Step Training Academy and former founder & coach at Meru we spoke about how leaders of today needed to learn to be coaches instead of merely being the taskmaster that they are known to be, how they can shape and mould their team into embracing failure, building teams that have strong mindsets and unshakable beliefs, train them in the practice of singularity, interesting story about singular focus is my inability to squat, a rather simple movement that often is the foundation for most movements in the sport of CrossFit. After regular programming at the gym Arjun and I would just focus on getting my squat right, in my conversation with him you will hear him say how he felt that distracting me with many movements would not have worked, I needed a singular goal and singular win to get my confidence up. The picture below is testimony to many months of work. But, the learning here is simple, Leaders today need to focus on building singular skills before moving onto things that are not in the team's wheelhouse, that enable their teams to win.

The following was recorded this week on Sunday, Arjun was kind enough to take some time out and be there as he always has to talk about things that interest me. The reason I loved being at Meru no matter the weather, the workout or the time I slept the previous night was the fact that I knew when I walked in, I would learn something new, I would work on things that I would not be able to do and I would be "coached" not told what to do. The difference however subtle is there.

As Ben Bergeron (a heavyweight in the world of CrossFit coaches) said in his book Chasing Excellence given the choice between coaching people with skill and people with the scope of improving their mental tenacity he would choose the latter because anyone can acquire skills, it's the mental grit that makes you a champion.

I truly hope you enjoy this conversation, we talk a lot and about a lot. in the 30-odd minutes we spoke, we learnt some things for ourselves too as is the hope for you all and to anyone who is a seasoned leader, you might learn a thing or two too.

Coach well.

Keeping it real,

Sid