In Mental Health Awareness Week it is important to remember - There's nothing more boring than a rugby player ...... or CEO!!

Nothing more boring than a rugby player………or CEO!!

“There’s nothing more boring than a rugby player.”?Those were the words of my old Borders rugby coach Tony Gilbert, in my first one on one meeting with him in August 2002.?I arrived expecting to talk about my tackling, scrummaging or ball carrying, and be shown video footage to illustrate how I should be doing things differently, or errors I had made in practices.?This was not the case.?Tony questioned me about my interests away from the game, my career plans for after rugby – did I play any musical instruments, did I enjoy studying and will I be doing more of it, what are my relationships like with parents/friends/girlfriends/ teammates, how do I spend my spare time??After about an hour of this he hit me with a phrase that has stuck with me, and something that current professional athletes from all sports and business leaders should bear in mind – “There’s nothing more boring than a rugby player!!”?He went on to explain the need for outside interests and influences and that I should be working hard to develop those, in order to develop myself as a person.?This in turn would make me a better player and is something that CEO’s should be cognisant of not just for their teams, but for themselves.

Whether he knew it or not (and I suspect he knew it), Tony’s advice was based on solid psychological research.?

Motivation and its effects on individual performance and well-being, are heavily studied topics in my current profession. Research by Salmela-Aro & Nurmi (2014) has looked at the specifics of individual motivational orientation, and the subsequent effects on performance and well-being.?The studies have produced some findings that anyone with significant goals and pressure at work would do well to consider.?

In the study, after undergoing a battery of psychometric assessments and interview evaluations, individuals were clustered into groups based on their motivational orientation.?The 4 groups were: WORK, those with a high interest in work, occupation and career, FAMILY, those with a high interest in personal relationships, HEALTH, those with a high interest in health and fitness, and finally HOBBY, those with a high interest in non-work pursuits.?In all measured categories (work performance, job satisfaction, physical health, mental health) the HOBBY orientation group came out on top, and the WORK orientation group came out on the bottom.

All participants were doing similar jobs, in similar industries, working similar hours and therefore faced similar stressors in the workplace.?Considering the motivations of the top performing HOBBY group and the bottom performing WORK group, there is clear value to any high performing individual, where work is of huge importance and will likely take up significant time, mental and emotional energy, of understanding these findings.?

The negative side of a WORK orientation is that when work is the most important thing to you, you will be more heavily affected by the negative aspects of it, than someone with a different orientation.?

The positive side of the HOBBY orientation is an individual’s ability to buffer negative aspects of work related stress is enhanced, due to the change of focus (mental rest), and the positive stimulation that the hobby provides.?

Simply put, stress impacts individuals based on their perception of the stressor.?For those to whom work is the most important aspect, work stress will produce amplified internal negativity.?Conversely, resilience to stress is improved by having a different focus of attention, and through participation in an unrelated activity that requires a switch in attention, internal positivity is developed.

Internal negativity leads to negative behaviours – unhealthy food choices, excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, drugs, bad relationship management, irritability – and the consequences i.e. poor sleep quality, weight gain, ill health, hangovers and reduced performance.?Internal positivity leads to positive behaviours – lower alcohol/smoking/drug use, healthy food choices, positive interactions with others – leading to better quality of sleep, improved health, resilience and higher performance.

Sportspersons suffering a loss of form regularly state that they have ‘fallen out of love with the game’.?I suspect this is often due to a high work motivation, and a lack of outside interests.?The science would say that is a strong possibility.?The hobby, that they loved growing up and dreamed of competing at the highest level has become not only the?main?focus in their lives, but their?only?focus.?The pressure to perform is great and any setbacks, mistakes and injuries have a huge psychological impact.?With nothing to buffer this stress, the internal negativity will grow, until work (sport) provides a positive input.?This can take a while, and be dependent on aspects out of the athletes control (selection, competitors, weather, injury). The CEO’s and founders we at Confidas People work with face similar challenges. There is a huge responsibility on their shoulders to deliver results for their teams, investors and themselves. Like athletes, CEO’s achieve their role through their commitment to their craft and work ethic, with their personal physical and mental health often lower on the list of priorities. With mental health awareness week bringing an already well addressed topic to front of mind, picking up an old or new hobby is something we should all consider.

I was lucky to have my chat with Tony so early in my career.?From my first professional game for Edinburgh in 1998 to my last for the Barbarians in 2015, I tried lots of different things in my spare time, learned new skills, studied, travelled and always tried to maintain perspective that being a more rounded and balanced individual would help me perform at my best.?I also picked up a hobby towards the end of my playing career of working part-time in executive search.?

As part of our assessment process at Confidas People we pick up on early indicators of burnout or potential for future burnout. Emotional stability and resilience is one of the key aspects that can help individuals perform consistently at a high level within an aggressively scaling business. A strong work orientation, combined with very high standards for performance and the tendency to say yes to all requests, avoiding conflict, combine to leave an individual vulnerable to a build up of stress and any subsequent burnout. Strongly fluctuating emotions impact the consistency of our interactions with others, decision making and effort. Picking up an old or new hobby can help buffer the inevitable stress and pressure of striving for success. A game of five-a-side football once a week, painting, bird watching, working on a car, learning an instrument or any other activity you are actively engaged in counts as a hobby. Anything that you have to think about whilst you are doing it means you are not thinking about work.

Having transitioned out of sport and set up my own business, I have found my focus switch heavily to what would be very much considered a work orientation. My hobby of coaching rugby was given up to focus on the business due to a lack of time and changing priorities. Like a lot of things in business it isn’t wrong to do that for a while (needs must), but it shouldn’t be something you do forever. Fortunately I have a new hobby, back within sport as an Independent Non-Executive Director at the English Ice Hockey Association, something that changes my focus of attention and connects me back into the sports world.

In conclusion, if you’re a professional athlete, Founder, CEO, Investor or whatever, if you want to get ahead, get a hobby!

Always remember, there’s nothing more boring than a rugby player ……?or CEO!!