(Never Stop) Exploring how sports can help you in business

Both in my professional career as in my private life, my outdoor sports activities prove to be a rich source to take learnings from. Whether it’s a one day micro adventure, a multi stage sports event or an ultra endurance challenge, every time I have been out there challenging my physical and mental capacity to some degree, I come back wiser and more fulfilled.?Insights I’m sharing with my BA, MA and MBA students at CREA - OMNES Education and Geneva Business School through the #sportsbusiness, #entrepreneurship and #management & #leadership programs I have developed and shared over the years. Experiences that help me to be a better advisor for my clients in the #sports and #sportstech sector. Learnings that made me grow on a personal level.

Here’s some learnings that I took from one of my more recent outdoor endurance adventures (Monte Rosa Sky Marathon / Mountaineering trip) that can be applied one-on-one in a business context::

? Know your weaknesses and your strengths and use them to your advantage. When my mountaineering partner pointed out the summit of Schwarzhorn (or Corno Nero 4.321m) from the summit of the Ludwigsh?he (4.342m) as our next goal, my initial response was that I felt not experienced enough to summit it. From a distance, the top section looked too exposed. Instead of keeping up appearences, I did not shy back to tell my mountaineering partner about my doubts. He responded telling me about the progress he’d seen in my mountaineering capacities throughout this trip (compared to earlier trips), talking me through our approach to the summit and leaving me the opportunity to decide to abbord our summit push right before the - more exposed - top section. This helped me gaining confidence and made the decision to summit easier. By clearly vocalising my doubts, I actually gained trust by the way my partner approached the situation. ? He put his team member in a position to succeed.?

? There’s always the opportunity for redemption, new opportunities will come along. On one of our earlier (winter) trips, we had to abbord a summit approach just 200m shy of the summit. We weren’t clear enough about the route, we couldn’t see any tracks and my experience level then did not leave much room to take certain risks. Despite the disappointment of not summiting, the decision gained me valuable experience in mountaineering. Understanding your limitations in a certain situation and dealing with unexpected set backs makes you more prepared for a next opportunity. A few trips later, we summited 5*4000m peaks in one go!

? Set your long term goals (vision), and break up to route to get there in manageable chunks (mission). Our recent mission included participating in (and finishing) the Monte Rosa Skymarathon preceded by 3 days of mountaineering (and acclimatising) above 4000m. We took it one summit at a time, knowing that with every summit conquered, we got a step closer to our overall goal of finishing a tough race (and having a great time, let’s not forget that!).?

? Both body and mind need to be in good shape to be successful. Playing on exposed high altitude terrain inherently means that you physically need to be fit. Equally important is to have a hyper focus on the activity you are performing. As you could end up in situations where your health / life will be depending on your gear, there’s no room for faffing about when getting ready in the very early morning. When starting to move up over glaciers, you should always be prepared for the unexpected. When crossing exposed ridge lines, your entire focus should be on putting one foot in front of the other without tripping. Hyper focussing works best with a healthy mind. Here’s an insight I keep experiencing myself - The great outdoors do help to keep my mind sane. Its incessant beauty and sheer force helps to focus on the positive.?

? Visualise what success looks like and understand what’s needed to be successful. The Monte Rosa Skymarathon is a challenging race for many reasons, one being the ambitious time cut offs. Both my mountaineering partner as I have reasonable experience with ultra endurance activities and races. Amongst many other races, we both finished in the UTMB - which is considered as one of the toughest single stage footraces in the world. To start preparing for success, we drafted a raceplan in which we meticulously calculated our average speed and vertical meters / hr we needed to hit. If it wasn’t for our raceplan, we’d probably would not have been as confident in our execution - even when we were challenged by a significant physical discomfort of my mountaineering partner (asthma attack). As we knew exactly what we needed to do to be successful, a set back did not stress us. We kept trusting on our preparation which was eminent to our success.?

All in all, another valuable experience that proves to me that practising sports doesn't only keep one physically healthy and mentally fit, but provides valuable lessons to be applied in a business environment.

In case you’re interested, a long read summit / race report can be found here:

https://persynconsulting.com/monte-rosa-sky-marathon-monte-rosa-mountaineering-trip/