What Corporate Athletes can learn from Olympic Champions

When asked about his typical training session, Usain Bolt had this to say:

?“There isn’t really a typical session – training for?me is either on the track or in the gym. It depends?on the time of year and what we are working on.?On the track, it can be working on everything?from endurance to any technical aspect of?my race – the start, the drive phase, the transition?for both the 100m and 200m. In the gym, it’s?general conditioning, strength and power.”

If you ask Michael Phelps, he’ll go on to tell you about his training routine, dominated by drills, which adds to his natural & physical traits that already give him an advantage compared to his peers in the pool.

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In Africa, we had Kirsty Coventry. Twice crowned Olympic champion, and with seven Olympic medals, Kirsty has won more individual Olympic medals than any female swimmer in history. She is also, without doubt, Africa’s most successful Olympic athlete,?and her incredible journey has inspired - and continues to inspire - young athletes across the world to pursue their sporting ambitions, no matter the odds.?

It’s hard to compare Zimbabwe & the United States of America on many metrics. Yet when it comes to sports, from Olympics to various sports’ World Cups, a country’s GDP or economic wealth often has nothing to do with individual performance. Zimbabwe gave us the best female swimmer of all time while the US gave us the best male swimmer of all time.

Most successful athletes attribute their success to their coaches. That’s the single most important factor above natural ability & talent that contributes to success. The beautiful thing about coaches & coaching is that there is no set formula. Yes, there are common basics & technical fundamentals in every sport, but coaches often give that extra edge to athletes that end up being the best in their game. Whether you’re from Zimbabwe or USA, you can be the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) in your field.

What do these comparisons have to do with Corporates or people in business? Here are a few parallels, which I call the 8 Critical Elements to success in any discipline, from sports fields to boardrooms. While gold is the ultimate element in sports from the periodic table, these are critical to get you that medal:

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1. Natural abilities: Not everyone that scored straight A’s in school achieved that from natural abilities alone, hard work also played a role. But we have to talk about what we all uniquely have. Some call it talent, others call it skill. We all have it, but we need to identify what’s unique to us and exploit that. Using an extreme example, imagine a cheetah & a sailfish, both fastest animals in their respective terrains hitting impressive speeds of 120 kph (kilometers per hour) and 109 kph respectively, competing in land or in water. If they’re both on land, the cheetah will thrive, but the sailfish won’t even breathe; while in water, the cheetah may hardly move while the sailfish hits that its impressive speed. What about Usain Bolt & Michael Phelps, the best land & water athletes respectively, but competing in their respective terrains? I wasn’t the best English pupil at school, but I held my own with Maths & Science. I’m now a Finance professional & feel like I’m where I can use my skills to thrive professionally. What skills & natural abilities do you have that you can exploit & thrive in? Find it & aim to be the best in the world at it. Don’t be good, be great.

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2. Coaching: “Experience is the best teacher”. We often hear this, and it’s usually passed down through mentorship, coaching or sponsorship in some cases. All these terms are also common in corporates. Growing up, my Catholic priest, now Bishop Teddy Khumalo, used to say “We are the sums of our yesterday’s, & products of our choices.” Great coaches know how to identify one’s unique abilities and help them thrive in that trait or talent. Not “copy & paste” themselves or their traits onto their athletes. If that was possible, Diego Maradona would have won the FIFA 2010 World Cup as a coach by superimposing himself on Lionel Messi. Coaches should stop trying to clone themselves, and instead unearth their athletes’ natural abilities. The same logic applies to CEO’s, CFO’s and other leaders in business. Let your successors and apprentices chart their own paths to glory, with your guidance.

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3. Routine: Lil’ Wayne, popular US rapper has a line in many of his songs that goes: “Repetition is the father of learning”. Other than listening to his prolific rhymes when preparing for big games or during training, most athletes relate to this line. It was a stroke of genius for Apple’s ‘Beats’ to align its brand with top athletes & embed music as fuel to train. I digress. Usain Bolt had this to say about his training frequency: “I train for eleven months of the year, six days a?week. Normally in the morning and then again in?the afternoon. It’s a lot of work.” No doubt, it’s diligence & repetition. To pass my board exams on my path to ultimately becoming a Chartered Accountant, I had to get into a routine. The most successful bankers, engineers, doctors, drivers and many other professionals will also tell you about the importance of routine, especially when refining a craft or working to be a specialist. It’s almost like an obsession. Find one that works for you, embed it, focus on a goal & smash it! Break records if you have to.

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4. Consistency: How is this different to routine? It’s quite subtle, but it’s important to make the distinction. Routine is what you do, and having a schedule based on either a time table or other habit developing activities. Consistency in this case is performance throughout a session. Ask any endurance athlete, from marathon running to triathlon, they’ll tell you about consistency. Pace, Reps, drills during training & not selling yourself short. My former National Taekwondo coach called it “discipline with every technique.” When you show up during a business meeting or call, it’s important to be consistent in the delivery of your proposition, problem articulation, solution proposal, analysis of your financial model & it’s sensitivities. Either within your deal team or when presenting to various committees. Your story has to be consistent, or else those that know how to will pick holes through it. Michale Jordan summed it up nicely for me: “You can practice shooting 8 hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way. Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.”

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5. Diet: You are what you eat. On one extreme, you have people that “supersize” themselves to prove a point about certain foods, and on the other hand you have people with quirky diets like only drinking liquids or strictly fruit diets like Steve Jobs did once upon a time. We’ve also seen the rise of Plant Based diets, and if you’ve seen the documentary called “Game Changers” on Netflix, you’ll recognise why this matters in sports. Ask Connor McGregor, he’ll tell you about how his beef diet stacked up against Nate Diaz’s plant-based diet in the Octagon during UFC 196 back in 2016. Food is our fuel and replenishes what goes out in waste. We are organic beings, made up of elements & molecules. There’s chemical & electrical reactions in our bodies every millisecond. There’s food that’s good for your muscle, your brains, lymphatic system, digestion and many other bodily functions that are essential to our daily productivity. Balance is important here.

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6. Rest & recovery: Endurance Sports are about testing the limits. You work your body to a breaking point, then step away from the brink, let the work absorb, and repeat. One needs to know when to step away & rest so that the recovery process can kick in. I often reflect my childhood when I’d watch “Dragonball Z” episodes when the Saiyans have reached their “breaking point” after a near-death fighting experience, & then go into a Medical Machine or the Recuperation Tank/Chamber. They came out so much stronger & tougher than before - reaching “Super Saiyan” level strength. In his book, ‘Athletes Guide To Recovery: Rest, Relax & Restore’, Sage Rountree wrote: “A decline in performance should lead to a search for its cause and to a focus on the quality of your recovery. Remember, often doing less is more powerful than training more.” Many people forget rest is part of your job as a top athletes. That’s when the body recovered and regenerates. It also allows you to reflect on your performance, techniques and how you can be better. You find people being obsessed with back to back meetings at work, and chasing economic reward sometimes to their physical and mental harm, let alone the impact this has on family, friends & other social relationships. You’re still procrastinating taking that leave? Book it now! You’ll come back with new perspectives & a fresh view on how you can take your business or career to the next level.

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7. Mental preparation: Usain Bolt said this about his state of mind: “Training gives you confidence and this helps your?state of mind. I know if I’m in good shape, it’s going?to be very hard to beat me. This confidence is?very important in performing well.” There’s no substitute for diligence. According to the Australian Sports Commission, there are 7 elements of psychological domain in sports performance: i) Engagement & enjoyment: Positive emotions and experiences derived from movement and physical activity; ii) Motivation: Reasons for engaging in movement and physical activity in response to internal or external factors; iii) Self-perception: Understands self in relation to movement and physical activity and recognises personal strengths and areas for development; iv) Confidence: A belief in self worth and ability to perform in movement and physical activity; v) Connection to place: Appreciation and connection to the environment, both built and natural in relation to movement and physical activity; vi) Self-regulation (emotions): Ability to manage emotions and resulting behaviours in relation to movement and physical activity; vii) Self-regulation (physical): Recognising and managing physical signals such as pain, fatigue and exertion. As Michael Phelps put it: “Swimming is normal for me. I'm relaxed. I'm comfortable, and I know my surroundings. It's my home.” What’s that for you in business or your career?

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8. Enjoyment: When I was in pre-school or primary school, I remember my favourite times were ‘playtimes’. And during school breaks, we’d play touch rugby, football, or some kind of physical activity that we enjoyed. It was fun. We enjoyed it because there was no pressure, we just wanted to have fun & bond as friends. If you take that experience, and you put it on super steroids, you have high performing athletes, with millions of followers, earning so much money you’d think they’ve won the lottery. Add pressures of sponsorships & endorsements that expect you to behave a certain way in public, it adds unthinkable pressure. Some athletes forget the reason they played sport in the first place. When I watch the Olympics, I’m always amazed at the different facial expressions and body language of various athletes. Usain Bolt used to pull funny faces & taunt his fellow athletes, all in jest. He had fun. You can say the same about Muhammed Ali, Diego Maradona, Michael Jordan and a dozen other athletes across various disciplines. When you’re thinking about your career & what talents you have, it’s important to also consider enjoyment as a key factor. It’s often what also gets you up in the morning. Michael Jordan simplified it nicely: “Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.” The corporate game isn’t too different.

A special shout out to my most recent trainer and coach, Vivian Whatley, for reminding me of some of these principles, and helping me to refine the ones I already knew while introducing new and different methods and approaches to training. Her coaching on a complete and holistic approach to wellness certainly helped me appreciate what some of the best athletes in their fields go through. A science based approach is essential, from understanding your food intolerances & putting together a diet specific to your DNA, to how recovery works and the ideal training techniques. The “Science & Art” of sport come together on the field of performance, where athletes compete and give their bast, not only from their own hard work, but also that of the coaches and support structures that helped them get to where they are.

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To those reading this: Go out & conquer your various spaces, from sports fields and classrooms to offices and board rooms. What works for some, may not work for you. You may not be able to be the next Warren Buffett, but you have other skills and abilities to offer. Simone Biles was quick to remind sports journalists that she’s not the next Michael Phelps, she’s the first Simone Biles. And she’s great at what she does, despite some of her setbacks in the recent Tokyo Olympics. Focusing on yourself & incorporating the best traits & learning from those who came before you, your peers and even those you lead is essential. There’s no universal formula to success. And when you need a little “pick me up”, remember this response from Usain Bolt when asked about what motivates him: “You have to find that one thing that you know is?going to motivate you. You might not enjoy training,?for example, but you have to love competing?and winning. If you want these things, you have?to be determined and train hard.”

Wishing all my corporate athletes gold in their pursuit. If you get silver, that’s also okay, even bronze. Some of the best athletes also didn’t make it on podiums. What matters is that they showed up & gave it their best shot. Take yours.?#GoGetIt #BeGreat #