You Can Create Your Breakthrough

This year, I celebrate 25 years of coaching and collaborating with Swiss Private Banking and Financial Industry leaders.

As a former medical student and an international tennis coach specialized in mental toughness training, I never imagined I would later contribute to the top brands in the world centers of finance.

But, one day in 1999, I got a phone call from a dear friend, a Swiss private banker with whom I grew up. "I've been watching the results of your mental training with Gabriela Sabatini and Sergi Bruguera at Grand Slams. I’m intrigued and I’d like you to give a talk to my direct reports in Zurich."

My friend knew the basics: on a handshake, I had proposed sport psychologist Dr. Jim Loehr to create a European speaking tour in 1989. It was successful and it led to my executive position at IMG in Florida supporting his international marketing.

In April 1990, Gabriela Sabatini’s father called me saying she wanted to quit, although she was #3 in the world. Jim and I flew that same evening to Miami and analyzed the situation with her and the family. A precise and consistent mental training process ensued. Five months later, Gabriela won the U.S. Open Championships, beating Steffi Graf, her nemesis and #1 in the world. She blossomed, and a legend was born.

Gabriela's victory opened the floodgates of curiosity about mental toughness training and peak performance applied to the lives of executives. This led to the creation of our own sport science company with partners at a north Tampa resort, which later became The Human Performance Institute in Orlando.

Sergi Bruguera’s story also began with a conversation a year later with Lluis, his father and coach. “Sergi will be a top-10 player in the world this year, but I don’t think he’s ready to match the toughness of the others.” Jim and I flew several times to their academy near Barcelona, and within months Sergi was consistently beating top-10 players.

Through his career, Sergi won consecutive men's singles titles at the French Open in 1993 and 1994, a silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics in men's singles and reached a career-high ranking of No. 3 in August 1994. Sergi is the only player to have a winning record against both Roger Federer and Pete Sampras. Talk about mental toughness.

Culture is Strategy

During my first keynotes and workshops at Swiss Private Banks, I focused on sharing the fundamental concepts of Peak Performance. I wanted each individual to understand how to align key factors to create a blueprint and achieve breakthrough results. When a team can engage in a conversation about how they need to behave to perform at their peak together, there’s a significant growth in trust, pride and results. Each individual now understands the "We."

However, not much would have improved without the vision and perseverance of their leaders. Without championing a peak performance mindset and creative thinking skills, the culture of their organizations would have gravitated towards default behaviors and formulaic solutions. Culture is strategy.

In these 25 years, there have been two major financial crisis, several long-term wars, a Brexit and a pandemic. Within that context, the financial industry and Swiss Private Banking in particular had to frantically navigate and constantly adapt.

As a leadership performance strategist, I’ve had to enhance my knowledge, skills, attitudes and habits (just as professional athletes do) to be a valuable contributor to my clients and their organizations. I’ve coined the expression “The Glass is Full and a Half” to reflect the mindset required to succeed through chaos and confusion. I call it The Breakthrough Mindset and I wrote a book of the same title to describe its evolution and usefulness.

Your Personal Breakthrough Pathway

I still consult clients in the financial sector and contribute to several other industries. In addition to coaching tennis players, I also train professional athletes in others sports, as well as top juniors.

The common denominator among them is their need for Breakthrough, the indispensable pathway to overcome limitations and to connect ambition with results - and to refine the process for life.

Through the creation of their Breakthrough pathway, they become flexible, versatile, creative and situational thinkers. As better thinkers, they can design effective solutions and achieve extraordinary results.

As the CEO of a trillion-dollar international financial company recently told me: “After listening to you, I realize that we don’t know what we don’t know.” His intention to bring a leadership performance perspective based centers on his need to generate higher levels of trust and cohesion in his teams as they work to capture trillion after trillion to manage wisely.

Knowing how to remain fully engaged, healthy and optimistic requires a broader perspective. A Breakthrough pathway facilitates organizational peak performance.

More than Winning

In sports, a broader perspective improves results as well.

• Gabriela Sabatini wanted to quit tennis because her life had become stale, regardless of her ranking. A better perspective on her life helped her enjoy her profession.
• Sergi Bruguera needed to embrace discipline without losing his playful and creative essence, so his commitment to winning would not waiver.
• Pietro Fittipaldi found the key to overcome doubts and became the best under pressure to race in Formula 1 and IndyCar.
• His brother, Enzo Fittipaldi, won a championship and freed his talent to compete with confidence as a Formula 2 driver with Team Red Bull’s academy.
• The Al Qubaisi sisters, Amna and Hamda, are aware of their responsibility as Formula 1 Academy members and their influence as modern women, as talented Emirati sportspeople and in the world at large.

These athletes’ performance strategies are similar in one key aspect: they Imagine their Highest Goal so they can Improve and live every day as if they have already achieved it. Their training is a sequence of stepping stones.

However, they not only train for their achievements: they grow through them. They are aware that, as they become champions, they Inspire others and they Ignite change and transformation.

Beyond Achievement: Fulfillment and Significance

My friend who kindly and generously took me into the world of Swiss Private Banking once gave me the most significant compliment I’ve ever received.

After a successful offsite event, he wrote in a card “Thank you for helping me overcome the banality of banking.” He had realized that I was aiming to inspire his team to see themselves not only as the best in the world but as the best for the world as well, as powerful contributors through banking, not just as specialists who can achieve quarterly targets.

The glass is full and a half because we see opportunities as open-ended. We see ourselves as the personification of Breakthrough, not just as Breakthrough seekers.

Looking back, and considering the situation of my current clients, I’m grateful for the gifts of confidence I received. I'm also excited that many of the leaders have fulfilled their intention to create new opportunities for themselves and others. In the scale of values, they have successfully moved from achievers to philanthropists, as well as designers of solutions to address planetary concerns.

And they know that their evolution is open-ended, that the glass is full and a half.

What Needs Breakthrough?

Breakthrough is intentional; it requires a vision that’s at least 300% greater than your current circumstances. It does not happen by chance or by willing yourself to get it. It’s a process of transformation.

• What needs a Breakthrough in your life?
• What is creating anxiety about the future?
• What would improve thanks to a new or different perspective?
• How can you and your team benefit from a mindset shift that upgrades your performance?

I invite you to consider the answers to these questions and what I’ve shared with you.

Your Next Steps

Here are some concrete opportunities that might be useful to you:

• About Leadership Performance Strategies
• Keynotes and Workshops
• Leadership Performance Courses
• "The Glass is Full and a Half" Book