“Your energy, enjoyment, drive and determination will stimulate and greatly inspire others.” John Wooden. With 30 seconds to go in a league game against our bitter rivals we were down by 6 points and our team captain was standing with his hands on his knees, utterly spent. He had nothing left to give. Only two minutes previously we were down 20 points and our opponents looked like they were getting a comfortable win. Our captain’s effort, his tenacity and his will inspired the rest of the team to suddenly wake up and go for it. With a nothing to lose attitude the team left everything on the floor. We did not win the game, but because of our captain’s infectious enthusiasm we scared our opponents and made them work for the victory. We may not have won the game, but I was very proud of our players. Their attitude was faultless and although the scoreline reflected a loss, we left the court as winners in our own eyes. We showed character, grit and determination. We mirrored the enthusiasm of our captain. In all walks of life it is important to tackle everything with a level of enthusiasm that will inspire others to act. Enthusiasm is the antidote for apathy. It quashes negativity. It outlasts laziness. The Cambridge dictionary describes enthusiasm as, “an energetic interest in a particular subject or activity and an eagerness to be involved in it.” The key words for me in this definition is that enthusiasm involves energy and an eagerness. When you are enthusiastic towards something it shows a genuine interest, you are giving respect to whatever it is that you are being enthusiastic about. You are positively affirming not only the activity, but your involvement in the activity. This positivity is infectious and you can and will draw others into your enthusiasm. We have all had those down in the dumps bosses, who literally suck the life out of everything. They make work a chore, everything has a negative slant to it, nothing is interesting and all work is boring and unsatisfying. As much as this is true I am sure that we have all had those bosses who make everything achievable, you gladly go the extra mile and you do it with a smile. The difference in these two types of leader is the display of enthusiasm. It truly is transformative. John Wooden taught his teams to be enthusiastic, by being passionate towards how he coached the game. However he also engendered his self propelling energy to his teams by influencing their behaviours so that his teams became self perpetuating enthusiasm machines. Small things like running into timeouts (a stop in play in basketball to discuss strategy), or never being late, or learning to complete each drill correctly, how to behave in practice and in games and how to communicate effectively with team-mates. Like it benefitted his teams on the basketball court enthusiasm can benefit you at work, home or at play in a range of different ways. However you have to be careful, mindful and attentive in order to create and nurture an enthusiastic environment. Enthusiasm Needs Energy but it Creates Energy You know you have all been there….sitting looking at your computer, about to start a piece of work, however you find loads of other things to do instead of starting the work you need to do. Procrastinating in this way is very normal and is difficult to avoid unless you have some motivation to get started, like a deadline. However once you overcome the procrastination and get stuck into the work you often find yourself engrossed, enjoying what you are doing and ploughing your way through it. When faced with something you think you will find boring or uninteresting your enthusiasm wanes. To be productive in work you need to give your enthusiasm some fuel to get you going, however once you get going and you get into the activity your enthusiasm can become self perpetuating. Daringtolivefully.com suggests you, ‘Make sure that you have the physical energy to be able to generate lots of enthusiasm by getting enough sleep, eating healthy food, and getting regular exercise.’ Other ways to fuel enthusiasm is to find something in the work you are doing that you are curious to find out about or test, you can motivate yourself by setting goals, have prizes for reaching goals like a cup of tea or a walk outside, or the promise of some more interesting work later in the day once the boring stuff is completed. Also think about the motivation to exercise. I know I struggle to find the energy to exercise, however I always feel so much better after I do exercise, and strangely seem to have more energy!!!! Once you get into a run of three or four days exercise it seems easier to motivate yourself to do more exercise, again the enthusiasm for the task starts to self perpetuate. Once I am doing my workout I enjoy it, it is getting going that we all find difficult. Again you have all probably experienced the same as me, that once you get some momentum it is a lot easier to keep going. For me as a dad of three girls I have often struggled to get enthusiastic about playing with dolls, or tea parties or princess games. However I realise that it is so important for my daughter's development that I do it. By playing make believe games like this it is helping them develop their imagination and problem solving abilities. It helps teach them how to socialise properly and allows them to learn to be more empathetic towards others. As in the examples above once I get into the games it is hard not to get caught up in the enthusiasm displayed by my girls and before I know it I am have a great time drinking imaginary tea and talking about how the princesses unicorn got stolen by the naughty troll. I really feed off the energy of my girls and once I lose my inhibitions and engage with them fully I can see them buzzing off me being involved. It is amazing. Enthusiasm Creates Momentum So as has been described above enthusiasm creates momentum. It helps build a head of steam, it creates a dynamic atmosphere that allows other people to come along for the ride. I have seen this a lot in team settings at work and in sports. More often than not the team outwardly displaying an enthusiasm for the sport in which they are taking part tend to be the victors. Enthusiasm can enhance performance and can help players build positive momentum. I have been in meeting rooms buzzing with excitement as colleagues are bouncing ideas back and forth, problem solving and moving the project forward. The enthusiasm to complete the task/project is palpable. There is a positive energy that is infectious and can spread throughout a team like wild fire. There are a number of factors that influence this growth and development of an enthusiastic atmosphere. There must be a no blame culture, team members have to feel included and involved. it must be a ridicule free zone and communications need to open, honest and non-confrontational. There are no silly answers, there is no judgement. Any and all inputs into meeting or the activity are valid and worthy of discussion. Enthusiasm Needs to be Nurtured The important thing to note is that even though enthusiasm can catch fire and allow you and teammates to work at a high rate in a state of positivity and togetherness, this can all be undone very easily and very quickly. Negativity can kill enthusiasm in an instant and can make it very hard to recover. In team sports one dissenting voice can destroy the positivity and enthusiasm of a team. The same can be said in an office environment. In a marriage or partnership negative quips, snide remarks or sarcastic humour can very quickly lead to a breakdown in the relationship. Enthusiasm therefore needs to be nurtured. This is done by developing positive cultural norms that are widely accepted and practiced. These cultural norms can include body language, reactions to situations, verbal communications, generally how you treat one another. To instill and maintain a positive culture the whole organisation needs to buy into it and all levels of the organisation need to live within this culture, no person is exempt. Even the big boss(es). Everyone is accountable, everyone has a role to play, everyone has a responsibility to ensure the culture continues to develop and grow. Everyone is personally responsible for putting in the required practices that will allow for a positive and enthusiastic culture, be it at home, at play or in the office. So please go out there into your lives and inspire others by your actions, show off your determination, energy and drive. Create a microclimate of positivity around you that will influence those around you to do the same. Peace and happiness people.
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Introduction:
Last week I posted John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success and a short video in which he describes the difference between winning and success. John Wooden firmly believed that success comes from knowing that you did your utmost and put in the work to make sure you performed the best you possibly could. I am paraphrasing the great man here, and therefore am not doing as good a job, however hopefully you still get his meaning of success. Winning to Wooden was different. Wooden believed that sometimes his teams may have won the basketball game, however in his eyes they lost. When his teams did not put in the effort, or display the right behaviours on a way to a win he would view this as a loss. The converse was also true to him. At times his teams may have lost the game, however the effort, sportsmanship and manner in which his team lost filled him with pride and allowed him to see this as a victory. Can we look at our wins and losses in life with such integrity and dignity? I would love to say yes, but sadly I know that I fall short. Listening to a recent John Wooden interview, reading about the man and returning to his pyramid of success after a number of years has re-ignited a genuine interest in the man and exploring his thoughts, passions and beliefs. Therefore I am going to use the next few blog posts to go into a bit more detail on the different blocks of the pyramid of success. I truly am standing on the shoulder of a giant here and I want to be very clear that I am not trying to mimic John Wooden in any way, rather I am looking to explore the different blocks within the pyramid and reflect on how these can impact our personal leadership in the different aspects of our lives. I hope that this is an interesting exploration into the fundamental attributes that made John Wooden and everyone he influenced very successful. Let us begin!!!!! The first block and one of the cornerstones to the Pyramid of Success is Industriousness, or to put it simply hard work. John Wooden said, ‘Success travels in the company of very hard work. There is no trick, no easy way.’ When reflecting on this block there are four clear benefits to putting in the hard work. Hard Work Trumps Talent….in the Long Run The work of Carol Dewek on the talent myth has greatly changed how the education system in Scotland is aiming to develop children as they learn and grow into adulthood. The belief that the is no such thing as talent, rather a propensity of some individuals to be better at a certain thing than others, has made the education system look at how it is treating those previously perceived as being talented, or adversely not talented. The myth of talent was arrived to by Dewek when she was exploring why early high achievers often regressed and often became average as they grew towards adulthood. This phenomenon was noticed in topics like maths and science as well as in the sports arena. Tony Stanger has been working for the last decade on this very thing within sports. We all know the kid at 10 who was the captain of the football, rugby and athletics team and seemed to be able to master any sport he/she tried. However this same kid has time and again been caught up with and even overtaken by their peers. Why is this? What Dewek and Stanger conclude is that effort is the deciding factor. The common factor that almost any successful person will tell you is hard work. Whether you are the most successful architect, lawyer, businessman (or woman), mother, father, athlete, the common factor that has put you on top of the pedestal is hard work. Generally if you put in the graft you will find success. That is not to say that you will always win, always get to the top. However, the hard work will allow you to open the conversations with others that will help you navigate to the top of whatever profession you are climbing. Your mindset determines your effort and if you look at difficulties as challenges to overcome, rather than road blocks, you will allow yourself to become more successful. Hard work is the foundation for success. In sports you can not expect to go into competition without preparing properly. If you do not practice in the correct fashion and put in the sweat time you will not prepare yourself for the rigours of competition. If you don’t work on your relationships they will fatigue and grow weary very quickly. If you don’t prepare, gain the correct knowledge and understand how to carry out your job you won’t last long in that role. Put in the hard work, especially after a big win, because hard work will always trump talent in the long run. You Will Revert to Type Under Pressure I have seen it all to often in the office and on the basketball court. When stress comes people will revert to type. What I mean by this is that we all have a default safety blanket. When moments of stress happen we return to these safety blankets and the usual result is failure. Now that failure can manifest itself in many different ways. The best way I can describe this to you is through a sporting analogy. When teaching someone to shoot the basketball a massive amount of patience is needed, especially when you are trying to weed out any fundamentally poor aspects of someone’s jump shot. A jump shot is a whole body action that includes every part of the body, from the feet to the fingertips. Due to this it is a very complex skill to teach and master. When teaching someone to shoot you tend to do it in safe environment where you are only looking at that specific skill in itself. You can spend hours working with someone looking specifically at one aspect of the jump shot. This could be something as simple as keeping the elbow below the ball, or flicking your wrist as you release the ball. As soon as you take this person out of the safe, controlled environment and put them into the fast paced, physical environment where the player now has to think about where he is on the floor, how he has been passed the ball, was it passed just right? Was it passed to high or low? Did the player have to stretch to control the pass? Was it passed to hard or soft? Where is the defender? Is the player in a position they are comfortable shooting from? Do the need to dribble? Is the person defending them smaller or taller than them? What is the score? How do their legs feel? Are they tired? This is an instantly more stressful environment. I have seen many players over the years work so hard to get their shots right, only to revert back to their former shooting technique once they get into a game. Time and again I have seen someone work hard to make inprovements to their jump shot technique, only to revert to their poor technique once in the heat of competition. So what is happening here? In this instance the athlete appears to have put in the hard work, and is still destined to fail. Does that not contradict the first point that hard work trumps talent? The problem here is not the effort that is being put forth, it is the environment in which the work is taking place. In order for someone’s jumpshot to improve you have to get the mechanics right, however, you need to put those mechanics under stress in the practice environment in order to prepare them properly for competition. Step one, get the mechanics right, step two test the mechanics under increasingly difficult situations, step three go into competition. When you think about preparing for exams in school, you learn the subject, you test your knowledge in class tests or mock exams, then you do the real exam. You learn the theory, you get to test your knowledge of the theory and continue to learn, then you test your knowledge properly in the exam. If you don’t put in the work you won’t get the results. In order to perform under stress you need to get used to stress. In this instance I am referring to stress as anything that will test your skill, knowledge or temperament. So go out there and challenge yourself, experiment and get outside your comfort zone. Get used to stress so that the hard work you do will work for you in the moments that it matters. Hard Work takes Hard Work Hard work can be infectious. However it takes time to cultivate and grow and can be snubbed out easily. To grow effort you need to be attentive and feed it with a vision, recognition of genuine effort and through careful handling of goal setting. When these are all taken care of and people feel valued, nurtured and needed they will be able to naturally grow their capacity for hard work. This is true in any walk of life. In work you will get much more from your team if everyone knows what they are working towards, if they get recognition for great work and are given autonomy to reach goals and targets set. In a relationship sharing aspirations and ambitions, appreciating what each other brings to the relationship and working together on shared goals are vitally important to continued growth and happiness. All too often I see couples who have not spent the time to align their priorities and understand the strengths that each other brings to the relationship. The typical result of this is a breakdown of the relationship, which is always sad to see. Also people do not understand that a relationship needs hard work. People change and evolve over time. I often think that my wife met me at just the right time. If we had met 5 years earlier she may not have hung around, as I was not yet mature enough to be with my wife. I did not understand the effort and work that is needed to keep a relationship fun, vibrant, growing and moving forward. When people feel valued and loved they will put in the effort and hard work to make it work. When they feel undervalued and unloved they will spend their energy tearing it all down. Work on the Small Details The foundation of any success is focusing on the details, learning how to do the fundamentals and putting them into practice. For example I could not go tomorrow and start working as an Architectural Engineer like my wife’s brother. If I could his five years at university would have been a waste of time, money and effort. Fraser (my wife’s brother) has gone to university and studied the details, he has worked on the fundamentals like maths, thermodynamics and tolerances of different substances. He has built up the applied knowledge to go and do that job. In the same instance I could not go tomorrow and become an Olympic Track Cyclist. I have not prepared my body to withstand the demands of that sport and I do not know the nuances needed to help me get a competitive edge when on the track. To be truly great at something you need to spend time learning the details. Andy Murray is now the world’s number one tennis player and people all over Great Britain are very proud of him for climbing to the top. However, very few people understand the hard work and effort that he has put into becoming the best in the world. It is fascinating to see the attention to detail that Andy has put in to give him the edge against anyone he is playing against. He has put a lot of work on his mindset, on his physical strength and his endurance. Through focusing on the small details he has built himself up to become the best tennis player in the world. He has looked at his weaknesses and turned them into strengths. As a younger player he would constantly psyche himself out of games, reverting to shouting at himself and melting down when the game was not going his way. Now he deals with adversity and works through it often turning the game back to his advantage through sheer perseverance. Facing off against Dockivic and Nadal (and others) the superior fitness of these athletes would allow them to outlast Andy over the course of a game. Not any more, Andy worked on the physical aspect of his game to make him strong and flexible, able to endure long rallies and hard fought five set matches. Through focusing on the details Andy has slowly, but surely, risen to the top. So moving forward please make sure that you understand that a fundamental instrument to carve out success is hard work. Understand that hard work, not talent, will allow you to be successful over the long haul. Seek out and look for ways to test your skills and knowledge to allow you to perform under stress. Be attentive to cultivating a culture of hard work. Finally pay attention to the details. Peace and Happiness. This past week I just listened to a two hour interview with John Wooden. As one of the most successful college basketball coaches of all time John is a legend within the game of basketball. However the impact of his legacy will be felt much wider than just the sport of basketball. John's pyramid of success is a brilliant testament to the man's intelligence, thoughtfullness and understanding of what it takes to be truly successful in any aspect of life. I have posted a picture of this below. After listening to this two interview I wanted to share his brilliance with more people. Below is a Ted talk that John delivered, which discusses the difference between winning and succeeding. Enjoy and be enlightened. |
AuthorMy name is Andy Smyth, I have spent the last decade working in the field of Sports Development, where I have had the pleasure of working to grow leaders within local community sports clubs in Scotland. Archives
August 2017
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