What a great summer for sport this has been.
If, like me, you love sport then I am sure you have enjoyed a great summer. And the Olympic Games are the world’s premier sporting celebration. They started on 23rd July and finished on 8th August 2021. The Games featured 339 events in 33 different sports, with 11,000 competitors.
The Olympic Committee were keen to give the games a more "youthful" and "urban" appeal, and to increase the number of female participants. Baseball (men) and softball (women) were re-introduced - and wow! the Women’s Skateboarding (average age of the three medalists -- 14 years) was truly tops and a great watch.
As you will know, the Olympic flag has five rings to represent the five continents of Africa, Asia, America, Europe, and Oceania - and because of this, I am going to give you five top tips for business owners gleaned from five Olympians.
Olympic Top Tip #1
First up is Michael Johnson, the American sprinter who won four Olympic gold medals and eight World Championships gold medals in the span of his career. He formerly held the world and Olympic records in the 200m and 400m, as well as the world record in the indoor 400m. He also once held the world's best time in the 300 metres. He is generally considered one of the greatest and most consistent sprinters in the history of track and field.
Johnson is the only male athlete in history to win both the 200 metres and 400 metres events at the same Olympics, a feat he accomplished at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He is also the only man to successfully defend his Olympic title in the 400m, having done so at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
So, what can business owners learn from Michael Johnson ?
The answer is that he did his own thing. His stiff upright running position and very short steps defied the conventional wisdom that a high knee lift was necessary for maximum speed. He did not change.
Similarly, many of his competitors were big into the “weights” - not Michael, they were not for him.
There is no set way to run a business - if you are trying to copy others, it may not be the best ploy. I have seen many ways - autocratic, conventional (much planning, Board Directors etc.), micromanagers, bullies, Partner / Directors who only meet informally in bars.
But sometimes it is best to talk this through with a mentor.
Olympic Top Tip #2
Tom Daley, we salute you - a gold medal at the fourth attempt:
2008 - Beijing aged 14 years - 7th
2012 - London - Bronze
2016 - Rio De Janeiro - Bronze
2021 - Tokyo - Gold!
In sport and business, having that stickability and perseverance factor is a prerequisite. This was beautifully expressed in Edgar A Guest’s poem, Don’t Quit.
Edgar was a British-born (Birmingham) American poet, who became known as the People's Poet.
Don’t Quit
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road ahead seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit, Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns - as every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about, when we might have won had we stuck it out.
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow.
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than what seems to a faltering man (or woman).
Often the struggler has given up, when he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down, how close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out, the silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are, It may be near when it seems so far,
So, stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit - when things seem their worst, you must not quit!
Olympic Top Tip #3
Sir Chris Hoy is 11 times a World Champion track cyclist and six times an Olympic Champion with a total of 7 Olympic medals (6 gold and 1 silver).
From 1908 to 2003, professional cyclists in Great Britain had endured nearly 100 years of mediocrity, winning only one gold at the Olympics. Chris will be the first to acknowledge that much of his success goes to David (now Sir) Brailsford, who in 2003 had been hired as Performance Director, who had a relentless commitment to “the aggregation of marginal gains”, which was the philosophy of searching for 1% improvements; put all those small gains together and you get a significant increase.
Just five years after Brailsford took over, the British Cycle team dominated the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where they won 60% of the gold medals available and four years later, when the Olympics were held in London, the Brits raised the bar again, as they set nine Olympic and seven world records.
So, a challenge for you - select 7 marginal gains which you could make your business more profitable and then put them in order of importance - and the start working on No 1 .
Olympic Top Tip #4
Why has British Swimming been so successful at the Tokyo Olympics?
Spearheaded by the gold medal-winning Adam Peaty, Team GB has already secured its biggest Olympic medal haul in the pool since 1984. Paradoxically it was one of the sports to have its funding slashed after a disappointing London 2012.
So, why has British Swimming been successful?
The main reason why any scalable company is successful comes from the top - the person who chairs the Team GB Swimming Board, Sue Smith.
Sue knows her swimming (in her early years she was a lifeguard, swimming teacher and a leisure centre manager). She also has extensive business experience across many industry sectors including varied Executive and Non-Exec experience (she is currently Chief Executive of Cherwell District & South Northamptonshire Councils ). She is the Vice President of the Confederation of Chinese Business, a Chartered Director and Fellow of the Institute of Directors and was recognised with an MBE for services to local government in the 2018.
Olympic Top Tip #5
Laura Muir (28 yrs old), the Scottish middle-distance runner specialises in the 800m, 1,500m, 3,000m and 5,000m. She is the 2018 European champion in the 1,500 metres, a two-time 2017 & 2019 European Indoor champion, winning the 1,500m/3,000m double.
In Japan, she won silver in 1,500 meters.
There are 5 stages for a sportsperson or a businessperson and they are:
1 The Beginner
2 The Novice
3 The Practitioner
4 The Expert
5 The Master
In business, being a Practitioner may be enough - it probably means you have enough money to put a roof over you head and food in the fridge.
But if you want to take yourself to a higher level then you have to be passionate about your industry, continually reinvent yourself, be prepared to change established practices, have the right attitude to cope with the many bumps in the road and should also consider taking on a Mentor.
Outside the Institute of Sport in Australia, there is a sculpture of a pole vaulter but there is no bar. Why?
Because that would restrict what you could achieve!
Question for you - do you need to appoint a seasoned Chairman with the appropriate experience and skills set, to take your company to a new level ? Then, let’s talk.
Photo credit: Bryan Turner on Unsplash