The Winning Mind - Lessons from Lord Seb Coe

Following Manny Martinez' advice to shed some autumn leaves to make way for new growth and learning, I have been having a big clear-out across many aspects of my life.  

One such area has been to work through all the business articles, books and papers I have had for many years.

This weekend I came across an article written by Lord Seb Coe in April 2009 when he shared some of his lessons on how to succeed. Lord Coe was an Olympic champion, politician and businessman.

I thought I would share the lessons over a series of blogs:

1) The vision thing: I can not overstate the importance of having a vision. It is what you cling to when a project is proving particularly difficult. A vision is intended to inspire people. It is bold, it is optimistic, it is often pioneering and usually intensely personal. It is the highest point of achievement you can imagine for yourself and your team. (AF: It is #futureyou).

2) You can't inspire people unless you understand them first: Unless you inspire others to buy into your vision you won't succeed. Success is possible only if each individual understands the unique part they play in achieving the eventual outcome. You can't inspire people by barking orders from the touchline. You must first understand them. I ask myself and members of my team: 'Why do you want to do this?'

3) How and why questions in the right order: (Project) Managers will spend a lot of time drilling in to two basic questions: 'How are we going to do it? and 'Why are we going to do it?' The questions are usually asked in the wrong order. It is impossible to decide how to do something effectively unless you get to the heart of why you are doing it.

4) Listen not only to what is being said but also what is not being said. I tend to walk around and talk to people (AF: this was written in 2009 and we need to work through this in a remote/hybrid environment). and find it a useful way of getting to know people and finding out what is really going on. Keeping the lines of communication open is crucial. A good leader doesn't only listen to what is being said - they are intuitively tuned into the subtext as well. It is one of the most important aspects of leading a team. Ensuring any project will succeed requires effective communication up and down, formal and informal, always open and always honest.

5) Hold fewer meetings (AF: YES!): in many companies there is a tendency to become dependent on an excessive number of meetings. If you give your team permission to go away and do their jobs without constant sign-off they will start to develop the confidence to begin making decisions and thinking for themselves. In a highly skilled environment very few people lack the ability to do the job but a heavily dependent meeting culture will undermine confidence. Where every decision has to be approved by someone higher up the chain the whole organisation can become paralysed. 

Here is one quote from the article to end this week's blog:

'Losing did not make me want to quit - it just increased my hunger to win.'

My recommendation is you take some Mozart time to think about these lessons - easy to read and agree with, harder to take action. I recommend you reflect on them to ensure you learn, act and then add your own 10% winning edge where needed.

More from Seb next week. #whatwinnersdo #sempreavanti #alwayslearning #shedtheleaves 🦅🍂🦅🍁🦅