There is perhaps no profession more obvious than sports – where an individual’s beliefs, focus and interactions can so clearly influence successful, and sometimes not so successful, outcomes.
Kay Woodburn is an award-winning coach and facilitator to professional athletes and business professionals. She was the perfect person for us to approach in the midst of this summer of sport to answer the question ‘what can leaders learn from athletes?’ Here is her answer…
So, what can leaders learn from athletes?
There's a lot we could learn from athletes, but I’m going to choose reflection. An athlete includes time for reflection in their performance cycle. From the outside it may look like they spend 20-25% of their time doing nothing other than planning, having massages, body scanning, meditating or spending time with their mindset coach. But this is a crucial part of managing their nervous system.
What’s in your performance cycle?
If I ask business leaders to compare their performance cycle with that of an athlete, most people just laugh because how many of us prioritise reflection? Do you spend even 2% of your time reflecting? This is a big learning.
Your brain needs space to download everything, to organise and to make sense of it. Our brains are in a high state of action all the time – and they need time to slow down and process. I’m sure you’ve had an experience where you’re nodding off at night, or just getting comfy, and you suddenly think ‘ooh I didn’t send that email’. This is the stuff that's been vying for your attention but couldn't get in during the day.
Reflection is a great skill to learn from athletes. It doesn’t come naturally for everybody but work out what helps you switch off – this could be going for a walk, swimming, knitting – and become comfortable with the act of reflecting.
How do you add reflection to your working day?
Many of us don't make time to reflect during a working day because it doesn't ‘look like work’. Here’s a reframe: If your CEO put a meeting in your diary, what would have to happen for you to not go to that meeting? The answer is often a family emergency, or something important. So, put a meeting in your diary as if it was from your CEO – because you're the CEO of you and you are this power source for other people. It is important to intentionally add reflection to your working day. It’s not ‘me time’ – you are being employed within the organisation as a leader and need to use your headspace to plan, strategize and prepare for the future. We need to break the mindset where people think there's not enough time in the day and that reflection is not important.
Research shows that the best time for reflection is just before you finish your working day. Spend the last 10-15 minutes writing a list of all the things you've got to do tomorrow, including how long you think each task will take. This closes the day because you’re reflecting on what you want to do tomorrow. If you've got an 8-hour day and your list has 10 hours worth of tasks, you've got to think intentionally about what you can achieve. This is an easy and practical way to start making reflection core to your daily activity and to strengthen your leadership practice.
More from Kay...
Kay Woodburn has helped thousands of people transform their lives, professionally, personally, and athletically. Hit the button below to catch up on her podcast ‘is VUCA still relevant’.