Olympic Proportions

I teach people to be better communicators in a number of contexts. Some of my greatest moments of clarity about how we perform as communicators comes by way of sports. I love sports. I REALLY love when the Olympics come around. This Olympics is no exception. I DVR all of it and then sit and watch with a bowl of ice cream (blackberry cobbler from Blue Bell--yummy!). One of my favorite events is women's gymnastics.

The women's gymnastics team competition at the Olympics provided a great opportunity to look up close at how people perform under pressure. The Chinese women rose to the occasion. (especially for a bunch of 13 year olds! Ha.) The women representing the United States came up short. As I watched these young, incredible talented women I was struck by a few things.

1. The Team effort it takes to win Gold

2. How people respond and react to set backs

"When I say say 'let's go' you say 'team'"

Last night's performance was a team effort. We win together, we lose together. In the case of the women representing the United States, Alicia Sacramone probably cost the team the gold medal. That is a heavy burden to carry. If her parent's happen to read this--I mean no offense. My point is simply this--one person can drop the ball and everyone suffers the consequences. On this day it was Alicia. The same can be said for many of the presentations we see in corporate America today. A team helps design the presentation and very often a team also does the actual presentation. Imagine for a moment there is an imaginary torch that is passed among each team member. If one person fails to pass the torch effectively, it gets dropped (your power point has crazy, unexpected animation; the second guy in the presentation was supposed to speak for 5 minutes and he takes 20 instead; one of the team members does not bother to show up for practice time because she is SO BUSY and she is a great speaker any

way so who needs to practice right?) If you want to win together as a team you have to work together as a team--and enjoy the results.

"You could see it on their faces"

For anyone to make it to the Olympics means they have dedicated their time to the pursuit of their sport. In gymnastics that means from a very early age, these young women have spent COUNTLESS hours in the gym working to perfect their craft. No matter how many hours one practices though, their ability to handle the pressure of the actual event itself is not always a certainty. The night of the team finals, the tension that Alicia Sacramone was feeling was evident in her face and body language both before the balance beam routine, during the balance beam routine, after the balance beam routine and yes, during her floor exercise. You could FEEL her anxiety and stress. How we MANAGE the stress is often what makes the difference between winning and losing. Now, compare Sacramone's display of anxiety and tension to that of the Chinese gymnasts who also had a setback with one of their girls on the balance beam: they were hugging, smiling, high fiving and it looked genuine--not tense and contrived.

Our gold medals are contracts, job promotions, etc.

What do you get for second place? In the corporate world...not much. So while sports metaphors may feel a little tired at times, the truth is there is much to be learned from this area of life.

-- Libby Spears