Until 1954 most people believed that a human being was incapable of running a mile in less than four minutes. Roger Bannister proved them wrong. Sport is not business, but the parallels are striking. The key to excellence in both is mental toughness. Elite performers thrive on pressure and their rise to the top is the result of careful planning – setting and hitting hundreds of small goals – and they use competition to hone their skills, reinventing themselves to stay ahead of the pack. How do they do it?

1. Learn to love the pressure.
You can’t stay at the top if you aren’t comfortable in high-stress situations. The ability to remain cool under fire is the one trait of top performers that is most often thought of as inborn. But first you have to make a choice to devote yourself to self-improvement. As Greg Searle, the Olympic rower, once said: “I never made any sacrifices; I made choices.” Managing pressure is also easier if you can focus just on your own excellence. Don’t be distracted by the victories or failures of others.

2. Take a break.
Unless you can put the day behind you, as athletes do, you run the risk of burning out. Many leading businesspeople are passionate about their hobbies – diversions can help executives to tune out and reenergise.

3. Plan short-term goals.
For Olympic athletes, training and preparation are geared to a four-year cycle, but they may also contest world championships every second year. Successful executives often plan long-term goals, but it is important to identify short-term goals that underpin your achievements.

What not to do when motivating people

It should come as no surprise that there are probably as many ways to demotivate people as there are to fire them up

Background

• Moot court sets up legal career

• Top performers thrive on pressure

• Park life is more than swings and slides

• Business mavericks make waves

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4. Use the competition.
Athletes sometimes train with the competition. If you want to make it to the top, you too will need to “train” with the people who push you hardest. Smart companies encourage elite performers to push one another. Talent development programmes that bring together a company’s stars for intensive training serve such a purpose.

5. Reinvent yourself.
It is hard enough getting to the top, but staying there is even harder. Athletes have an insatiable appetite for feedback – a quality seen in top businesspeople. But while it’s good to feel challenged, you need to make sure that any feedback you get is constructive. If it doesn’t feel helpful at first, see if you can get useful insights about what is behind the negative comments. You should then be able to see concrete improvements in your performance.

6. Celebrate your victories.
Rewards remind you of your achievements and symbolise hard work, commitment and dedication. Celebrate – but then push on to the next goal.

7. Keep the will to win.
After setbacks it takes courage to get back in the ring. That’s what Olympic athletes do. If you want to be an elite performer in business, that’s what you need to do too.

This is an edited extract from Managing Yourself, by Graham Jones, a sports psychologist and executive coach, published in Harvard Business Review (June). See hbr.org for more.

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