I was cycling yesterday, outside Glasgow, and came to a favourite and feared steep hill that my legs knew only too well. As I approached, I changed down gears, got myself ready and headed upwards. Before I did I made the mistake of looking up and saw the summit away in the distance. I gulped.
At this point I thought of the comments the Olympic Gold Medalist, Victoria Pendleton made after winning in Bejing this summer. Talking about her success, she put a lot of it down to her coaches and how they urged her to focus on the process and not the result.
This comment reminded me of how much there was to admire in the performance of the GB cycling team in Bejing – both on and off the track and how it made me think about various aspects of leadership.
Going back to Victoria Pendleton. She was ready to give up the sport after her failure in Athens but she had a team of people who believed in her, encouraged her and supported her. I think it demonstrated that some of the greatest results need a bit of time and patience.
One of the other riders in Bejing, Shanaze Reade, failed in her attempt to win a medal in the womens BMX cycling. The first thing her director told her to do after the race, when no doubt she was feeling down, was go and talk to Victoria Pendleton and find out how she could turn a past situation of defeat into a present triumph.
The team had a visionary cycling coach, Dave Brailsford, who was really clear in what he wanted and stuck to this. They were supported by generous lottery funding but as we all know this is no guarantee of success. Time and again, interview after interview, the success of the team was credited to Brailsford, a strong leader, who involved everyone and who had a clear vision.
Chris Hoy also emerged as an unlikely leader not only of the cycling team but as a representative of all the athletes from various disciplines who were involved in the tournament. It was interesting to watch as he emerged as an inspirational figure the longer the competition went on and that the more successful he became he also demonstrated one of the greatest but often most elusive of leadership attributes – humility. A leadership trait that is often talked about but is just as often, hard to find.
It was refreshing to see him emerge at a time when sporting leaders are often equated with massive egos. I would imagine and hope that his example would be an inspiration to many young people throughout the country and gave them the feeling that they ‘could do that’.
I like the way in which you can take an event like the Olympics and look at the different leadership stories and draw inspiration from them. There are so many different styles and attributes that can lead to success and as we search for our own leadership style/story I think that we can take inspiration from the fact that one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to leadership.
But back to that hill. I put my head down and thought of the process: One foot in front of the other, push the pedals, don’t think of the gradient. And then I was there, at the top. Legs pretty sore today though.
