“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”
Vince Lombardi
What is Success? In my profession I spend a lot of time pondering and chewing over what truly constitutes ‘success’ in business. Just to clarify a little further, I’m not looking at all the various ingredients, I’m considering what business success really boils down to when you leave it stewing away on the hob. I’ve also been watching some documentaries on Netflix and they have given me food for thought. Let me tell you what they were:
Race for the Summit: A fantastic story about the rivalry between two elite Alpine speed climbers, Ueli Steck and Dani Arnold
Arnold: A surprisingly fascinating documentary about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s rise to the top
Beckham: A truly inspirational account of David Beckham’s life, motivation and achievements
It has always struck me - and to some degree it’s blindingly obvious - that business, much like sport, is all about winning. Or, put more bluntly, beating everyone else. Business is a competition. Competitions involve a winner and then a whole raft of ‘runners up’ - companies that didn’t win in other words.
It’s far too easy just to leave it at that. I mean, who doesn’t know that being successful in business is about winning?? You’d have to have been confined to a dark room not to know that. It’s hardly a difficult concept to grasp. If it’s so damn obvious, then why are many business struggling to win or why are they only winning sporadically? That’s why I decided to really think about it, I mean REALLY think about it.
Why aren’t some Businesses Winning More? When I was scratching around for clues to a potential answer, I scribbled a few things down. I think the first line I wrote was: ‘being successful is hard, because winning is hard’. But why is winning hard? If I could get to the essence of that, then I felt I could unpeel the onion on what is really involved. And that’s the moment those documentaries started to open my eyes a little more to what is really at the essence of success. Before we consider the attributes of winning, there’s one simple concept that needs unpacking first and that’s the idea of competition. Once again, a blindingly obvious concept that’s easy to state and far too easy to gloss over. So, let’s dwell on it a second.
Where does Competition Come From? Firstly, you generally don’t win unless you beat someone else. Secondly, we’re going to assume that whatever you stand to win is a just recompense for your effort. These are the two ingredients that create the environment for ever higher standards against which ‘winning effort’ or success will be judged. Broadly speaking this means that what gave you victory last time, is less certain to give you a repeat victory next time around. This is because your competition will have evaluated the winning standard that was set last time and will look to exceed it. On that simple premise, winning constantly requires improving your standards and that, well, that is hard work. And so we come to the attributes required to win.
Attributes: Discipline, Determination, Focus, Clarity, Vision, Effort, Resilience, etc. Back to those documentaries. A few years ago now, an intense competition had built up between two Swiss Alpine speed climbers - one was Ueli Steck and the other, the younger Dani Arnold. I was watching Ueli Steck prepare for his record breaking attempt to free climb the North Face of the Eiger. He already held speed records on pretty much all of the big Alpine faces, but his record on the Eiger had been taken by Arnold and Steck wanted it back. I was struck by his approach - he was utterly matter-of-fact, describing the task ahead with astonishing clarity. I was also struck by the intensity of his physical training - his nickname was the ‘Swiss Machine’ and it was not hard to understand why.
Steck had long been convinced that from an athletic perspective, climbing was stuck in the stone age. So he employed a team of experts to help him. He employed a physical trainer, a dietician and a mental coach. He developed a regime specifically targeting the demands of the route on the Eiger. Steck’s team made calculations about his optimal weight, concluding that he should attempt the climb at 141 pounds. To build endurance Steck ran the vertical gain of the Eiger North Face almost daily maintaining a specific heart rate. His focus on winning was astonishing.
On the 16th November, 2015, Ueli reclaimed the speed record from Dani Arnold when he climbed the North Face of the Eiger in 2hrs 22 mins and 50 seconds. The speed of the climb is almost beyond comprehension, but what was truly fascinating was Steck’s compulsion to reclaim his record.
Arnold Schwarzenegger once said, “Where the mind leads, the body will follow”. For those of you not intimate with the world of elite Alpine speed climbing, I can tell you that it is a realm mainly occupied by those unfamiliar with the word ‘acrophobia’. Alpinists are a community where the desire to push the boundaries of human ability is a strong driver and, from that perspective, climbing routes faster than anyone else is the one ‘criteria’ that defines being the best. As I sat my way through those documentaries, it quickly became clear to me that physical ability was only one part of what was required to win. The other aspect was entirely mental. Yes, you guessed it, it required a ‘winning mindset’.
The Winning Mindset. Many many books have been written about mindsets. Carol Dweck, the American psychologist, wrote about the ‘growth’ mindset. Many others have written about the mindsets that make sports people ‘elite’. I’m not about to rehash any of their work here - rather I thought I would provide my own thoughts based on pondering what a winning mindset would actually look like / feel like or simply ‘be’. During this long process I kept coming back to one singular thing. Winners aren’t just good - winners are great, they are outstanding and they are incredible. Winners are obsessive, they demand a lot from themselves and then they demand more. Winners accept help, winners want to know how they can improve, winners seek and love any marginal gain, no matter how small. When winners encounter obstacles, they reflect on what must be done, they pick themselves up and improve. Winners have vision, winners have focus. Winners never rest, winners know that winning once isn’t a mark of success. Winners, above everything else, hate to lose.
Of course all this is obvious, isn’t it? Yet, if it’s so obvious, why then do books about winning sell in their millions?? Jim Collins’ book, ‘Good to Great’ has sold over 4 million copies, Jack Welch’s ‘Winning’, has sold over 440,000 copies and Simon Sinek’s ‘Start with Why’ has sold over 1 million copies. Judging by the sales numbers, there are a lot of people in business who are keen to learn the secret of winning. Obvious then?
An Inconvenient Truth. So, here’s the thing. The books are insightful. Perhaps some of this article is helpful. Will any of it, so far, help you, your team or your company to win? Doubtful; but the next sentences just might, if you can accept just how incovenient they are. Why? Well, winning is a bit like strategy - it tends to come unstuck during the execution phase. It will place tough demands on you. Winning will get in the way of other things you like. Winning will ask you to make changes. Winning will expect you to make big sacrifices. Winning won’t care if you’re tired. Winning will ask you to keep going when you have ‘had it up to here’ with the effort that’s required. Winning won’t be interested in excuses or your reasons why something can’t be done now. Winning won’t accept compromises. You’ll deliver ‘good’ and winning will reject it until you come back with ‘great’. Victory will make you sweat and working up a sweat is plain hard. And believe me, it’ll be far harder if you or your team are not driven by a powerful sense of purpose.
A Leader’s Role. Leaders often like to think they do the heavy lifting. Let’s be frank, (and without wishing to hurt any feelings) that’s not normally true. To be honest though, whilst it’s fine for leaders to get down in the trenches when a bit of ‘leading by example’ calls for it, the job of leadership is not to do the heavy lifting. The job of leadership is to coach, motivate, guide and inspire the organisation’s greatest asset - its employees. That collective group needs to become a finely-tuned ‘winning machine’ and for that to happen individuals need to feel connected to a clear organisational purpose that drives them forward - even when headwinds are intent on hindering progress.
A great leader understands that teams excel when the satisfaction gained from simply winning exceeds the satisfaction gained from receiving a paycheck at the end of the month. Why is that? Well, for the deep answer to that one, you’d better refer to Maslow; but in layman’s terms, (assuming you are receiving a satisfactory monthly paycheck for your efforts), then the most fulfilling pyschological reward you can attain is self-actualisation (and winning fits in here). It’s why most sports people will tell you they don’t do it for the money - at least not for the main part! When asked why it took him so long to finally retire, David Beckham replied, “I loved scoring goals for England and playing for England. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t retire, I loved playing for my country.”
Great, not Good. If you want to win and win consistently, then little else will provide the sheer forward momentum and resilience than a highly motivating and clearly understood sense of purpose. Convince your employees of your organisation’s higher purpose and they will most likely astonish you with the extent of their passion and commitment to being the best and that’s important because if you want your corporate cabinet stuffed full of silverware you’d better make sure you’re great, because good isn’t good enough and who wants to be second anyway?
- End.
Written by Jim Trotter, Managing Partner, Perspective Matters
For questions & enquiries on getting your organisation ready to win you can contact Jim on:
m. +44 7795 213 343
e. jim.trotter@perspectivematters.co.uk
Research and Further Reading:
Ueli Steck - Guardian Obituary
Ueli Steck Reclaims Eiger N. Face Speed Record