The Language Of Leadership: A Snapshot

THE LANGUAGE OF LEADERSHIP

Six lessons from the changing room to the boardroom

WHAT BUSINESSES CAN LEARN FROM SPORT

How do those in elite sports develop teams into winners? As the Official Legal Advisers to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and proud sponsors of Team England, we are passionate about how sport can define and unite communities.

To help connect the power of sport to business in a new way, we have analysed language used by CEOs of FTSE 250 companies and compared it to elite sport coaches' language to locate the clues behind their success.

Partnering with sports psychologist Charlie Unwin, who has helped coach both top athletes and executives from major corporations, we have derived from the research a series of practical and tangible lessons for leaders in organisations to apply in real-life situations.

Lesson #1

STRIVE FOR CONSTANT SELF IMPROVEMENT

By the language they use, sports leaders are distinct in their focus on constant self-improvement and investment in practice and performance over results. Business leaders tend to use words such as 'strategic', and 'simple' to emphasise 'tasks' as a function of high performance, whereas sports leaders are more inclined to use words like 'positive', and 'dynamic' - emphasising 'people' as a function of performance.

Sports leaders place greater emphasis on training and practice as a means of driving performance, and a clear distinction between performance and results. In business, the emphasis is often the opposite, with people given little time to practice and spending a disproportionate amount of time under pressure to deliver results.

Sports coaches also don't recognise the concept of being 'good enough', arguing it makes no sense to stop getting better in sport; this mentality is difficult to maintain in business.

Your team mirrors you. Being transparent about your personal self-improvement goals is key to unlocking constant self-improvement.

Do not rely on a formal Performance Review process to help people realise their potential; it needs to be a natural everyday conversation to help them to identify their unique skillsets and pathways to better performance.

In business, 90% of self-improvement involves learning on the job; try focusing on the concept of 'practice' rather than 'training'. This shifts attention towards being more intentional in how we identify opportunities to improve and work on our 'technique'. Therefore, structure is needed for learning on the job. It allows us to be far more deliberate in how we plan and reflect on everyday experiences.

Lesson #2

VIEW FAILURE AS A POSITIVE FORCE

Sports leaders adopt a different relationship with failure, emphasising its motivating potential and the importance of analysing what leads to failure. Defeat provides sports leaders with the opportunity to improve future performance by identifying weaknesses and adapting strategies accordingly. Sports professionals hate to fail, but they remove its stigma and help teams to understand it is a natural feature on the road to success.

Teams should talk about their performance in a curious and non-judgmental way and become better at reviewing performances often - not just when things go wrong.

Sports leaders are in the business of getting better. To learn from this, business leaders should find opportunities to challenge old assumptions and experiment with ways of enhancing results. Be clear that regardless of whether it 'works' or not, we will have learnt something useful.

In the face of failure, ask yourself: were you clear about the goal, as well as the standards that would achieve it? If not, then any mistakes were most likely borne from a lack of intentionality. If you were clear and stuck to the plan, then you focused on the wrong goals or lacked the quality of
execution for success. You should ask: how must these be refined next time?

Review performance proactively by using the 'left-page, right-page' technique - adopted by the most successful GB winter sport team. Use a notebook to detail how you will achieve success on the left-hand page (intentions) and a post-performance review of each intention on the right-hand page. This will keep the review focused and will highlight
issues giving rise to success and failure.

Lesson #3

CHANNEL THE POWER OF CONFIDENCE

Great sports leaders see confidence management as pivotal to success - for themselves and their teams. Sports leaders recognise that confidence is one of the single best predictors of performance in sport and must be embraced as a key ingredient of success to gain a competitive advantage. Confidence is less about whether or not you are capable, but rather whether or not you feel capable, and is contingent on you having a clear reference point for what 'good' looks like. Therefore, building confidence is a process that relies more on reinforcing positive experiences than dissecting negative ones.

Sports leaders make confidence a common part of everyday language within their teams. Athletes and coaches talk about the difference between being at their best and their worst, reducing inconsistencies within their performance by cultivating better self-awareness and a sense of control. You can do the same when discussing performance with your team.

Fundamental links must be made between inputs and outputs, and quality reflection is the only effective way of doing this. Confidence in the future relies on your ability to bring it back to the elements you control, and this requires a degree of introspection to make the correct links. You should take responsibility for making this happen and doing it in a consistent, structured and open-minded way. Sports leaders use this to develop a "Team Mind", where all players co-develop the same mental models for success.

Lesson #4

CREATE A CULTURE OF MUTUAL RESPECT

Leaders in sport are more likely to reference the importance of building a culture of mutual respect on a foundation of accountability and trust. As well as humility, sports leaders also favour a culture of mutual respect. This serves as an antidote to a hierarchical culture where experience is favoured over potential.

Not only do sports leaders focus on respecting and being respected by their people, but many also believe that respect should extend to competitors, audience and everyone responsible for helping to drive success - no matter how small their role.

Fundamental to commanding respect is the ability to show respect. Understand people before attempting to be understood, treating team members as individuals. Remind yourself what unique skills they possess and the value they add and let them know.

Differentiate between responsibility and accountability. Everyone should be responsible for their impact, but as the leader, you should be accountable for the overall impact. Only by being accountable will team members trust your intentions. This permits you to challenge them when required.

Lesson #5

BE TENACIOUS

Sports leaders are distinct in their focus on the importance of tenacity, priding themselves on their ability to dig deep and keep going in times of hardship.

When under extreme duress, the brain's working memory is reduced significantly. Top sports leaders are skilled at maintaining very clear messages (often by repeating the same language) to enable everyone to stay focused and take positive steps. Your role as a leader is to not only demonstrate mental toughness yourself, but also to facilitate it in others.

Mindful tenaciousness requires a clear 'Why' for everything you do. This may seem obvious when you start, but the 'Why' can easily get lost in the noise of day-to-day challenges. Remember to occasionally step back and
re-examine the 'Why'.

The demands of high performance should also be agreed with your team and made explicitly - not 'expected' as part of the job. Some people will be more confident about meeting these demands in different circumstances. Be sensitive to how this may change with life circumstances and plan the need for resilience over time.

Lesson #6

LEAD BY EXAMPLE

Responsible for setting and enforcing high standards, elite sports leaders often discuss the importance of walking the walk and leading by example. Sports leaders believe that a culture of high performance starts with them. This responsibility is not always felt as much by business leaders, who are often supported by HR teams in defining values and behavioural standards of the company.

When it comes to building the trust and followership of other people, do not pre-occupy yourself with whether you have the perfect complement of experience, skills and knowledge. Instead, do a full audit of the values and standards you want to stand for and have the integrity to stick to these.

This way you will start to align what you say with what you do. Notice when you feel the pressure to deviate from what you believe to be right and share your thought process more publicly, without feeling the need to overjustify your feelings.

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