Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, Jim Brown, Jerry Rice, Babe Ruth, Henry Aaron, Wayne Gretzky, Roger Federer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods. It is a short list isn’t it. Athletes who transcend their sport and are worthy of being called the best ever at what they do.
Recently, Jeff Gluck of USA Today called Jimmie Johnson “the greatest racer in NASCAR history.” After winning his sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup championship, if Johnson is not the best ever, he certainly enters a short conversation which includes only Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.
What I found interesting about Gluck’s article, which you can read by clicking here, was why he felt Johnson was the greatest ever. If you want to be considered the best leader ever in your area of discipline, read the following 7 Practices I gleaned from the article and apply them to your leadership:
- Leaders Who Are The Best Ever Build A Team Of Great Leaders Around Them – Johnson drives for NASCAR’s best team, Hendrick Motorsports, and partners with the finest crew chief available Chad Knaus.
- Leaders Who Are The Best Ever Are Often Taken For Granted – Excellence becomes average when delivered consistently. Therefore, people often do not appreciate what they see every day. Johnson has a non-theatrical, businesslike personality and television ratings have been declining the last several years.
- Leaders Who Are The Best Ever Are Consistent – The greatest leaders simply show up every day. In addition to his six wins this past season, Johnson also had 23 Top 1o finishes.
- Leaders Who Are The Best Ever Deliver Superior Results – Since entering the sport, Johnson has 30 more wins than his next-closest competitor. All of this comes during NASCAR’s deepest era ever of quality drivers.
- Leaders Who Are The Best Ever Overcome Adversity – Because of NASCAR’s ever-tightening rules and governance, the races are closer with more drivers in contention than anytime previously in the sport’s history.
- Leaders Who Are The Best Have Incredible Focus And Work Ethic – Gluck states, “Johnson doesn’t have to make apologies for the qualities that make him great: His focus, his intense training regimen, his incredible work ethic.”
I wanted to drill down and learn more about Johnson’s focus, training regimen, and work ethic. My study found a revealing November 15th USA Today article written by Nate Ryan. You can read this article by clicking here.
Ryan interviewed Jamey Yon of TRi-Yon Performance who said, “So he’s moving into an aerobic sport but with the strength of swimming, biking and running, it’s just been a better fit for his car. His body is a lot stronger and able to handle all that stress in the car, and he doesn’t have to think about his leg cramping or his heart rate out the roof. He can concentrate on the steering wheel.”
Think about that statement – Physical exercise improves a leader’s concentration.
Ryan notes Johnson has been running in excess of 30 miles a week for the past few months. His weekly workout schedule consists of five days of running, two days of swimming and two of biking. Johnson particularly enjoys mountain biking putting in approximately 100 miles a week during the summer.
Build A Team Of Great Leaders, Be Willing To Be Taken For Granted, Be Consistent, Deliver Superior Results, Overcome Adversity, Focus, and Be Willing To Work Harder Than Your Piers. If you do these 7 Practices, you may one day also be a leader who is the best ever at what you do.
Speaking of becoming the best leader you can be, you can purchase my book 10 Indispensable Practices Of The 2-Minute Leader by clicking here or on the image to the left. With compelling simplicity this unique book examines 10 of those practices—each centered on a key word, a key statement and a key application. Special introductory pricing for bulk orders exists for individual and small group studies.