“So you’re not going to be a great player if you need a coach to go, ‘Oh by the way, you’re not doing very well.’ C’mon bro, nobody needs that. If you need that, you’re by definition not a great player.” – Steve Young
Regardless of our chosen profession or area of discipline, we all want to be elite at what we do. Each person reading this article wants to achieve at the highest level.
Other than looking at a scoreboard or some other form of external measurement, are their intangibles, habits, or behaviors which allow you to know when you are elite? The answer is “Yes!”
An Elite Leader
On the Nov 17, 2022 episode of Pardon The Interruption, ESPN analyst and Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young was asked his thoughts on Tom Brady’s former head coach Bruce Arians suggesting that Brady needed to told he was playing poorly. Young’s answer was emphatic and gives great insight into the mindset of elite leaders.
He said, “The top quarterbacks are the top quarterbacks because they don’t need to hear it. They’re completely self-aware. Trust me, the reason I can talk about other quarterbacks and hold them to a high standard is I did the same thing. Like, if I sucked during a game I’m the first guy (to say), ‘I was terrible.’ Like, you know that. You don’t have to even watch the film. You know that you were terrible. So you’re not going to be a great player if you need a coach to go, ‘Oh by the way, you’re not doing very well.’ C’mon bro, nobody needs that. If you need that, you’re by definition not a great player. So Tom Brady does not need Bruce Arians to tell him that he’s playing bad like that’s magically going to get Tom to play better. Tom knows as the ball leaves his hand, he know ‘I didn’t do that right.'”
5 Signs You Are Elite
The following are five signs you are elite at what you do we learn from Young’s comments:
- You don’t need to hear you are performing poorly.
- You are completely self-aware.
- You hold yourself to higher standards than others do for you.
- You willingly admit when you perform poorly.
- You immediately know the level of your performance by how well you execute the fundamentals of your job.
As Young pointed out, if you have to be told you are performing poorly, by definition you are not elite.
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