Today I had the privilege of attending an event entitled Lunch With A Leader. This was a gathering of over 100 athletic, business, non-profit, and ministry leaders from the Acworth and Kennesaw, GA areas. The topic of the time together was the importance of resilience in leadership.
A Famed Sports Psychologist
Quoting famed sports psychologist Dr. Jack Llewellyn, the event’s host Mike Linch said, “What separates athletes? Speed of recovery.” Mike was not just talking about physical injuries, but mistakes someone may make. He added, “Good athletes make adjustments between games. Great athletes make adjustments between at-bats. Elite athletes make adjustments between pitches.”
Dr. Llewellyn and Mike were pointing out that regardless of your profession, the ability to quickly recover from mistakes and disappointments, make course corrections, and then move forward in a positive fashion is the top factor of elite performance.
A High-Performance Coach
Coach Lewis Preston is one of the founders of Athletes 2 Leaders, an organization who empowers youth to pro athletes through mentorship, seminars and workshops focused on cultivating lifelong physical, emotional and financial stability so they can positively impact society. He once told me about the subject of failure, “Allow them to fail without cushioning the fall. Elite people figure it out. They do a great job of the process of elimination. They understand they have a unique gift.”
A Hall Of Fame Quarterback
Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young would agree. On the Nov 17, 2022 episode of Pardon The Interruption, he 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.'”
7 Signs You Are Elite
The following are seven signs you are elite at what you do we learn from Dr. Llewellyn, Coach Preston, and 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 eliminate the wrong reasons for poor performance and identify the true causes.
- You immediately self-correct.
- You immediately know the level of your performance by how well you execute the fundamentals of your job.
If you don’t self-correct and have to be told you are performing poorly, by definition you are not elite.
FREE Helpful Resources
In conjunction with one of my content partners, I created two new checklists to help you identify ways you can improve your leadership:
You can download them by clicking HERE and HERE or on the images below.
Now a special request. These are complimentary resources. Therefore, if you download them, make special note of the ads on the pages you will see. If any interest you, please click the images and learn more about their products. Thank you as this helps cover the cost of production.
#CommissionsEarned
