Athletes have an edge over leaders...
Mary Rensel 
Athletes have the rituals and leaders cannot miss this opportunity to set your rituals into place
Does a Leader need to train like an athlete?
Should a leader approach building their ideal performance at work like an athlete trains to build their performance in competition?
As I head into my season of charity bike rides and now the Ohio Senior Olympics I have training on my mind. Yesterday I rode 15 miles on my bike in a little over an hour, that is an improvement for me yet while I was out there 3 cyclist blew past me and I started to question my training. Training, skill building matters yet how do we fit it all in? A classic Harvard Business Review article, by Loehr and Schwartz, suggests that the missing link for leaders is that they need to approach their leadership endurance and capacity like an athlete. They need to honor what the body needs to hit its peak performance and find that “edge”. Athletes have figured out how to optimize their training, rest, nutrition and sleep and be very intentional about their weekly training plan. They do not waste time, they focus on their long term goal by completing many small tasks or rituals. These rituals may seem unimportant yet they all point to the long term goal, for an athlete it is to build endurance, capacity and skills to succeed. Leaders' long term goals are similar to athletes yet the importance of the weekly training plan or rituals is not stressed to the same level. Loehr and Schwartz suggest calling these daily actions rituals to elevate their importance and to stress that they are nonnegotiable. They suggest a leader’s weekly plan includes actions to build capacity in these 4 areas: physical fitness, emotional fitness, cognitive fitness and service fitness. These 4 areas all intersect and support one another.
Today is a good day to plan your week. Do you have physical fitness rituals planned? Schedule yourself today. Physical fitness is the foundational skill to build endurance, the body is carrying around that amazing brain of yours, it needs support all day to solve the big problems you will encounter this week. The emotional fitness rituals also should be performed daily, one example is relaxing your face and softening your voice before a meeting to enhance your parasympathetic response or your perceptive setting again to help solve the challenges this week. Our emotional setting influences our capacity at work. We strive to be in a 3:1 positive to negative emotional balance each day, it is math, we need to put these rituals into place to set ourselves up for success. Cognitive fitness rituals could include new perspectives and looking for new patterns and of course it builds off your physical and emotional settings as well. Service fitness means finding how your work impacts others, building capacity to serve the community and your team as this will help give you sustenance or motivation to continue to build your ideal performance state. It is vital to know the meaning of your work and how it impacts others.
For now, be sure to plan your week for success. Set your rituals in place, put yourself in your calendar for ideal strength and endurance in these busy times.
I am off to buy a cool jersey for my first time in the Senior Olympics, will look for my favorite color, teal!
For more guidance, follow my Youtube channel, it recently reached 172,000 views, quite amazing. I seek to drive a neuroscience informed culture of learning, agility and professional development for conscious impact and peace of mind. See my latest video to block distractions that keep us from joy and thereby living a full peaceful life. Let me know your favorite tip. Distraction Busters for the Busy Doc
I believe in YOU!
Mary
thebrainfresh@gmail.com
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Dr. Mary Rensel is the founder of Brain Fresh 🧠, which seeks to support busy professionals through transitions, helping them stay agile and centered 🌟. Brain Fresh focuses on brain priming with fun 🎉, fine-tuning 🎯, and protection from distraction 🚫. It teaches aligning with strengths and gifts 🎁, belonging to a supportive team 🤝, and designing next steps with a focus on building a supportive team 👥, managing anger 😡, and taking courageous action 💪. Dr. Rensel aims to help participants feel clear on next steps ✨, focused 🎯, and re-energized 🔋 to navigate challenges.