Three Lessons From the US Women's Olympic Gymnastics Team

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And still I rise.

SIMONE BILES

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It was July 2021 in Tokyo and Simone Biles had a bad case of the "twisties" that caused her to withdraw from most of the rest of the competition.  As the Tokyo Games were left behind and critics of Biles began to be overshadowed by the pandemic and other news, Biles took time away from the sport to focus on herself, her business endeavors, and getting married—but most importantly, on her mental health and wellbeing. 

As she told Vanity Fair earlier this year, “I wish I could sit here and tell you it was glorious...  But after 2020, it was kind of depressing until I started therapy and got help.  I felt like a failure.”

Unless you've been in hibernation the last week and a half, she's made a spectacular comeback on her "redemption tour" with—at the latest count as of today—she has added three more gold medals to her already 32 medals between the Olympics and world championships.  She has more opportunities to add to her haul on the final day of gymnastics today in the beam and floor finals.

She has lived up to her famous tattoo in our opening quote that was inspired by a Maya Angelou quote.  She has not only become the "GOAT" in her sport, but a celebrity advocate for mental health and is celebrated by her athlete-peers and millions around the world.  Her story and the stories of her teammates got me thinking and inspired, as it may have you.

Below are three leadership lessons we can contemplate from the 2024 US Women's Olympic Gymnastic team.

1)  Resilience & Grit: Overcoming Obstacles, Challenges, & Adversity
Simone was not the only teammate facing adversity.  Just as Suni Lee was rising once again through the ranks of making the US Women's 2024 Olympics team as expected, she was diagnosed with not one but two rare kidney diseases—neither of which are currently curable.  After medical treatments and dietary restrictions and as of today, she not only made the US team, she has won one gold and two bronze medals in this year's events.  And, that's not even mentioning the multiple stalkers.  Talk about resilience and dealing with adversity!

Others on the team had their own challenges and ghosts to conquer.  The hardships that they had to overcome with resilience and grit earned them the nickname from former artistic gymnast Kathy Johnson Clarke, "The Phoenix Five."

Obstacles, challenges, and adversity are no strangers to leaders.  How we think about them—our mindset—and what we do about them is critical to successfully navigating them or not.  Do we let our fast brain or slow brain be in control? 

Here are some strategies for greater grit and resilience (the first two come from Angela Duckworth who popularized grit and grit research):

• Lean into your meaning, purpose, and passion (more below)
• Cultivating distributed and deliberate practice (more on that below, too!)
• Stop, pause, or do anything you can to reflect, self-reflect, and become more aware of the bigger picture of what you're dealing with and your interactions with it.  In other words, become more self-aware.
• What lessons have you learned or can you learn from what you know so far?
• Take a lesson from the GOAT, take time for self-care.
• How can you leverage a positive vision of the future of this situation? Grow hope?
• Lean into your network.  Who can help?  What experts, like consultants and/or coaches, can help you to better navigate, strategize, and action-plan this situation?
  

2)  Distributed & Deliberate Practice
Every successful person, including elite athletes like the US Women's Olympic Gymnastic team, know the power of distributed and deliberate practice. 

Distributed practice is a learning technique where practice occurs in multiple short sessions over a long period of time.  It has been proven to be the best studying method for effective learning that lasts.  It's also known as spaced repetition or spaced practice.

Deliberate practice involves constantly pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone, following training activities designed by an expert to develop specific abilities, and using feedback to identify weaknesses and work on them.  

Creating space on our calendars to contemplate and other rituals is a starting point.  Intentionally practicing identified leadership skills, behaviors, and competencies and challenging ourselves with new ones, is what this is all about.

I wrote more extensively about them both here:  Practice Makes Progress.

3)  Purpose-Driven Leadership
Every single successful person that Stephen Covey interviewed for his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, have it.  Every single person Abraham Maslow identified as self-actualized had it.  Kouzes and Posner identified that every exemplary leader has it.  Research has identified that it positively impacts key leadership metrics such as employee engagement, productivity, retention, wellbeing, and even financials.

What is it?  Under our leadership rubric, it's purpose-driven leadership.  Purpose-driven leadership is that leader who can leverage their own meaning and purpose, the meaning and purpose of others around them, and the meaning and purpose of their team and their organization.

The US Women's Olympic Gymnastic Olympic team was laser-focused in on their purpose and what meaning that had for them, their colleagues and other athletes, their family and friends, their fans, the world, and their legacies.  They took the time to focus and refocus on their meaning and purpose the more intense the pressure became.

If you want to learn more about how you can leverage this fundamental leadership competency, check this out: The Purpose-Driven Leadership Program.

Summary
This year's US Women's Olympic Gymnastic Olympic team has been particularly inspiring and has powerful lessons for our leadership journeys.  The big ones for me are:

• Overcoming obstacles, challenges, and adversity through resilience and grit.
• Making the time for distributed and deliberate practice.
• Leveraging purpose-driven leadership.

What lessons have you learned from them and other Olympic stories?

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Have an amazing journey today!

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Alan Mikolaj is a seasoned coach and leadership development consultant with nearly 20 years of experience.  He is passionate about helping leaders transform their leadership, their teams, and their organizations.  He has an impactful, professional approach driven by a passion for meaning and purpose, a growth mindset, and a commitment to excellence and service in order to drive change and results.

Alan holds his Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology and Associate Certified Coach credential with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and maintains their ethics and standards of behavior, including the standards regarding confidentiality.  You can learn more about them on the ICF website.

Transformational change starts with a conversation!
Schedule your free, one-hour session by clicking here: Discovery Conversation with Alan
Or call or email: Contact Page

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