The champion’s mindset—what we can learn from the world’s top 1%
ILLUSTRATION BY ALBERT RODRIGUEZ
What does this title have to do with business?” you may ask. “Everything!” is my answer.
Whether you are a CEO or an up-and-coming executive working your way up the corporate ladder, a self-made billionaire entrepreneur or a business owner who still wants to make it into the big league, you need to have the mindset of a champion to reach your most ambitious goals.
It is mind-blowing to me how many business owners and CEOs do not define clear, specific, time-bound and measurable goals for their businesses. The owner of a large Brazilian family business approached my consulting company because the growth of his business had been stagnating for the last few years. “What are your goals for the business for the next year, two years and three years?” I asked him. “Well,” he answered. “I want to grow.” That is not a goal you can measure! No wonder his business was performing poorly.
It is often challenging enough to reach a clearly defined goal, but it is impossible to hit a target you cannot see. Everything needs to start with a clearly defined, measurable goal: “We will reach a 50-percent profit increase by the end of next year,” for example. That is a clear goal. You also need to have a strategic road map for at least the next few years that would act as your business’ north star.
How the world’s top achievers set goals
I have had the fortune to coach some of the world’s most notable CEOs, philanthropists, entertainers and champion athletes. One thing is for sure: all of them set goals others would consider impossible, the kind of goals that stretch them almost to the point of failure. These individuals are constantly dissatisfied with their results even if, to the rest of the world, they become legendary super achievers. Why? Their goals were even higher than all the extraordinary successes they had accomplished.
My favorite quote is by the famous filmmaker James Cameron: “If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success.” Jack Welch, the legendary chair and CEO of General Electric, called these “stretch goals.” These are the kind of goals that stretch you and your business to the limit so that you must come up with new and groundbreaking solutions to reach them. Remember my article a few weeks ago in which we discussed the secrets of innovation? Stretch goals are the rocket fuel behind the zero-to-one innovations that revolutionize any industry.
Thus, your goals should be as ambitious as possible, but still theoretically doable. As a result of your effort to reach these goals, you will automatically uplift and radically improve yourself and your business—even if you fall short of reaching them.
What gets measured gets done
When I asked a Filipino billionaire businessman I was working with about his goals, he proudly shared his goals for the next 50 years. “But you are close to 70 now; you will probably not live to see 120 years.” I gently remarked with a smile. “Oh, of course not!” he answered. “I want to make sure my children are well taken care of after I die, and that the business continues to flourish.” That is true goal-setting in action!
When I started to consult his business empire, I was surprised at how much they measured. Every possible element in the full range of activities needed to create their product had a performance target, and they measured all these targets constantly. I found the same to be true when I advised one of the world’s largest fast-food chains. They measured every detail, down to the seconds it took to flip the burgers and the minutes people would have to wait in line to be served.
A commercial plane is off-course at least 90 percent of the time. Many factors such as weather conditions and turbulence cause it to get off-track, but the pilot receives constant feedback. This feedback allows him to make the proper course corrections to come back to the original flight route. What does this mean for you? You need to measure as much and as many factors as possible to constantly make the right course corrections.
The global pandemic and the champion’s mindset
When economic or political conditions become unstable, what matters most is how fast you can adapt to change and still get to your destination. When I was advising Coca-Cola and some of the companies within the Coca-Cola System, my role included working with the CEOs of 11 countries that had just been shaken to the core by political turmoil, attempted coup d’ états, sharp economic downturns and other nasty surprises. They wanted to know how to deal with political and economic instability. I shared with them how vital it was to anticipate changes and have contingency plans in place so that you can adapt quickly and still reach your objectives. You can literally not plan enough.
Let us take an example from history: Napoleon won nearly 90 percent of his battles, an unmatched record for a military commander. One of his secrets? He planned out all his battles in detail. He admitted that they rarely played out as he had planned, but this enabled him to adapt to any surprises in battle much quicker than if he had not planned at all or had only gone through his favorite scenario.
‘Do the reps’
During my career, I have also had the pleasure to coach world-famous athletes like Alexey Molchanov, 24-time world champion and multiple world record-holder in freediving. He once managed to achieve another world record even though everything was against him: travel restrictions due to COVID-19, airport lockdowns and so on. He did not have his usual preparation time and training, got to his hotel only at midnight after a full day of nonstop traveling, and his competition was already early the next day. How did he still pull off another world record? “Preparation and an unwavering belief in my abilities,” he said.
Arnold Schwarzenegger called it “doing the reps.” This means practicing over and over again so that when the moment comes, you are prepared. You can do the same in business to still reach your goals in turbulent times. Identify what your key strengths are. Practice them until you reach the level of a champion. Then, when unfortunate surprises or even something at the scale of the global COVID-19 pandemic hits you, you can approach the situation with a calmer mind because of your preparation and unwavering belief in your capabilities.
Solutions and next steps
- 1. If you do not have clear, measurable, time-bound and specific goals for your business and every major area of your life, sit down and define them in writing. If possible, share them with the people within your organization. It will radically increase their productivity.
- Ideally set “stretch goals” that are as ambitious as possible but still theoretically doable.
- Make sure you have a strategic road map for the next few years that acts as a north star for your business.
- Plan, plan, plan. Measure, measure, measure. Correct your course.
See you at the top!
Tom Oliver, a “global management guru” (Bloomberg), is the chair of The Tom Oliver Group, the trusted advisor and counselor to many of the world’s most influential family businesses, medium-sized enterprises, market leaders and global conglomerates. For more information and inquiries: www.TomOliverGroup.com or email [email protected].
