Blog Post
COMPETITIVE INSTINCT — THE DOUBLE EDGED SWORD OF THE SUCCESSFUL EXECUTIVE
- By Jonathan Cawte
- •
- 02 Nov, 2017
To win any game you must control momentum. You must establish and maintain a competitive advantage over your competition. When the most successful executives find their competitive advantage it becomes the motivation to push harder and harder still. The scent of success enhances their competitive instinct and allows them to ignore the warnings signs — their body can’t keep up with their will to win.
For some, success brings a time to slow down and enjoy the good things in life. For the champions, success enhances the aggressive pursuit of a new goal.
Winning is not enough. The sports dynasty’s like the All Blacks don’t just win, they ruthlessly stomp on the throat of their opposition.
Steve Hansen, the All Blacks coach, when describing Saturday nights first test said that “the first 50 minutes was probably as good rugby as you will see…we seized the momentum right from the get-go”
The All Blacks didn’t just ‘get ahead’. One try quickly brought two, three and then four. The scent of success saw an increase the in the aggression and intensity of their attack. The Wallabies were bulldozed. With over 30 minutes left in the test, the All Blacks had recorded the highest-ever score in a test against Australia.
With the game won and nothing left to achieve they let their opposition breathe.
Steve Waugh, while captain of the Australian cricket team, created a culture where letting a beaten team breathe was unacceptable. Waugh’s teammate, David Boon shares, ‘he helped produce a very talented group of players, to take up his own personal attitude, one of relentlessness.”
We idolise the achievements of these sporting dynasties and the way in which they compete. Relentlessness is something that executives take into the business world, but the world of elite sport and business are very different.
The athlete has the luxury of walking off the competitive field at the final bell.
The reality is top-tier athletes have vastly more time to train and prepare than executives. Athletes spend the majority of their time training and comparatively little time competing.
Executives do the opposite. They compete and strive for top performance for 60+ hours per week, which leaves precious little time for training or preparation.
“There is a huge level of expectation on our executives that isn’t necessarily sustainable. Not everybody can cope because not everybody has that level of resilience.”
- Mina Ames, Managing Director, Russell Reynolds Associates
The executive that tastes success early is particularly vulnerable.
The momentum that is created by success motivates the executive to aggressively pursue higher and higher levels of achievement. Sacrifice is what it takes to win. It’s the essence of winning, and winning is not optional.
Like the athlete, the executive must win.
The All Blacks sacrifice self-preservation for the win. Executives don’t just put their bodies on the line; they sacrifice their whole life to get the win.
A champion executive will give everything to the job and can live a life that is — ALL ON at work and ALL OFF at home. They are too tired and in too much pain. Their brain is too fatigued to make any decisions that aren’t related to their work.
So they do nothing. They look for times where they can shut down entirely: a Saturday spent on the couch watching sports, a retreat into an empty room during a family gathering, or an hour in the bedroom (hiding from the kids while they watch TV).
What is depressing is that executives crave these moments, yet they provide so little in return. The respite is only momentary. The retreat from responsibility never seems to have done what you hoped it would.
This is true whether you take an hour off or a week. While the executive envisages coming back recharged and refreshed, the reality is that they never feel energised or rested. More often than not, the onslaught of emails and other demands that greet them the moment they return to the office makes them regret taking the time off at all.
I encourage executives to think about success more broadly. I want executives to use their competitive instincts to win at home and in the boardroom. The energy that they devote to their colleagues they also must devote to their health and their lives outside of work.
What they get in return is more energy, love, and fulfilment.
For some, success brings a time to slow down and enjoy the good things in life. For the champions, success enhances the aggressive pursuit of a new goal.
Winning is not enough. The sports dynasty’s like the All Blacks don’t just win, they ruthlessly stomp on the throat of their opposition.
Steve Hansen, the All Blacks coach, when describing Saturday nights first test said that “the first 50 minutes was probably as good rugby as you will see…we seized the momentum right from the get-go”
The All Blacks didn’t just ‘get ahead’. One try quickly brought two, three and then four. The scent of success saw an increase the in the aggression and intensity of their attack. The Wallabies were bulldozed. With over 30 minutes left in the test, the All Blacks had recorded the highest-ever score in a test against Australia.
With the game won and nothing left to achieve they let their opposition breathe.
Steve Waugh, while captain of the Australian cricket team, created a culture where letting a beaten team breathe was unacceptable. Waugh’s teammate, David Boon shares, ‘he helped produce a very talented group of players, to take up his own personal attitude, one of relentlessness.”
We idolise the achievements of these sporting dynasties and the way in which they compete. Relentlessness is something that executives take into the business world, but the world of elite sport and business are very different.
The athlete has the luxury of walking off the competitive field at the final bell.
The reality is top-tier athletes have vastly more time to train and prepare than executives. Athletes spend the majority of their time training and comparatively little time competing.
Executives do the opposite. They compete and strive for top performance for 60+ hours per week, which leaves precious little time for training or preparation.
“There is a huge level of expectation on our executives that isn’t necessarily sustainable. Not everybody can cope because not everybody has that level of resilience.”
- Mina Ames, Managing Director, Russell Reynolds Associates
The executive that tastes success early is particularly vulnerable.
The momentum that is created by success motivates the executive to aggressively pursue higher and higher levels of achievement. Sacrifice is what it takes to win. It’s the essence of winning, and winning is not optional.
Like the athlete, the executive must win.
The All Blacks sacrifice self-preservation for the win. Executives don’t just put their bodies on the line; they sacrifice their whole life to get the win.
A champion executive will give everything to the job and can live a life that is — ALL ON at work and ALL OFF at home. They are too tired and in too much pain. Their brain is too fatigued to make any decisions that aren’t related to their work.
So they do nothing. They look for times where they can shut down entirely: a Saturday spent on the couch watching sports, a retreat into an empty room during a family gathering, or an hour in the bedroom (hiding from the kids while they watch TV).
What is depressing is that executives crave these moments, yet they provide so little in return. The respite is only momentary. The retreat from responsibility never seems to have done what you hoped it would.
This is true whether you take an hour off or a week. While the executive envisages coming back recharged and refreshed, the reality is that they never feel energised or rested. More often than not, the onslaught of emails and other demands that greet them the moment they return to the office makes them regret taking the time off at all.
I encourage executives to think about success more broadly. I want executives to use their competitive instincts to win at home and in the boardroom. The energy that they devote to their colleagues they also must devote to their health and their lives outside of work.
What they get in return is more energy, love, and fulfilment.
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Jonathan Cawte
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