Summary of ‘‘How the Best of the Best Get Better and Better’’ written by Graham Jones. Originally published in June 2008 by Harvard Business Review. Full text is available here: https://hbr.org/2008/06/how-the-best-of-the-best-get-better-and-better
What are the distinguishing factors that separate elite performers from ordinary high achievers in Sports and Business? Graham Jones, an experienced sports psychologist and business consultant wrote the article ''How the Best of the Best Get Better and Better'' to show that the real factor in achieving success and excellence is... mental toughness.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, many people's lives became a lot more challenging, whether it is a loss of a job, harder working conditions, the lack of contact with peers, friends, or family members…it has not been easy. Although it seems like we have a way out of this pandemic through vaccination programs, many professionals have been struggling with the poor state of their mental health.
If this sounds familiar, you definitely should read this summary of the article ‘‘How the Best of the Best Get Better and Better’’ written by Graham Jones for Harvard Business Review, originally published in June 2008.
Do elite performers in business and sports have anything in common? According to Jones, the parallels are striking, even though the sport is not business. Graham Jones is first and foremost a sports psychologist who spent much of his career as an adviser to Olympic medallists and world champions in rowing, swimming, squash, track, field, trampolining judo. Consequently, in 1995, Graham Jones decided together with Adrian Moorhouse (Olympic Gold medal swimmer) to start Lane4, a consulting firm bringing the lessons from elite athletic performance to Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies.
Based on years of practical experience he gained from working with top athletes and business executives, Jones realised that the real factor in achieving success and excellence is… mental toughness. Jones, amongst others, identified six key distinguishing factors that characterise elite performers both in sports and in the executives’ office. These include:
• the ability to remain in control and calm in high-stress situations;
• the focus on long-term goals;
• the skill of using competition to improve yourself;
• the ability to stay at the top of the game;
• know how and when to celebrate victories; and
• the unquestionable will to win.
We now shall explore each of these factors in separate paragraphs to show what, according to Jones, makes a difference between an elite performer and an ordinary high achiever.
Love the Pressure
The ability to stay calm and in control during either a stressful situation or being constantly exposed to a high-pressure environment is, in fact, one of the most important traits that elite performers possess. Jones suggests that ‘‘you cannot stay at the top if you are not comfortable in high-stress situations.’’ He further explains that people think that ‘the ability to remain cool under fire’ is often inborn. Thankfully, this skill can be significantly improved and mastered so that ‘‘you can learn to love the pressure—for driving you to perform better than you ever thought you could’’.
Greg Searle, an Olympic gold medallist in rowing, claims that he made choices, not sacrifices when asked whether the success was worth the price. The idea of being able to make a choice and dedicate yourself to self-improvement is paramount to achieve a state of self-control under stressful situations.
Top elite achievers do not get distracted by the performance of other individuals. As a matter of fact, they can fully focus on their own excellence and any flaws. They seldom let themselves get side-tracked or distracted by events outside their competition. For instance, Darren Clarke, an excellent golfer, significantly helped the European Team win the Ryder Cup back in 2006, only six weeks after his wife's death.
A top performer in a business environment must also be inter-focused and self-directed to achieve great success in their domain. Jones tells a story about a business executive whose passion was wrestling. For this reason, he turned down an opportunity to study MBA degree at Harvard, only to choose a less prestigious University that had a better wrestling team. Upon completing his studies, he found employment in a prestigious investment bank, where he eventually took over the executive director's role. He said that the job he had was his passion, and he would continue to do it even for free.
“I am doing it for myself. This is the stuff I think about in the shower. I would do it even if I did not earn a penny.”
The bottom line of the story is that this business professional did not try to impress anybody, neither by means of choosing Harvard as his preferred school nor by his further career in banking. He knew what gave him happiness and was courageous enough to pursue his dreams and passion, including his wrestling career whilst at the University.
Immensely successful people are kind to themselves, in a way that ‘‘they rarely indulge in self-flagellation’’. It does not mean that they do not push themselves to do their best and achieve great success. However, when things go wrong, they can react appropriately, dust themselves off and move on.
According to Jones, top performers can switch on and off and possess many hobbies to turn to in their free time. They are masters at controlling and avoiding the process of burning out. For example, Richard Branson is famous for his hot-air balloon adventures. Alison Mowbray, a decorated British rower, had a slightly less extravagant secondary passion in her life… playing the piano. The environment to which athletes and business professionals are exposed can be grueling and high-pressure. The ability to find a second passion can be a great way to avoid the risk of burning out but can also help to re-energise and find a new focus.
Fixate on the Long Term
Elite performers understand that meticulous planning of short-term goals to meet long-term objectives is absolutely indispensable in achieving desired outcomes. Adrian Moorhouse, Olympic gold medallist from Seoul in 1988, is a prime example. Before this event, he and his coach calculated that to win the gold medal in the 100-meter breaststroke technique, he needed to swim the distance in a time of 62 seconds or better. That is why he decided to make a very detailed short-term plan to fulfill his long-term objectives during the Olympics.
‘‘He mapped out specific short-term goals in every area that would affect his performance—strength training, nutrition, mental toughness, technique, and more—to make sure he achieved that ultimate goal.’’
This case is not different at all for business executives and professionals. Jones tells the story of one of the women he had the opportunity to coach. For confidentiality purposes, he calls her with the fictitious name Deborah, an IT manager who worked for a low-cost airline. Her ultimate goal was to become a senior executive of that company in three years, so she decided to put in place a road-map to achieve her goal. Jones and Deborah identified a strategy and key performance areas in which she needed to excel, such as increasing her reputation and influence among executives in other departments or dealing with complex initiatives. Thanks to that scrupulous process of setting her interim (short-term) goals to meet the ultimate goal, she was eventually offered a role to head up the $12 million in-flight business sales unit three months before her own personal deadline.
Use the Competition
Many people may perceive a competition in a bit more conservative way, thinking of our main competitors as a threat to our well-being and success. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon for two top athletes from different countries to train and prepare together for major tournaments in track-and-field sports. At the 1996 pre-Olympic training camp, Linford Christie (current Olympic champion) paired up to practice with Namibian silver medallist Frankie Fredericks, who at the same time happened to be a major competitor and threat to Christie’s Olympic crown. Jones also provides an example of a group of 40 rowers who were put together to
train. As a result, in one of the last performance evaluations, most rowers performed a lot better than expected, with Tom Murray beating his personal best in the 2,000-meter test on the rowing machine that subsequently led him to be chosen for the 1996 Olympic team. It is not so much different in the office environment. As a matter of fact, smart companies use competition to create excellent training programs in order to develop talent and create situations ‘‘in which their elite performers push one another to levels they would never reach if they were working with less-accomplished colleagues’’.
Therefore, if you want to be the best of the best, do not be afraid of your competition, but be sure to know how to use it to improve yourself. Remember that competition is not a direct threat to your position or success, but rather your self-limiting mind and insecurity that there are ''better'' people than you.
Reinvent yourself
‘‘It is hard enough getting to the top but staying there is even harder’’. These are Graham Jones's words, who believes that elite performers can maintain their leading position in the area of their specialty.
Sue Shotton was number one ranked trampolinist in 1983, but she still had not won a world championship at that time. So she made sure that nothing was left to chance. She was constantly challenged by working with nutrition specialists, biomechanics, physiologists, and elite sports coaches.
‘‘She perfected new moves based on video analysis; she tried different ways of boosting her energy based on nutritional intake.’’
In 1984, she became the first British woman to win the world championship. Another factor determining her success was her burning desire to receive feedback, which is also a quality shared among many top executives. ‘‘They have a particularly strong need for instant, in the moment feedback’’. This is the quality that distinguishes great achievers from ordinary ones. It is not just fair to say that they are not afraid of receiving constructive feedback that can help to identify their flaws, but in fact, they crave it, described by Jones as a ‘‘insatiable appetite for feedback’’.
Celebrate the Victories
Many experts argue that delayed gratification is one of the qualities that successful people embrace, but it does not mean that elite performers do not know how to celebrate their achievements. Jones once worked with the professional golfer who tended to reward himself on his way up the ranks to the top of his sport, whether it was an expensive watch or car. For him, ‘‘these were reminders of his achievements and symbolized to him the hard work, commitment, and dedication he had put into golf for so many years.’’
A celebration can be used as a form of an emotional release but can also help top performance to enhance their awareness. He claims that ‘‘the very best performers do not move on before they have scrutinized and understood thoroughly the factors underpinning their success.’’
Whether you are a top athlete or a successful business professional, knowing how to celebrate the win can be an important factor in building your hunger for the next achievements, but remember that they also know that celebrations without a victory are meaningless.
The Will to Win
It is easy to pin to top athletes or talented executives the inborn ability as the reason for their performance. I mean, we all see Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo dribble and score goals with such ease; witness how Usain Bolt broke just another record, but we often do not realise top performers ‘‘has typically put in countless years of preparation and has endured repeated failures’’. However, what really makes them different is that they have this fierce desire to compete- and win.
Graham Jones ends his article with this passage:
‘‘…most of those participating in the Olympics this summer (Beijing 2008) will walk away from the games without grabbing a single medal. Those with real mettle will get back into training again. That is what truly separates elite performers from ordinary high achievers. It takes supreme, almost unimaginable grit and courage to get back into the ring and fight to the bitter end. That is what the Olympic athlete does. If you want to be an elite performer in business, that is what you need to do, too.''
Author
Graham Jones, PhD, has consulted to top performers in business, athletics, and the military for more than 20 years. He was Professor of Elite Performance Psychology at the University of Wales, Bangor. His most recent book is Thrive On Pressure: Lead and Succeed When Times Get Tough, (McGraw-Hill, 2010). He is currently the Managing Director of Top Performance Consulting Ltd., based in Wokingham in the UK (Description provided by Harvard Business Review. Available at https://hbr.org/2008/06/how-the-best-of-the-best-get-better-and-better)Bibliography:
Jones, G. (2008). Harvard Business Review. How the Best of the Best Get Better and Better (online). Available at https://hbr.org/2008/06/how-the-best-of-the-best-get-better-and-better