sent by Nick Grantham | 19th October 2021
Elite athletes are surrounded by experts and face a daily onslaught of data and complexity to understand and influence performance. Is it all essential? Through failure and the subsequent reviews, I've learned that when you move too far away from first principles, you are setting yourself up for trouble. Don't wait for things to go wrong before you strip out the inessential.
Source: Very Good Lives by J.K. Rowling
Getting started on a project is relatively easy. Instigating change is exciting. Creating a habit is simple during the early days. However, the challenge comes when the project stalls, the pace of change slows or your newly formed practices are challenged for the first time. When you're about to throw in the towel, you need to dig deep, find that last-minute stamina and push on.
Source: Do Story by Bobette Buster
When I'm coaching or presenting, I want to get across a bunch of information, but I have to check myself and brutally edit what I want to say so that the athlete, coach or audience only hear what they need to hear. I was reminded of the importance of 'editing' this last week when I attended a conference. An eminent and highly qualified member of a high-performance sports team committed many presentation sins: 1. He tried to tell us everything. 2. Apologised for having complex slides. 3. Raced past slides because he didn't have time to discuss the content. At the end of his presentation, I was none the wiser!
Source: The Presentation Coach by Graham Davies
There have been times in my career that I've been surrounded by feuding and defensive colleagues who cannot control their basic feelings. Zombies. Sometimes I've walked away from the zombie organisation. But there have been times when I've tried to find a cure. The critical ingredients for the cure have been safety and security, allowing the chance to build a culture that promotes creativity and engagement.
Source: Better by John Grant
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