A couple weeks ago I had a big moment in my career. I was flown to Chicago to present Self Care as a Strategy to the United Airlines annual HR Conference. As if that wasn't exciting enough, the keynote speaker for the event was Emilie Bydwell, the head coach of the USA Women’s Rugby Team. I'm a BIG Ilohna Maher fan and couldn't wait to hear her insights.
What she shared during her keynote around the importance of goal-setting felt so worth sharing to all of you because of how it translates to business.
At the beginning of their 3 year journey to the Olympics, Women's Rugby was facing defunding. They were not competing well, they had just introduced Emilie as the new head coach, and the team initially didn't even like her as their first choice had been a former Australian Head Coach. Upon her entry in the role, Emilie communicated that the MOST IMPORTANT goal for the team would be to medal at the Olympics, otherwise the team may no longer even exist.
In order to do this, she established a few primary focuses:
Team Cohesion
Predictable skill level from EVERY player
Endurance & Strength
Her first few months were tough as she worked on finding common ground behind all of these girls with the love for a sport but very little else in common otherwise. As a team, they came to agree that regardless of their backgrounds and careers outside of rugby, they wanted to be Strong Women who left an impactful legacy. (This shared value was the birthplace of Ilohna Maher's now massive social media following and message of empowerment.)
Her next objective was to create a predictable level of skill across the board. The team had a few amazing standout players and many others who were well-liked and respected but didn't compete at the highest level. Despite team pushback, Emilie created a skills assessment with rigorous measurements and enforced that until the assessment was passed, individual players could not compete. To make a long story short, the team began training more and when the World Cup came, many well-liked players were not yet qualified to play, so the more skilled players took it upon themselves to train them to up level.
Finally, because the main goal was to win the Olympics, Emilie decided that they would never taper before games that weren't Olympic Qualifying. Typically, tapering is a decrease in training to allow for recovery just before competition. The team had a built-in recovery schedule, but intentionally did not break it before games as is customary. This led them to actually LOSE a lot of games along the way, but build their strength and stamina in the process.
By focusing relentlessly on their clear end goal, even at the cost of some big disagreements and some losses they were able to cultivate a team that could handle the highest pressure, the longest matches, and the most intense competition. Those short-term losses sharpened their ability to perform when it mattered most.
Fast forward to the Olympics: this strategy paid off and in case you live under a rock, our girls won bronze and brought excitement for rugby for the first time to little girls all over the US. (Not to mention that they received a donation of $4m to continue to enhance the program!)
Hearing Emilie's story felt so important to share with you because these are the same challenges I see over and over again in my work with entrepreneurs and small businesses. Just like Emilie’s team, businesses are surrounded by so many goals—and they all feel equally urgent and important.
But the lesson is clear: to succeed, we must prioritize.
And sometimes, it takes an outside perspective to help you to see the forest for the trees.
It can be overwhelming when you’re pulled in a hundred different directions, but the path to success starts by making one choice: identifying what truly matters and committing to it.
I’d love to help you do just that.
Right now, I have two small business consulting clients and ONE spot available for MIND Performance Consulting for a business of under 250 employees. This is a rare opportunity to work together and get the personal guidance and expert outsider viewpoint you need to take your business and your team to the next level.
Comments