True Leadership: Observations in the sport world

 What we see, often times we learn. The more we see, the more we learn. Very subjective given the various influencing factors involved in this complex mechanism of sight and behavior, with plenty of studies proving the effect of how modelling works. 

A recent absolutely incredible incident got me witness my CrossFit trainer in a training. While he can do things 5 times, 10 times so much faster than the team he trains, he went with the SAME TEMPO as the team. 

Such humility! 

Such beauty in NOT demonstrating “I’m so much better than you” “I know so much more than you” 

THAT is true leadership for me. 

While great skills are seen when one performs on stage or gives a talk, it is what you witness in front of your eyes that is truly empowering and powerful! 

And you learn from what you see. 

Leading from back of the room? 

Many talk about it in the corporate agile world. Few do it in reality. 

The longer version 

What my observations in the gymn taught me or made me reflect on >> 

Character

It can’t be bought or faked. It’s most visible when no one’s seemingly looking. 

The athletic world is such a pure playground to test character in so many ways. Discipline, consistency, commitment. No those can’t be faked. 

Commitment

I had a similar observation about the cycling instructor as well. 

After his usual 9  to 5, he’d take the spinning lessons in the city centre. 

Two back to back sessions. Sometimes three. He’d surely pace himself. Nevertheless, he’d usually do the whole session along with the attendees. 

His commitment to every moment during a session surely contributed to/reinforced our effort in that particular session. 

Again, we model what we see or what we desire to see. 

One of the variables that are a factor that influences the outcome/result is how strong was the motivating factor. 

In the CrossFit and cycling examples, the tangible elements being 

• the attitude of the trainers
• their visible exerted effort 
• the consistency of effort 

In conclusion, it becomes evident that delivering long sugar coated strings of sentences that seem motivating and empowering turn out to be empty and hollow when one witnesses straightforward live examples in everyday life. 

It’s black and white as day and night

And can be separated like chaff from crop.