Sports psychologist who worked with Dallas Stars says visualization, other sports tricks have place in boardroom
Perform Like An Executive Athlete: Scot McFadden, who has been retained by the Dallas Stars since 1998 as an organizational and performance psychologist, helped lead the hockey club to a Stanley Cup victory. He brought his experience in executive coaching, career planning and talent management to an HR audience in Toronto. For more information about SCNetwork, visit www.scnetwork.ca.
Business lessons from elite athletes
Build strengths, but don’t ignore weaknesses
SCNetwork’s panel of thought leaders brings decades of experience from the senior ranks of Canada’s business community. Their commentary puts HR management issues into context and looks at the practical implications of proposals and policies
Business lessons from elite athletes
Mike Modano, who is the all-time goal-scoring and points leader among American-born players in the National Hockey League with 1,283 career points, has played for the Dallas Stars (formerly the Minnesota North Stars) since he began his NHL career 18 years ago.
In 2003 he became the captain of the team and had the worst year of his career. In the 76 games he played, he scored just 14 goals and earned only 44 points (an average of just more than one point for every two games, while his career average is one point per game).
In the end, after the players’ strike that scuttled the 2004-2005 season, Modano returned to his previous role as alternate captain.
“He hated being in that position of leadership even though he thought he wanted it,” said Scot McFadden, an Oakville, Ont.-based sports psychologist who works with the Dallas Stars, winners of the Stanley Cup in 1999.
Whether on a Stanley Cup winning hockey team or in a business setting, the secret to success is having the right players in the right roles. Traditional thinking in hockey is to make the team’s best player the team captain, but the best player isn’t always the best leader, said McFadden, speaking to a group of HR professionals at a Strategic Capabilities Network meeting in Toronto last month.
McFadden, who also uses his sports psychology training to help individuals achieve career goals, has seen the same problem in business. One of his clients, a claims manager with an insurance company who went from having two reports eight years ago to having 14, was miserable. When McFadden asked her about her job, she said she loved her job but she didn’t like the people.
She didn’t like to delegate because she didn’t trust others to do the job as well as her, she hated performance reviews and she wasn’t good at managing conflict. She was better suited to a professional or technical role, not a leadership role, said McFadden
“The position had outgrown her,” he said. “You have to wear the suit that fits, play the position that suits you and ensure your people are doing the same and then you get maximum performance.”
Visualization
A common technique athletes use to improve their performance is visualization. Research shows athletes who use visualization outperform those who don’t, said McFadden. The same mental preparation can be used in the corporate world.
For example, 30 minutes before a meeting starts, a manager who often overreacts in meetings could visualize himself in the meeting. He would then visualize a colleague saying something provocative, something he would normally overreact to. He would then visualize himself replying calmly and coolly.
“The brain doesn’t know the difference between a vividly imagined experience and the real thing,” said McFadden. Because of that, when the real event happens, the individual tends to react in the same way he practiced in his mind.
Motivation
Individuals are motivated by different things. To lead a team well, a leader has to understand each of her reports’ psyches and what drives them, said McFadden.
After a new coach started with the Dallas Stars, management was worried about his rapport with the team. McFadden sat down with the team’s top players and asked them what one thing they would like to discuss with the coach.
“They said, ‘Tell the coaches to stop raining on our parade,’” said McFadden.
Immediately after a win, the coaches would come into the locker room and go over every mistake the players made. The players would go from feeling energized from the win to feeling completely dispirited, said McFadden.
Managers in a business environment often make the same mistake, he said. Instead of reacting immediately after a success or a failure, it’s best to sit with it for a day or two, and then come up with examples of what was done well and what can be improved, said McFadden.
Turning a distraction into a motivator
Understanding motivation is also important when reframing, a technique where an individual or a leader turns a distraction into a motivator.
The Dallas Stars faced a big distraction during their playoff series against the Detroit Red Wings in 1998. With the series tied 1-1 and the critical third game in Detroit, the Red Wings planned to honour Vladimir Konstantinov, a Detroit defenceman whose career ended when he was paralysed in an accident shortly after his team won the Stanley Cup in 1997.
With the ceremony revving up the hometown crowd and Konstantinov watching from the stands, the Stars didn’t feel right about playing their best and beating the Red Wings. So McFadden helped the team reframe the situation. He told the players everybody wants to feel indispensable to their team or organization. So the Stars would dedicate the game to Konstantinov and by beating the Red Wings, the Stars would show him just how vital he was to his old team.
“We would show him through our play that Detroit was a better team with him in the lineup,” he said. (The Stars won the game but the Red Wings won the series.)
Reframing is just as important in the business world, said McFadden.
“Whenever there’s some sort of significant distraction that comes up that can take you off your game or lower your performance, that’s when you have to reframe,” he said.
One of the most distracting situations at work is the rumour of layoffs. Some people react by denying the situation entirely, which actually works for them because their performance isn’t affected. But others become distracted, worried and demoralized. Their motivation begins to decline, which affects their performance and in turn could increase their chances of being laid off.
These people need to reframe the situation, to look at it in a different light, said McFadden.
“(They need to) think, ‘Worst-case scenario, if I’m one of the ones to leave, there’s severance and opportunity,’” he said. Once they’ve done that, their performance will improve.
Sometimes individuals have trouble reframing on their own and management needs to step in to help. Managers or directors should give their reports regular, honest updates about the situation, said McFadden. If they notice some employees are distracted by the possibility of a layoff, they need to pull them aside and go over the costs and the payoffs of their behaviour and help them reframe the situation, he said.
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Build strengths, but don’t ignore weaknesses
SCNetwork’s panel of thought leaders brings decades of experience from the senior ranks of Canada’s business community. Their commentary puts HR management issues into context and looks at the practical implications of proposals and policies.
‘Citius, altius, fortius’
By Matt Hemmingsen
Given the exceptional Summer Games just completed in Beijing and Scot McFadden’s folksy anecdotes delivered at the recent Strategic Capabilities Network session, the Olympic motto — faster, higher, stronger — seems appropriate for drawing parallels between the sports and business worlds. For individuals and teams alike, regardless of the arena, preparation is critical for consistently high performance, which drives results.
What struck me most about McFadden’s work with his clients was his reference to three key themes.
Visualization: Using imagination to visualize success.
Reframing: Turning a distraction into a motivator for success.
Reflection: Taking the time to reflect on the positives of performance for future success.
It could be argued organizations should embrace these themes as well, to better understand how to prepare for the competitive challenges of the marketplace. Unlike athletes who compete for a limited period of time, organizations require stamina for a never-ending race. How have companies such as Bayer, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé and RBC been able to maintain performance and remain competitive for more than a century while others have dropped by the wayside?
It seems these companies have an innate ability to craft a compelling vision of the business. There is clarity of purpose that is continually evolved and shaped, not only to recognize market challenges, but to capitalize on them as well. These companies’ longevity can be attributed to clear communication of vision, embedded firmly in all aspects of the “operating fabric.” Coca-Cola has consistently adjusted to market changes and continues to excel.
Individuals within organizations often think in ways that restrict their ability to understand and respond to the complexities of the business world — a “rational technical approach,” according to Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal, authors of Reframing Organizations. They also identified a less common approach termed an “expressive, artistic conception.” This approach has a “sense of choice” and the freedom to develop innovative solutions to critical business issues. In other words, leaders using this style see beyond the realms of possibility.
A classic example is Johnson & Johnson and the Tylenol crisis (in which seven people died from poisoned capsules in 1982). That organization impressively turned the tables of adversity and set new standards for the industry. Will Maple Leaf Foods be able to do the same in the wake of its listeria scare?
Unlike most successful athletes, the majority of organizations do not include reflection as part of the operating regimen. They fail to take the time to think out loud, question and challenge performance or understand the company’s strengths and limitations for success. Reflection provides the focus, the discipline and the perseverance to stay the course and win.
Does your organization have a clear vision? Has it shown its mettle in reframing challenges? Does it have a culture of learning from experience? As McFadden stated, that is the difference between “good enough” and “excellence.”
Matt Hemmingsen is SCNetwork's lead commentator on strategic capability. He has held senior HR leadership roles in global corporations. He is a managing partner with Personal Strengths Canada, a member of an international company focused on improving business performance through relationship awareness. For more information, visit www.personalstrengths.ca or e-mail [email protected].
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How much can you learn?
By Dave Crisp
Scot McFadden is at the top of his game, with a Stanley Cup ring and high-profile clients who are among the best in the world at what they do.
But he isn’t resting on his laurels. He continues to watch, strategize and muse about how to develop further. Not only does he apply his coaching and psychology to sports and clients, but to his own learning and his family members’ as well — a model of learning attitudes that should underlie the ideal of any learning organization.
His relatively soft-spoken manner and approach contrast with an underlying drive to win, or more accurately succeed, at whatever he does — an interesting illustration of how an effective coach-leader can be humble yet irrepressibly focused on results.
Sitting in the audience, I was most struck by his repeated, heartfelt references and his highly respectful attitude toward the people he coaches. He never offered unsolicited opinions on others’ shortcomings. He frequently prefaced his comments with “since you asked…” If only everyone behaved that way — that kind of respect would go a long way in a typical work situation.
Even more notable, though, McFadden inspires his clients to actually ask. Only when a person asks can she learn. And when you begin asking, you realize there is an infinite pool of things to be learned over the course of life, both inside and outside of work. It is part of “becoming all you can be,” the ultimate goal HR holds for every employee and every leader.
The sports arena can create a climate in which people realize they must build on strengths while constantly ironing out weaknesses. I have often been skeptical of sports coaching as too, “rah, rah, just do it,” but McFadden provided interesting alternatives within the usual “grit-your-teeth-and-suffer” approach that rules the sports arena. His approach is to tailor to the individual, a challenge many organizations fail to master. That defines a major role for HR to play: What is winning for each individual in each organization?
Yes, there was plenty of talk of “wanting it enough to work through the pain” and “wanting it more than others,” but there was also recognition that a given task isn’t everyone’s choice and that’s OK. He recommended compassionate, effective solutions in cases where some had simply had enough of the drive for the ultimate win, yet could still contribute well in other roles. Again, we can hope leaders see their way to recognizing the value of that in all organizations. That’s another priority for HR: Getting each person into the right role — not necessarily the highest role but one they love.
It shouldn’t be surprising when you listen to a true expert to find out there is a lot to learn. But after years of listening to motivational presenters on nearly every aspect of leadership, well, you might think you’ve heard it all. Thankfully, McFadden made it easy to recognize deep lessons in human motivation and learning processes that could benefit any organization. How much can we learn?
Dave Crisp is SCNetwork’s lead commentator on leadership in action. He shows clients how to improve results with better HR management and leadership. He has a wealth of experience, including 14 years leading HR at Hudson Bay Co., where he took the 70,000-employee retailer to “best company to work for” status. For more information, visit www.CrispStrategies.com.
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The best is yet to come
By Barry Barnes
The idea of building on strengths makes sense, both intellectually and in practice. But it shouldn’t be done at the expense of ignoring weaknesses, according to Scot McFadden. No one is expected to turn a weakness into a strength. But each of us has to be aware of where we are with risk and take actions to minimize those risks, including developing strategies to improve weaknesses.
One way to improve is through visualization. McFadden pointed out that, since the brain doesn’t know the difference between reality and vividly imagined experiences, people can use visualization and self-talk to improve strengths and weaknesses. And improved performance is what it’s all about.
Since high performance only occurs in a relatively conflict-free environment, we need to ensure all members of our work teams have a common goal, a common understanding of how we’re going to get there and a clear understanding of their individual contributions to the end result.
Clichés that express this opinion — such as “singing from the same page,” “playing the right position” and “wearing the hat that fits” — are often discounted. But if we are to achieve superior performance as a team, that really does involve every individual contributing to his fullest and looking at the team result.
Perhaps the most interesting concept McFadden discussed is the effect of optimism and pessimism on results: Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right. McFadden points out pessimists often blame outside forces or speak in absolutes — everybody does that, no one can achieve it. Realistic optimists, on the other hand, recognize adversity and believe it can be overcome by seeing the consequences of success (visualization).
In organizations, we have to ensure leaders inspire us, plant the seeds of success and lead us to our next best performance. After all, success is usually achieved in smaller steps and rarely through major breakthroughs. If we constantly improve and raise the bar ourselves, we can all be high performers with whatever task we’re working on.
Barry Barnes, CHRP, CEPA, is SCNetwork’s lead communicator on organizational effectiveness. He has held senior roles in major North American corporations as well as consulting to the private sector. He can be reached at [email protected].
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