An Olympic Management Lesson for Us All

Second place. Third prize. Making the finals, but not placing. Too often, our media calls out those who excel, but come up short. Our culture can turn excellence into mediocrity, even inferiority. Think about it. We regard the loser of the Super Bowl as a loser, not the runner up of the entire National Football League - the top football league on the planet. The same can be said for almost any individual or team that finishes second - or even lower - in any competition, any tournament, any league - anything. Winners win. Everyone else, well...

We see it in the sports media, where countless hours are spent discussing how games were lost, and who - exactly who - lost them… even if the loser is someone like LeBron James...

This idea is almost constantly reinforced in a culture where we do “embrace debate” on just about everything. And in the fictional sports world, we have the “Ricky Bobby” principle, where the idea was cemented into many of our heads with the simple axiom that in sports, “If you’re not first, you’re last!”

But this perception of second place or lower as “losing” goes well beyond sports today. We have the Alec Baldwin famous “Always Be Closing” speech from “Glengarry Glen Ross” that framed just how important it is to be first in business, where third prize is “you’re fired!”

And so out of all of the news coming out of a very unusual, spectator-free and COVID intensive Summer Olympics, one of the biggest headlines was made by American swimmer, Lilly King. She is a highly accomplished swimmer, having won 2 gold medals at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics and now winning 3 more medals at the Tokyo games. However, her 3 medals this time were silver and bronze, not gold. And as such, she came under criticism for not winning gold. She responded in a press conference that the American attitude - both in the media and in the public - that the Olympics are a “gold or bust” was wrong, bluntly stating: "Pardon my French, but the fact that we're not able to celebrate silver and bronze is bullshit."

As happens these days, her remark started a firestorm on social media…

...with of course, shall we say, vast differences in opinions!

And a real debate over our emphasis on winning being the only thing that matters…

As Henry Bushnell of Yahoo Sports put it so well:

“At the very least, American exceptionalism seems to require gold... It’s the Olympic Binary, win or lose. And it’s nonsense.”

Analysis

As a strategic management consultant and professor, I can safely say that it’s not just the Olympics - or even sports - where this attitude shows. Yes, it is omnipresent in companies today as well, and that is a dangerous thing that managers must be keenly aware of today. Too often, to paraphrase the famous quote of then San Francisco 49ers Coach Mike Singletary, “We want winners”...and winners only, in our organizations.

Yes, we do want to have exceptional performers. We want those who excel. In short, we do want winners. But we need more than one of them, and if we take this philosophy seriously, all too often we find companies, work units, teams, etc. that really don’t work, because the focus is too much on winning individually, rather than on winning collectively. In far too many instances today, we manage this way and work this way ourselves. And that can be not just counterproductive. In fact, it can be quite destructive in companies today, both large and small alike.

As managers, we no doubt need to foster winners among our employee ranks. We need top performers to lead the way and provide a model for others to follow and to learn from. However, we don’t want to promote the idea that winning is the only thing that matters. That can lead to really bad outcomes today.

Instead, managers need to celebrate excellence and winning, but also honor and reward those who strive, but perhaps come up a bit short, as they contribute mightily and just might be the “winners” of the future. Managers also need to recognize and honor those who might not be stars, but who are good team members and help foster a sense of camaraderie and organizational citizenship to help better serve their company, their coworkers, and ultimately, their customers. In the end, managers need to recognize that even in fields where individual performance does, at least on the surface seem to matter most, such as real estate and other sales jobs, it always does take a village to make things work, both for that individual and for the organization to thrive.

So, this article should be a wake-up call for managers everywhere, coming from a highly unlikely source in this young, highly accomplished Olympic swimmer. You should ask yourself - really ask yourself - if you yourself - and even those who might manage under you - are putting too much emphasis on “winning” as opposed to other outcomes. If you find yourself answering “yes,” then you would be well-advised to change your individually-focused approach and move toward a more team-focused outlook. In doing so, you can become a better manager, develop and retain better employees, and achieve better results - in customer service, employee morals, sales, profits, etc. - all by working together better for the greater good of all.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

About David Wyld

David Wyld is a Professor of Strategic Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, publisher, executive educator, and experienced expert witness. You can view all of his work at https://authory.com/DavidWyld.

Social Media Links to David Wyld:

• on Facebook
• on LinkedIn
• on Twitter