A TedTalk by ex-Head Coach of the UCLA Gymnastics Team Valerie K. Field recently showed up in my feed. Miss Val is considered one of finest coaches of all times, and her TedTalk message is: When we want to win at all cost, we break human beings. If we want to generate success as leaders (parents, coaches), we must look beyond creating “winners”, and instead focus on stimulating resilience and confidence through the use of respectful honesty. Not blame/ shame/force, since this can drive even the greatest talents to stop wanting to be great.
Success is more than winning, and blindly focusing on results, “winning at all cost”, may not only take away the joy of competing, but can cause lasting damage. A single-minded pursuit of victory can undermine long-time performance. What are then the hazards of a win-at-all cost culture? Research within sports psychology shows how aggression plays a role.
Win-at-all-cost cultures are associated with high, even intense, levels of arousal. This can in turn lead to increased anxiety levels – “what if I fail”? Anxiety can misdirect attention from the task at hand, ie from task-relevant to task-irrelevant cues, typically more concerned with social evaluation – “How do I look”? Some examples: the young consultant worried about the boss’ negative frown if the report is not completed on time, rather than just focusing on completing the report. Or the student worried about parent disappointment if an exam fails, rather than preparing for the actual exam.
Behavior seen to be increasingly task-irrelevant is associated with higher levels of aggression. Whereas a little aggression can lead to small gains in performance, it will at a certain point be associated with so high levels of arousal that performance suffers. Ie, the pursuit of victory that often leads to aggression, can get in the way of good performance.
This is not applicable to what could be called instrumental aggression – where aggression is used as a means to an end, eg a tactical foul in basketball at the end of the game. Here, aggression is used deliberately and precisely. On the other hand, toxic or hostile aggression is emotionally generated, and is an end rather than a means, contributing nothing.
This type of aggression diverts attention from task completion. The more substantial an athlete’s deviation from optimal arousal is in competition, the higher the probability of impaired task performance and deviations from rules and normative behavior. An athlete’s performance is expected to be assertive but not inappropriately aggressive. Aggressive transgressions indicate a high probability of what is known as a performance crisis – a far-from-optimal performance.
In a business context, aggressive thoughts or behavior will rarely lead to direct physical violence, as can sometimes be seen in sports. But aggression will still impact performance. Overly aroused people can find it very hard to get back to what’s important.
Understanding what lies behind behavioral violations will help to avoid problems before they become too serious. Recognize when or why you experience aggression and try to compensate or regulate your state of mind, to get back to focusing on the task at hand. Focusing on motivation and on your task, working to fulfil your potential, constantly improving yourself and doing your best will drive better results in the long term. You will win more.
Stimulate the motivation rather than the ego, encourage learning and a preference for challenging tasks, demonstrate a positive attitude and be the living example of how effort leads to success.
For more sports psychology research, check Michael Bar-Eli’s book “Boost!”