{"id":246,"date":"2020-01-31T21:14:35","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T21:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonealler.dk\/?p=246"},"modified":"2020-02-01T14:36:26","modified_gmt":"2020-02-01T14:36:26","slug":"the-hazards-of-winning-at-all-cost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonealler.dk\/?p=246&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"The hazards of winning at all cost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A TedTalk <\/a>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. \u00a0If we want to generate success as leaders (parents, coaches), we must look beyond creating \u201cwinners\u201d, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Success is more than winning, and blindly focusing on\nresults, \u201cwinning at all cost\u201d, may not only take away the joy of competing,\nbut can cause lasting damage. A single-minded pursuit of victory can undermine\nlong-time performance. What are then the hazards of a win-at-all cost culture?\nResearch within sports psychology shows how aggression plays a role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Win-at-all-cost cultures are associated with high,\neven intense, levels of arousal. This can in turn lead to increased anxiety\nlevels \u2013 \u201cwhat if I fail\u201d? Anxiety can misdirect attention from the task at\nhand, ie from task-relevant <\/em>to task-irrelevant<\/em> cues, typically more\nconcerned with social evaluation \u2013 \u201cHow do I look\u201d? Some examples: the young\nconsultant worried about the boss\u2019 negative frown if the report is not completed\non time, rather than just focusing on completing the report. Or the student\nworried about parent disappointment if an exam fails, rather than preparing for\nthe actual exam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behavior seen to be increasingly task-irrelevant is\nassociated with higher levels of aggression.  Whereas a little aggression can lead to small gains\nin performance, it will at a certain point be associated with so high levels of\narousal that performance suffers. Ie, the pursuit of victory that often leads\nto aggression, can get in the way of good performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not applicable to what could be called\ninstrumental aggression \u2013 where aggression is used as a means to an end, eg a tactical\nfoul in basketball at the end of the game. Here, aggression is used\ndeliberately and precisely. On the other hand, toxic or hostile aggression is emotionally\ngenerated, and is an end rather than a means, contributing nothing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This type of aggression diverts attention from task completion. The more substantial an athlete\u2019s deviation from optimal arousal is in competition, the higher the probability of impaired task performance and deviations from rules and normative behavior. An athlete\u2019s performance is expected to be assertive but not inappropriately aggressive. Aggressive transgressions indicate a high probability of what is known as a performance crisis \u2013 a far-from-optimal performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a business context, aggressive thoughts or behavior\nwill rarely lead to direct physical violence, as can sometimes be seen in\nsports. But aggression will still impact performance. Overly aroused people can\nfind it very hard to get back to what\u2019s important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding what lies behind behavioral violations\nwill help to avoid problems before they become too serious. Recognize when or\nwhy you experience aggression and try to compensate or regulate your state of\nmind, to get back to focusing on the task at hand. Focusing on motivation and\non your task, working to fulfil your potential, constantly improving yourself and\ndoing your best will drive better results in the long term. You will win more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stimulate the motivation rather than the ego, encourage\nlearning and a preference for challenging tasks, demonstrate a positive\nattitude and be the living example of how effort leads to success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more sports psychology research, check Michael Bar-Eli\u2019s<\/a> book \u201cBoost!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. \u00a0If we want to generate success as leaders … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The hazards of winning at all cost”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":251,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31,30,33,29,32,28,27],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aggression","tag-behavior","tag-coaching","tag-culture","tag-performance","tag-winning","tag-officialmissval"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonealler.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonealler.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonealler.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonealler.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonealler.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lonealler.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253,"href":"https:\/\/lonealler.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions\/253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonealler.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonealler.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonealler.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonealler.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}