“Not only did I see very skilled basketball players, I also saw mentally strong players."

Introduction:

This past weekend I watched the NCAA Women’s Basketball tournament. I do not normally watch basketball, men’s or women’s. I played basketball for 2 years in my youth, however, I’m only 5’2’’, so I was never destined to be a basketball star! Hockey became my sport of choice!

Sports:

However, the hype around the games, the players and the matchups finally got to me. I caved and turned on the Iowa vs UConn game on Friday night.

And boy am I glad I did. It was an amazing game. I found myself glued to the TV!! After watching the Friday game, I knew I had to go out of my way to watch the championship game on Sunday.

I was so impressed with the Iowa team and Caitlin Clark. Not only because of their skill level on the court, but also how they carried themselves.

They worked together as a team. They were down most of the game, however, that did not stop them. They discovered different ways to become successful TOGETHER. They lifted each other up and pushed each other to never give up.

Not only did the Iowa team draw me to the championship game, I was also incredibly intrigued by the possibility of seeing South Carolina clinch the title and solidify a history making perfect season.

Just like during Friday’s game, as I was watching the championship game, I was incredibly impressed with what I saw on the court.

Not only did I see very skilled basketball players, I also saw mentally strong players.

I saw women who emulated determination, perseverance, and composure.

The final score does not show the continuous battle that the players on each team had to go through during the game. It does not show the rollercoaster ride, the back and forth that happened.

It does not show what the players had to endure.

In the end, South Carolina won the game; however, South Carolina was not winning the entire time.

And Iowa was not losing the entire time.

It was continuously back and forth. The players went through a whirlwind of emotions.

At multiple points throughout the game, South Carolina was losing; however, I did not see any South Carolina players hanging their heads or giving up. They stood up, stayed strong and kept playing.

When Iowa was behind, I did not see any of their players get down on themselves. It was only in the last 30 seconds of the game, when they knew for certain that it was over, that I could see their body language change to that of defeat.

Prior to that it was all determination and grit.

They were continuously getting knocked over, both literally and figuratively, yet time and time again they got back up (and they helped each other get back up).

There is so much more to sports than meets the eye. Players not only need to be physically skilled, they also need to be mental and emotional skilled in order to be successful.

These skills are the undercurrents. The ‘invisible’ skills that were going on beneath the surface of that championship game. ‘Underneath’ the visible basketball game.

These skills are determination, perseverance, composure, mental toughness, overcoming adversity, not giving up, learning and growing and they are INCREDIBLY important skills to master in both sport and life.

Without these skills neither of these teams could have made it to the championship game.

Business:

In business, there are also ups and downs, often daily.

Just like in sport, in business, we get ‘knocked down’ time and time again.

This means that our employees also need to tap into these ‘invisible’ undercurrent skills to become successful.

Our employees’ strength in these ‘undercurrent’ skills is what can make or break a business and its culture.

Because just like in sports, our businesses go through periods of winning and losing.

Every single year, month, week and day in business, we are going to win some, and we are going to lose some.

For this reason, we need to carry over the lessons from sport.

We need to focus on developing these ‘invisible’ skills of determination, perseverance, composure, mental toughness, overcoming adversity, not giving up, learning and growing within our employees.

As leaders, we need to look at ourselves and understand what we are doing when we’re losing the game.

Are we hanging out heads and giving up? Or are we staying strong and determined?

Do we turn our focus to our team and how we can best ‘play the game’ together? Or are we saying “to hell with them” I’ll do it myself?

Business is a team sport; we can’t do it ourselves!

Understanding our team’s ownership and mastery of these ‘invisible’ skills, these ‘undercurrents’ can help us build better teams and better businesses.

We cannot only focus on the visible ‘basketball’ skills. We also need to be aware of what is happening beneath the surface.

This concept is connected to the elements of Innovation, Stability and Connection.

To learn more about the 6 Back to Basics Elements, click here.