The Olympics isn’t perhaps the first place you might think of from which to draw business analogies. Yet that’s exactly what Dave Currie, Chef de Mission for the New Zealand Olympic Team, did when he spoke at the Raglan Chamber breakfast on Tuesday 11 September. Dave talked about the importance of knowing what your outcome is – what you want to achieve – before you even start.
In the case of the Olympic support crew of course, it’s about facilitating and supporting the athletes to do their very best and bring home medals wherever possible. For all involved having a passion for what you do and ensuring there are no mismatched expectations is vital. Dave stressed the importance of employing people who have talents other than the core skills you want from them, as well as a can do attitude, a team approach and flexibility.
The changes he’d seen in London were a highlight for Dave with not only everywhere been very clean but extremely enthusiastic crowds of three to four hundred thousand people at all the free events.
Passion was a theme running through Dave’s talk as he talked about how the delegates promoting London as the stage for the 2012 Olympics were so much more passionate than the French, even though, at that point the UK had already hosted the Olympics twice and France were the favourites.
Highlights for Dave were:
- Winning the best banner competition (again!) for the huge silver fern which covered all the glass of the building in which they were housed.
- The Queen making a visit to the NZ camp and how surprisingly delightful, engaging and cheerful she was, despite how she appeared at the opening ceremony.
- The rousing welcome at the eventing arena afforded to Mark Todd. Dave commented that he was greeted with the same vigour as Zara Phillips, the Queens’ own grand daughter, proof indeed of the high regard in which he is held in UK.
- Seeing families around the competitors, especially the yachting girls in Weymouth.
- New Zealand being fifteenth on the medal table just behind Canada. Canada has a population of 34.5 Million.
- Beach volleyball was held behind number 10 Downing Street!
- The individual and team medal winners, especially Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan, the rowers who were in fifth place and moved up the field to take New Zealand’s first gold medal in the last 500 metres.
- A call from the officials letting him know that Valerie Adams has indeed won the gold medal as the Belarussian had been disqualified after a positive drugs test.
Lessons learnt from the Olympics. Think about how these can apply equally in your business:
- It’s important to get it right for athletes who have spent 10-15 years of their lives preparing.
- Athletes have to go beyond where they’ve been before in order to win or do well.
- Keep out of the way, let them do what they do best.
- Make sure everyone knows that they are important and valued. (Dave described how everyone was welcomed formally with a Haka by the people who were already there. So the first few athletes to arrive had about 10 people doing the Haka but those who arrived later had up to 150 people welcoming them. Who wouldn’t feel welcome and supported after that!)
- If you continue to do ordinary things you’ll get ordinary results, you have to commit to doing something extraordinary.
- Use the phone! Email is fine for information, but pick up the phone when something is really important – or talk face-to-face.
- Athletes ask themselves everyday, “What do I have to do today to be better tomorrow?”
Quote of the day: Sir Edmund Hillary once told Dave, “You know, you can’t take two strides over a chasm. When you commit, you have to commit.”
Thank you Dave for your inspiring and motivating speech. And thanks again to the team at the Shack for providing a venue and great food.
Stephanie Philp
Chair