Life Lessons From the World Cup

Up has brought the world's best soccer players together, but the significance of the tournament goes beyond the matches. The games can also teach us some very important life lessons. So here today we have Liz Bentley, the founder of Liz Bentley Associates, a leadership development and coaching firm. Liz, thank you so much for coming on. It's the same reason why I enjoy watching sports documentaries. I feel like you can learn so much from athletes. What are some of the traits that you recognize and are inspired by when it comes to how they leave both on and off the field? I mean, one of the biggest things we see in athletes, also executives and in people that makes them high performers is their ability to be resilient and handle failure well. What that means is that when you make a mistake, when something goes wrong, you've got to be able to recover really quickly and keep going. You know, whenever something goes wrong, we always feel badly and we kind of regret it and we think, oh, I shouldn't let that happen. But if we stay in that mistake, we can't then go on to create something great and we can't get moving. So it's really high performers are really good at recovering and moving fast. The other thing they have that is really extraordinary is their ability to concentrate. You know, a great athlete can be in a huge arena and feel like they're there alone, not hear anything, not get heckled, not get bothered. And same thing with executives. We see it, their concentration, their ability to stay focused and stay in the moment is so huge and critical. So these two things we really see as game changers performing under pressure, you know, on a world stage, quite literally when it comes to the World Cup. Also, the ability to work with a team, you can be a leader, but you still need the help of everyone to to win. Teamwork makes the dream work. No question. No question about it. You've definitely got to be a great team player. And what happens when you're a great team player and we see this across all sports and again, also in the business world, is that you really take ownership of your responsibility. And when something goes wrong, you own it. You're like, that was mine and I got to do better. But also when other people are making those mistakes, we're very forgiving and graceful. We're giving them that space to really grow and push themselves and not get down on them, while also sometimes giving them the feedback when they need it because they're not seeing it. So that's really what makes great performing teams. Liz, you bring up a great point there. How can employers then, not bosses, help their employees see the best within themselves? Like we know what we can do, but what if sometimes you question it? Well, I mean, we should always be questioning what we're doing and seeing how like how it's actually going and measuring it to the results. Just like in sports and soccer, especially. Look, you can see people play a really hard game and not score a goal. So it's the same thing in the workplace. We have to be hitting our goals. We have to be getting the results. And executives want to be showing their subordinates. This is what we're aiming towards. This is what we were expecting from you. And this is what it's going to look like when we win. And that way, employees feel really clear on what the expectations are and what they're driving toward. All right. You have a clear path forward. Liz, thank you so much for breaking that down. We appreciate it. Steve.