One Krav Maga Lesson Choked My Fear of Failure.
Leaders: Drop the Win-Lose Sports Metaphors and Coach Risk and Resilience Instead
In the space of a single, sweaty, Krav Maga lesson, the heroine faces her painful childhood gym class anxieties, mashed up with her worst mid-thirties independent woman fears of getting jumped by a drug dealer.
Are you a leader who has a failure-or-glory metaphor sports metaphor to inspire your teams? Just sit tight and humour me for a bit.
I can count on one hand the number of (ok, male) executives I’ve worked with whose names I DON’T associate with a sports-related win-or-lose story that was repeatedly emphasised in one-on-ones or team meetings.
For example. Thomas/Hockey was all about setting personal goals and being a team player. Andrew/Cycling was all about pushing yourself to grind through the hill workouts and then feel slightly guilty about taking rest days. Bill/Skiing was all about the unreal exhilaration of flying down the slopes and then the wounded glory of breaking a business-critical limb. Then there was David/Outdoor Adventure who allegedly survived a run-in with a polar bear in Churchill…there are more.
