“You don’t really think what could happen to yourself, you think ‘how is what I am doing going to improve the situation?’”. L/Cpl Josh Leakey VC
I am not sure if you saw the story of Josh Leakey this week? It was an incredible story of a modest man who defied the situation he was in to accomplish something in a situation where most people would be rooted to the spot.
So what has this got to do with business, and indeed coaching? If you think about it there are some clear lessons here:
- If you focus only on yourself, you may hold yourself back from being the best you can possibly be in a situation.
- Think about your actions and how they can help. How many times have you been in meetings where you have seen self-destructive behaviors?
- Focus on the outcomes and you might just get there.
If any of these points strike a cord, perhaps you need to reflect on where you are headed, maybe you need to speak to a coach?
It doesn’t end there. Josh went on to say the following:
“If you spend your whole life wondering what could happen to you, then you wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning, you wouldn’t get anything done.”
With this sort if thinking, he could be a life coach or a business guru. Again this suggests:
- Focusing on yourself all the time may not be healthy
- Thinking about what might happen is worse than trying – better to find out what does happen rather than be held back by fear or anxiety
- If you want the results, you have to DO. The results aren’t going to happen without effort
- Life doesn’t owe you a living
But what struck me was what he said about the people around him:
“Everything there written [in the citation] says me, me, me. But I definitely feel it’s a team thing. There were blokes who were with me there on the ground right in amongst it and if it was up to me they would be sat here as well.”
Gracious that instead of taking the limelight he pointed out that he only achieved because of the team. Again, this is a lesson for business and life. Greater success is achieved by:
- Having a good team to support you
- The team pulling together in a common cause
- Recognition that sometimes you just can’t make it on your own
- That the whole is often greater than the sum of the parts (Aristotle)
It doesn’t matter where you find wisdom, what matters is that you find it through observation of what is going on in the world around you. Are you looking, and if so, are you looking hard enough? In this case it takes a 27 year old paratrooper to remind us that focus on outcomes and teamwork can lead to extraordinary things. You may have seen one of my earlier posts “Success doesn’t come to you, you go to it”. Josh’s story just reminded me how true this is. If you aren’t enjoying the success you are expecting, maybe it is time to get a new game plan?
This post was originally posted by Peter Duffell on LinkedIn.
