Olympic Gold— Achievement Or Competitive?

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Olympic Gold— Achievement or Competitive?

John Konrads Rome Olympics 1960 Australian Olympic gold John vividly remembers his feelings medalist swimmer, John before the 1500—“butterflies in the Konrads, believes the At the 1960 Rome Olympics, John stomach mixed with serenity. Having a difference between a gold Konrads won two individual medals: ‘knowing’ about being successful. It’s a and bronze medal is all in a bronze and a gold. He claims the sure thing!” the way you think. bronze resulted from an over-focus on Competitive thinking and the gold THE “COMPETITIVE DISEASE” from an Achievement motivation. (See a full description of these thinking When John took the Life Styles styles, Figure 1, on next page.) Inventory™ (LSI) a couple of years ago, he identified what he now calls his Almost three decades later, he has come “Competitive disease.” He says it’s a to understand how these two thinking lifetime challenge to overcome—“It’s styles played out to produce two very a challenge that is winnable through different results. awareness and self knowledge.” In the 400-meter freestyle where John At 58 years old, John says he still came in third, he focused too much battles with his competitiveness every on the daunting figure of triple gold day. Even in a family situation, he medalist and arch rival, Murray Rose. shoots back rather than focusing on John remembers “losing concentration Achievement. or focus on myself by worrying too Overcoming much about what Murray was going to Competitiveness do. As soon as I started thinking those thoughts, I had blown my chances. John believes the first step in overcoming Obviously, I got on the blocks and tried competitiveness is awareness. Once you to persuade myself that I could win, but are aware you can quickly move through the negative thoughts overtook that— acceptance to action. the focus was on the competition, the occasion and rivalry between us.” “The best action is to back off and refocus into yourself and don’t worry This focus produced small but fatal about it. The easiest way to avoid flaws, for example, lifting his head at competitive leanings is to shift focus each turn looking for his competitor. from the importance of the occasion to Immediately after coming in third in completing the immediate task. the 400, Don Talbot, Konrads’ coach, “If the occasion is really very important, immediately wiped the experience then you need to be careful to avoid a by focusing John on the 1500-meter fatalistic attitude—you’ve got to find the freestyle and an achievable goal. He right balance.” did this by creative visualization of the event in considerable detail.

Olympic Gold—Achievement or Competitive?

™ Figure 1: Life Styles Inventory Other tips for moving from Competitive Today, John applies Achievement to Achievement John suggests: thinking in all his business dealings. While this was initially a little harder, he • Focus on internal standards—Personal now runs his own business and coaches Best (PB). Remember the old Boy fellow executives on Achievement Scouts chant: DYB DYB DYB, or principles. “Do Your Best.” • Setting realistic, achievable goals, not He remembers applying Achievement unrealistic goals. For example, don’t thinking to his time at L’Oreal. “It focus on the Olympic gold medal when was hard not focusing on your main you should be focused on winning the competitor, especially if you are number local Club Championships. two in the market. The big challenge was to convince yourself, and your fellow When playing his other sporting passion, executives, on how not to copy what he constantly reminds himself to focus the competitor is doing and how to become a price leader rather than a price Copyright © by Human Synergistics International. All rights reserved. on the “ball,” not the “man.” “I stare at the ball to avoid focusing on my competitor.” follower. You often have to overcome the The LSI is a questionnaire that measures naysayers in your own organization who thinking style. Twelve thinking styles are COMPETITIVENESS IN did not believe we could have our prices reported. The Achievement and Competitive BUSINESS 10% higher because our competitors styles or motivations are often confused in will kill us.” John was always guided sports and business. These two styles can After retiring from swimming in 1964, by L’Oreal’s founder’s Achievement be defined as: John moved into business management motivation—“Ten cents more quality Achievement: The need for Achievement— and has held a number of senior executive and $1 more price—from spending focus on accomplishment, ambition, enjoy- positions, including CEO of L’Oreal three times what other companies were ment of challenges, and the ability to set Australia for 14 years, General Marketing spending on R&D.” realistic, attainable goals. Manager of Ansett Airlines, and Chief of Melbourne Major Events Company. John Konrads is currently an executive coach Competitive: The need to establish a feeling He was also instrumental in getting the with Harris Smith and Associates based in of self-worth through competing against Grand Prix to Victoria. Sydney. and comparing yourself to others. Characteristics include a preoccupation with winning, a desire to be seen as the best, and extreme fear of failure and a strong need to impress others.

Olympic Gold—Achievement or Competitive? About the Circumplex

Human Synergistics International’s Circumplex provides a way to “see” what drives the performance of individual contributors, leaders, work teams and, in short, the entire organization. It illustrates the factors underlying performance in terms of 12 styles of thinking and behaving. Some styles lead to effectiveness and productivity; some do not. Regardless of their impact, they all describe what’s happening inside the organization and provide a direction for change and development. Effective individuals in groups and organizations show STRONGER tendencies along the Constructive styles. 12 Members are expected to gain enjoyment from their work and 11 produce high-quality 1 products/services Members are expected to set Members are expected to be challenging but realistic goals and supportive, constructive, and solve problems effectively open to influence in their dealings with each other

10 2 Members are expected Members are expected to be to avoid making mistakes, work friendly, open, and sensitive to the long hours, and keep “on top” of satisfaction of the work group everything

9 3 Members are expected Members are expected to operate in a “win-lose” to agree with, gain the approval framework and work against of, and be liked by others their peers to be noticed 8 4 Members are expected Members are expected to take charge and “control” oth- to conform, follow the rules, and ers, and make decisions auto- make a good impression cratically

7 5

Members are expected MembersResearch & Development are expected by: Robert A. Cooke, Ph.D. to gain status and influence by to do whatJ. Clayton they Lafferty are, Ph.D. told and clear being critical and constantly 6 all decisionsCopyright © 1973-2009 with superiors challenging one another by Human Synergistics International. Members are expected All rights reserved. Effective individuals in groups to shift responsibilities to others Effective individuals in groups and organizations show and avoid being blamed for and organizations show WEAKER tendencies along the mistakes WEAKER tendencies along the Aggressive/Defensive styles. Passive/Defensive styles.

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