Defeatism isn’t in a leader’s vocabulary

Both competitors exhibited a winning mindset, but it is Carlos Alcaraz that grabbed my attention. He is an example of how great athletes - and leaders - refuse to succumb to defeatism, even when things aren’t going their way.  Leaders, we can learn a lot from him! Let’s delve a little deeper:  

Great leaders keep setbacks in perspective 

As the match got underway, Carlos struggled to find his poise. He lost the first set heavily, yet into the second set, Carlos rallied. He didn’t look defeated, he upped his game, confronted the challenge and refused to see his early setbacks as a trend. This takes courage, determination and tenacity. Not to mention a healthy belief about what’s possible.   

We are naturally disposed to seeing and sensing problems and negatives. All too often in our work with leaders, we encounter limiting beliefs that are, at the least untested, if not wholly untrue. ‘They will never buy our product’, ‘we’ll never get the funding’, ‘not a chance that will get past the board’. These beliefs rarely arise from nowhere. They are usually the result of a setback experience. But they’ve become exaggerated and extrapolated into the future and become limiting by definition. If we believe that no one will buy or finance or join us, then we won’t ask with any confidence. The net result? A self-affirming doom loop that eventually becomes true.  

Just because one or two people haven’t signed up does not mean that no one will. Successful leaders press on, confident that they have something good to offer, something important that must be achieved. They learn from a setback but are not dominated by it. 

Great leaders are not bound by fear 

Carlos Alcaraz had already played against Novak Djokovic in a grand slam competition this year. They met at the French Open semi-finals in May and Alcaraz was roundly defeated.  

He ascribed these to nerves and tension: ‘I have never felt the tension that I did in that match,’ he said.  This makes it even more remarkable that just a matter of months later at Wimbledon, he overcame tension to eventually win the competition. It would have been easy, normal in fact, to feel the fear that crippled his former encounter. Yet he overcame that former experience, presumably learning from it rather than being bound by it.  

Fear is powerful. It can rob us of opportunity. Effective leaders recognise the difference between productive fear - that which prevents reckless behaviour - and crushing fear, which curtails achievement. It’s the difference between risk awareness and risk avoidance. Awareness of risk enables proper preparation. Being immersed in fear can create the very opposite; rather than putting effort into overcoming or preparing for problems, it becomes easier to avoid the risk by not participating. The ‘I can’t lose if I don’t enter’ mindset is a form of defeatism that ruins creativity and constrains growth.  

Great leaders are tenacious

This is perhaps an obvious statement. The best leaders don’t quit easily. At 4 hours and 42 minutes, the Wimbledon final was the second longest on record. Neither competitor was willing to quit. However, not all determination is necessarily healthy. The productive drive is founded on a positive vision of the future. This, when combined with a well-informed belief that the organisation (or in the case of a competitive athlete, the individual) is equipped to achieve that vision, is the basis for a healthy drive. The determination that’s founded in fear – ‘I can’t be seen to fail’ - can cause people to persist with ventures that are objectively failing. Ignoring data and senses to the contrary, a fear-based leader will continue down an unhelpful, possibly even destructive path, for way too long. We observe this with leaders who struggle to delist products that are no longer selling, repurpose strategies that are not achieving their outcomes or exit poorly performing colleagues.   

Tenacious leaders are possessed by a healthy vision for the future.   

Great leaders are inspiring 

Watching two tennis champions compete for the title was exciting. Leaders with healthy drive are inspiring. They create a followership that enables fantastic outcomes to be achieved. Whether a small team or large organisation, without positive drive, it is difficult to achieve much of any lasting worth. Once again, it’s the quality of drive that makes the difference between an inspiring leader and a suffocating one. Leaders who apply drive to whip their people into action might achieve short-term successes, but the damage they inflict will ultimately - and sometimes quickly - ruin their companies. Truly inspirational leaders galvanise their people not so much on the strength of their personality but on the vision and mission of their organisations. They can convey purpose and empower people to achieve something great. This is what creates working conditions that practically everyone enjoys.  

A winning mindset is crucial for effective leadership. What will help you to press forward and overcome fear today?