Ben Madilynn
In August I left my role as head coach with KNWU – the Dutch National Cycling Union – after another gold-winning performance by the team at the Paris Olympics.
I’ve reflected a lot on my six-year association with KNWU and the transformation of the Dutch cycling team from relative obscurity into serial gold medal winners.
A lot of the lessons from elite level sport can also be applied to business and I’ll be talking about it at BusinessCloud’s FUEL Manchester 2024 event on October 16th.
I often get asked how it is that someone who has never ridden a racing bike can coach eight different riders to Olympic and World Championship medals.
I’ve given this a lot of thought and I’ve broken down the answer into four parts.
• Star performers don’t always make great leaders;
• Plan backwards, not forwards to achieve your goals;
• Major gains vs marginal gains; and
• A ‘win at all cost’ mentality is flawed
Firstly, a bit about me.
I’m a performance coach and scientist.
I began my career in biomedical science before moving into aerospace physiology.
My first position in high performance sport was as a sports scientist for British Cycling before moving into a coaching role with the GB Para Cycling Team.
In 2018 I joined the KNWU – the Dutch National Cycling Union – initially as coach and scientist for the track sprint team, and then as track coach for the endurance team.
In 2022 I became the head coach for KNWU – a period that coincided with a period of unprecedented success in major cycling competitions including the Olympics.
Despite the success I’ve never ridden a race bike but being a ‘star’ performer doesn’t guarantee you’ll be a good leader.
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Here’s my four-point plan to improving performance.
Stars aren’t always great leaders
In my experience being a star performer requires a lot of ‘inward’, self-focused qualities such as drive, individual output and productivity, an element of selfishness, self-discipline, perfectionism.
However an effective leader requires contrasting qualities such as empathy, high emotional intelligence, good communication, and understanding the balance of these in pursuit of perfectionism.
I’m a good case study (along with other coaches in their respective sports like former Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger) in that I didn’t excel in my chosen field but I’m able to lead people in that area.
Planning backwards, not forwards
Something else I’m a big advocate of is planning backwards, not forwards.
What I mean by this is rather than plan forward, start with major deadlines and work backwards from there.
Start with the ‘when?’ – i.e. the deadline, then the ‘what?’ – the goals that need to be achieved and work backwards.
This is something I did a lot with non-negotiable deadlines (ie Olympics) because it helps get a better overview of the approach.
By knowing the deadline and tasks that needs to be achieved, you can break the problem into smaller components and plan how and when to tackle them relative to your deadline.
This can be easily shared with people and can be explained a lot easier.
There’s a technique called ‘5W1H’ which is a problem-solving method which stands for what? who? where? when? why? and how?
The most overlooked part of 5W1H is the why.
Planning is associated with the ‘what’ and ‘how’ but the ‘why’ is also very important as it gives rationale and ‘buy-in’.
It also gives the direction as people can relate their actions or task to how it contributes to the end goal.
Major gains vs marginal gains
Marginal gains is the notion that making small improvements can lead to significant overall improvements.
It’s a worthwhile concept but I’ve always focused on major gains and here’s why.
Marginal games is all about trying to improve every single facet of perceived performance – most of which you cannot measure.
I believe it’s better to understand what success looks like, break it down to its components, then look at what are the biggest factors and what you have available in terms of time, resource and expertise.
At this point you can focus on the big two or three factors and use technology to improve performance.
At the Dutch National Cycling Union, we only focused on the skin suits and overshoes. The rest we didn’t even consider.
At the team previous we only focused on aerodynamic positioning.
‘Win at all cost’ mentality is flawed
At elite level sport, high performing teams are driven by results.
The natural response is to continually reward those who are associated with, or part of, the successful outcomes.
By simply rewarding outcomes you forget about the process and behavioural element.
This encourages an environment that it’s tolerated because we’re winning.
This works in the short-term because you can be blinded by the desperation to win and simply reward performance and not behaviours.
However, in the longer term, this causes distrust and a counter-productive team working environment.
Eventually, it will lead to a big split in the team.
Those who perform well will think they can act how they please as long as they are delivering while those who work hard but aren’t at this level, can become disillusioned.
If this happens a reset is needed because you have to reward behaviours that positively contribute to a positive working environment rather than just outcome.
This approach invariably creates a better environment – and leads to improved performance.
I was very lucky to work with the cyclists I did at the Dutch National Cycling Union but this approach is as relevant for business as it is to sport.
