I read a very interesting article by Martin Johnson (the journalist, not the former England rugby captain and coach) in the Sunday Times entitled ‘Daley makes a splash in pool of sporting celebs’ (February 26th).
The focus of the article was on British diver and Olympic medal hope, Tom Daley, and how the Great Britain performance director, Alexei Evangulov, believes that media engagements and other distractions are having a draining effect on Daley’s talent.
Johnson cited other examples of “less than optimal dedication” in the form of tennis player, Anna Kournikova, and rugby union players, Danny Cipriani and Gavin Henson. These performers epitomize the consequences of not having adequate levels of what I have been writing about in recent blogs, Superior Performance Intelligence. They all have very obvious talent, but have failed to maximize it.
Although he was unaware of it, Martin Johnson then went on to contrast these underachievers with performers who have clearly possessed high levels of SPI in the form of legends Steve Redgrave and Bobby Charlton. I can think of no better example of someone with high SPI than Redgrave. Five Gold Medals in five Olympic Games is a breathtaking feat of longevity and sustainability that is the hallmark of SPI. Less tangible, but equally impressive was Bobby Charlton’s role modeling of dedication, achievement, consistency, humility and integrity throughout his long and distinguished career.
It is not always to spot performers with high and low levels of SPI outside sport, so here’s a challenge for you.
- Who can you name who has demonstrated high SPI in arenas outside sport?
- Who can you name who has demonstrated relatively low SPI in arenas outside sport?
For those of you who have not seen my blog on SPI on the Harvard Business Review website, click on the link below.
Come on, get those answers to me!
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/02/nature_nurture_know-how_1.html
