Sandy Mamoli (Nomad8)
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How the Olympics Can Make You a Better Person
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Sandy Mamoli (Nomad8)
- 1. What I learned from a professional sports career (so you don’t have to) Sandy Mamoli Nomad8
- 2. @smamol
- 4. @smamol
- 6. Sprint training with resistance @smamol
- 9. My perfect holiday @smamol
- 11. Part of a team @smamol
- 16. Barca ‘92 No pain, no Spain…
- 18. @smamol
- 19. 6 key learnings
- 20. 1. Pick your team wisely @smamol
- 21. Be the worst player on the best team that will still accept you. @smamol
- 23. Choose your team wisely! @smamol
- 24. @smamol
- 25. Find people who are better than you! @smamol
- 26. 2. Know when to go
- 27. When you have outgrown your team: leave! @smamol
- 28. 3. Collaboration is key @smamol
- 32. You don’t need to be friends to succeed together! @smamol
- 34. Dreams… @smamol
- 35. The no Asshole Rule @smamol
- 36. 4. Be good at feedback @smamol
- 37. Feedback on the field @smamol
- 38. Feedback off the field @smamol
- 41. 5. Never stop learning
- 42. Don’t try to look good! @smamol
- 43. Take your mind off the outcome and stay in the moment
- 45. Fail often - but give a shit! Fail early, fail often - but give a shit!
- 46. No idea is a bad idea until you have tried it! @smamol
- 47. Keep evolving
- 48. 6. Be deliberate about your career
- 50. When you feel fear you’re in the right place!
- 51. You’ll end up getting the good gigs
- 52. You’ll have the emotional agility to be world-class
- 53. @smamol Sports has made me who I am
- 54. World-class tips • Pick your team wisely • Know when to go • Collaboration is key • Be good at feedback • Never stop learning • Be deliberate about your career @smamol
Editor's Notes
- - Recovering Olympian. - Agile coach: Organisations design and create high-perf teams. Qualified Part of world class teams. Professional athlete - part of my country’s Olympic team. ————————— Hello! My name is Sandy. I am a recovering Olympian. I am also an Agile coach. I help organisations design and create awesome teams. I think I am qualified to talk about teams. Part of world class teams. Professional Athlete. Represented country Olympics. Sport called handball.
- I am a former Olympian Represented Austria - handball - 1992 Olympics Today going to talk about what I have learned … career .. you don’t have
- Nowadays … Organisations … design and create high-perf teams Some … worked with I invented a process - design - self-selection … i wrote a book … Qualified … Part of world class teams.
- This is not a rugby game Kiwis … unlikely have heard of - fact is: 2nd biggest sport in Europe - after football professional leagues Olympic discipline since early 1970s big deal … All Blacks for you .. handball
- Much better than explain Show 1 minute 30 secs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRmVypktZ0s
- As you can see, at an early age I started doing sprints with resistance already
- Quickly realised the importance of stretching … … and of being tall … All of my childhood I was obsessed with sports
- Sports geek My stretching and resistance training … not make me the most social person School for athletes - 16
- School for athletes - 16 Idea of a perfect holiday all my holidays traveling to youth tournaments Italy
- Joy of achievement … Pleasure winning …preserved till today NOT preserved … pink jersey … size XXL Hey it was the 80s
- Key: As part of team Greatness is never achieved alone sports/work: succeed/fail —————————— 7 people on the field / 12 in wider field - like a tech team we succeed and fail together
- True mastery: Need to be professional After finished school Did to me … photo This IS your JOB ————— - So, in oder to be really good I needed to be a professional athlete. This is what they do to you … Hideous first picture that we had to autograph After finished school Professional means not just getting paid for playing, beside your day job - this IS your job!
- - My first professional team Hypo Niederrost. AT champion, 3 time European Champions League Winner
- pain management - 100% dedication day: training 2x ever done uphill sprints & vomit same business … teams … coding is hard work! startups … product development okay … not walk in the park —— world of professional sports is an exercise in pain management - This is what it means to be a professional athlete day: training 2x, ever done uphill sprints and vomited? (just to go on?)
- like sw development’s phase 2 in between: active relaxation get your red blood cell count up … in between: active relaxation (synonym for pain: massage, physio, cold water) - like sw development’s phase 2 constant travel: training camps 6 weeks (colorado, brutal pain) get your red blood cell count up …
- This is where it (all this pain) got me: In 1992 - yes I am that ancient ;-) - I went to the Olympics in Barcelona. Pain management … open secret
- 5th (4th = worst!) - 4th :-( - worst possible outcome ——— It took us a year to qualify: You need to finish top 5 in world or top 3 in European championships, qualifying tournaments (12 or 16) Finished 5th - glad. Worst place = 4th
- - Not Tatoo - regret - life lessons only now - step back … put in perspective see things relate lessons & skills directly applicable to work NOT ANALOGY ———————————— I didn’t get the tattoo … only person regret … instead I got life lessons since then … uni, dev, coach - life happened only now that when I step back that I can see: (made me who I am): How things relate and how lessons and skills and things I learned from sports that have direct application in my work. So, this is not an analogy …
- Share with you 6 learnings … took away … prof career
- How do you pick your team? Why is it so important?
- How much learn: team! Best teams - best players, best coaches Learn from others. Playing with others. Better. League. Great players: Normalise standards. No OMG Olympics Great Coaches. Pick the right team: Best will take you! ———————- How does learning happen? How do you become world class? Mastery is all about learning. How do you learn? You learn from others. From playing with others. Others who are better than you. Out of your league. Normalise standards. One of the most important things that enable learning is to pick the right team
- NOT FUN! 16- join Austria’s best team - Champion’s League Age, formal/informal you, nothing in common + had never trained so hard Fun? No! - But satisfying. Knew would get me to where I wanted to be NORMALISE HIGH PERFORMANCE - not like “OMG, I’m going to the Olympics. All your mates are too!” ————————- NZ: Be a big fish in a small pond. Can be tempting to just enjoy. Okay but … Sports has taught me not to do that 16 offer to join Austria’s best team, Champion’s League winner, NOT FUN! Average age 25-30, by far youngest, formal/informal you, nothing in common with people, alone + had never trained so hard in my life Fun? No! - But it was satisfying. And I knew it would be get me to where I wanted to be: the best team in the world
- Work! - squad, company, team - Choose wisely If lucky … self-selection … choose squad SS: 3 questions - learn/teach If not … ——————————————————————- Do the same at work! Put yourself into a context where we can learn from others -> other people who are so good that we normalise high performance both team mates and coaches
- If you aren’t that lucky … 1 year of my life HOWTO
- => Today apply - people talk, circles … learning from top international people Aussies learned a timtam slam - got into the top 5 people Living in NZ - be top 5 - others talk to you! Become REALLY good Nothing to lose .. everything to gain … Take advantage of it ————————————————- => Today apply: choosing my clients/jobs wisely, challenge, surrounding myself with people who are really really good. => Being part of a group of international coaches. Twitter. Travel. -> recommend people do the same!
- Feel can’t leave Stay in teams, stay in jobs … when shouldn't Fear: Letting people down
- Feel can’t leave Stay in teams, stay in jobs … when shouldn't Fear: Letting people down Outgrow team - better offer -strive Leave! Work: Leave when you are the best. Self-Select out. In sports it’s okay. You outgrow teams. You get a better offer. It should do be the same at work. If you can’t learn anymore. Once you’re the best player on the team you need to leave! change jobs change teams - if you’re lucky you can self-select (if not read my book :-)
- Collaboration is hard! Gets harder the more world-class Why?
- Chosen by skill and talent background: socio economic, age, intelligence, values Not normally friends, often not even like But best right back … play! Best teams … diverse .. sports = good ——————————— Sports team: People are chosen by skill and talent background: socio economic status, age, intelligence, values - (not really gender or culture) People not normally be friends with You often don’t even like them. Best right back in the country or the world so you want to play with them! - In sports the best teams are diverse, it’s not a group of people who are like each other (backgrounds, perspectives).
- Can’t find picture … what do you do? ALWAYS cats … World: AKL 41%, AMS: 45% Tech not so good! Think meritocracy … learn to deal with .. Super Diversity … benefit … actively create it. Challenge: hire like us - not best results ———————————————— Same is true in work life … We need diversity to get great results! World today: AKL 41%, Amsterdam: 45% not born there (MC) - learn how to deal with that Super Diversity, actively create it. Goeje morgen, mike and brenda, 22 nationalities, 50 people Danger actively aware of in the tech world: Easy to hire people who are like us. Not what gives us the best results. Consciously - SS: how to pick => learn, teach
- Often say … need to be friends … startup world. I’d like to challenge it! Experience: no need - only need respect and trust. Feel safe. Not saying should not - nice - 1 friend, not alone But not prerequisite. I don’t need to be your friend. But I need to be able to trust you. —————————— Often hear people say that you need to be friends with your colleagues. Especially in the startup world. I’d like to challenge that in work life My experience tells me that we don’t need to like each other outside the field. Outside the workplace. We just need to respect each other and feel safe to work together. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be friends. In fact it is very nice and beneficial to have at least one friend at work/ on a team. You’re not alone. But it’s not necessary for everyone to be friends outside of work or sports. All we need is …
- - They ran “Project Aristotle” starting in 2012 and running over several years to discover the right ingredients and searching for the perfect team. Safety! Trust - very different from like
- Safety within diversity -> Shared purpose Glue of cohesion. Shared dreams/goals (sports/work) Differences irrelevant .. less important. Put aside an focus ——————————- Glue of cohesion. Shared dreams/goals (sports/work) The glue that makes differences irrelevant or at least less important than the goal. It makes it possible to put differences aside and focus on the parts that are necessary.
- Respect. People feel safe to learn. ground rules of interaction - explicit agreements … relate to each Regardless how good or talented - No Asshole rule. Book? Cost of 1 at work. Hinders performance. Sports: Player who doesn’t pass. Work: holding information … power games. BA not learn … Dev not test Get to change behaviour or get rid ——————————— Glue of cohesion: ground rules of interaction - explicit agreements of how we relate to each other Respect. People feel safe to learn. Regardless how good or talented - No Asshole rule. Read the book? Cost of one asshole at work. Hinders performance. In sports that’s the player who doesn’t pass. Who wants to make the goal. At work it’s the person holding information and playing power games. In both need to get them to change behaviour or get rid of that person.
- Good at both giving and receiving feedback Not an easy thing to do
- Tell: Not pass … not okay. NEED From each other - Need the ball here. Not there. On the field: not after, not before. Right there. Junior/Senior Need to tell the player who doesn’t pass that this is not okay. Giving feedback and letting know what we need from each other. On the field: not after, not before. Right there. Need the ball here. Not there. From everyone! Junior or senior. New player or captain. Speak your mind. Share observations.
- wait - judgement -bigger Personal story: undisciplined, talent If behaviour impacts .. overall goal … need to be able to talk about it. No “undiscussables” Other things can wait a bit - judgement call. You need to lose weight. Not personal at all - shared goal! Personal story: undisciplined, talent - liked the image of me. Older player took me aside …”If you do this, it has this impact on me. I’m working extremely hard …” -> we need to do this at work too! If behaviour impacts the overall goal we need to be able to talk about it. No “undiscussables” found more difficult to grasp, esp. in NZ, line between being rude and direct is fine, need to work on aspect of learning, feedback, openness. => FRAMEWORK Radical Candour - talk about tomorrow open space session
- found more difficult to grasp, esp. in NZ direct feedback from a position of caring line between being rude and direct is fine, need to work on aspect of learning, feedback, openness. => FRAMEWORK Radical Candour - Forget the techniques ANNA story
- Vinko - Montenegro - world class coach Learned from him: Others - sponsors, audience - no relevance You .. position hand … throwing - not care => vinko -> listen! Work - pick - disregard/distraction Coach - trust - understand something - I try it! (Who he is) ——— Do the same at work. Pick the people you listen to wisely. Disregard the rest. They are just distraction. in sports we pay coaches - we listen! we try out what they tell us to do. Be coachable! But do consider the source. If any of you told me I needed to change the position of my hand while throwing - wouldn’t give a fuck. If it was my coach I’d listen. (Not that far out: every man and his dog in the audience, sponsors do that) Do the same at work. Pick the people you listen to wisely. Disregard the rest. They are just distraction.
- I hate learning Learning is not comfortable High performance requires you to constantly push yourself
- Worst player ( tough ) Not try look good - appearances 0 vanity - don’t hide shortcomings -> learn a lot faster Recognise Learning not pretty: courage ugly! ————————————————————— If you are the worst player on a team … really tough … Not trying to create appearances of 0 vanity - don’t hide shortcomings - learn a lot faster Recognise Learning won’t look not pretty: courage to be ugly while! TODAY: Still doing today in my work. => Apply today: Pick challenges, I try out things i haven’t tried before. Hell, standing here today with no idea if you’re even remotely interested in this topic.
- Taking your mind off the outcome and stay in the moment
- Once at that level … Sports AND in business: not win .. do what others. not win … same over and over. OWN ways. Take risks Listen to everyone, follow no one! Amplified learning …. get great Important in sports AND in business: we don’t win by by doing what other people do. Or by doing the same thing over and over again.. Time to Outgrow our idols, outgrow the people on the posters on our walls Find our OWN ways and do things our OWN ways. Be ourselves!
- Products - no emotions Performance - mistakes okay - need to care or won’t learn Learn: Dig a tunnel … Then can we use the fuel as motivation to learn Work: Try - fail - care - be even more motivated to learn and make it work. It matters! ——— For products 100% true - no emotions. But when it’s you … So often I see people apply to themselves what we apply to produces. bummer - failed. But you need to care. When you try something and you stuffed it up you need to feel shit, be embarrassed, when you lose you want to dig a tunnel out of the court. Same needs to happen at work: Try - fail - care - be even more motivated to learn and make it work. It matters!
- Agile companies are ahead! “allow” for a degree of experimentation. And sometimes not getting it right. Use it. If not - move jobs. Trial balloons ——————————————————— Sports and work life: Courage to learn. Try new things. Agile companies are ahead! “allow” for a degree of experimentation. And sometimes not getting it right. ——- maybe longer: In Sports sometimes difficult to maintain - hero status - that pushes a fixed mindset -> “talent of the century” - read that in a newspaper, PRESSURE! Prove you’re worth it, can’t fail. Took me a while to develop.
- Don’t try the easy stuff Push yourself - learn a new programming language, learn how to program For everyone: sports keeps evolving … better athletes If each of us … better and better
- All the above stuff will result in good career management
- Safety to fail … Afford it, since my first job: had fuck off money so never had to stay in a job where I had stopped learning
- When you feel fear AND excitement Stretching Trying new things … can fail
- If you do the previous pick your teams well, perform well, push through … good gigs good teams want you
- Emotional agility to deal with anything
- Sports had made me who I am today. I am very glad that I made the choice of my first career. Prevented me from becoming an Austrian fashion model in Lederhosen.
- So, to sum up …
- Work towards everyone’s strengths. That’s why you are team. Wing. Talent. Strength. This is what I did - jump. Sports: Maximise Strengths. Supplement weaknesses with other people. Build your work team like a sports team. When you have the chance to choose at work - not just fun, you want to do, -> how can you supplement each other? (teach? learn?)
- And I'm also glad that I am now in a world that is not a 0 sum game. Where in order for me to win, other’s don’t have to lose and vice versa. Where I we can collaborate but still use what I have learned. And even thought my world has changed I can still apply what I have learned.
- Honest relationship that you can stay in or leave In sports and professional teams if people outgrow a team, want to try something new or think they can learn more somewhere else. Startups: can be hard. Honest in our relationships within the team but also to the team. Over when it’s over and it’s okay to leave a team.
- Something sports has taught me the hard way. something athletes are really good and also really bad at
- On a professional sports team every single person has outstanding talent. Every single person works hard. Is highly motivated. Can suffer. Wants it more than everything else in life. Margins are so small. You do everything that gives you a tiny advantage. A marginal gain. (Like in a workplace - everyone has an IQ that’s higher than average. Not that extreme but these are elites. )
- Success requires relentless focus. Focus on the big picture but also focus in terms of shutting everything out during a game. You play in a court with 5000 audience, you need to shut everything out. Every piece of doubt, every distraction. Tunnel vision. You need to deliver. Delivering in real time This one moment is all you’ve got, really. It doesn’t matter what happens afterwards, it doesn’t matter what happened before. Nobody cares if you nailed it in practice, or if you can pull it off one hour later. You have that one moment to deliver and if you have put in the work and it comes out well then it’s the most awesome feeling you can imagine.
- When you got it, it’s the best feeling in the world. the feeling of being on, of being in control and of being able to fine tune what happens on the court or in the room. The feeling of being able to push or pull back, of speeding up or slowing down or changing tack. It’s being in the zone, in a state of flow, that makes sports and public speaking addictive. What we are looking for for the rest of our lives …
- Controlling your mental state: making sure you’re at that perfect state of arousal. Not too nervous or you’ll panic. Ever seen anyone make beginner mistakes under stress? Ever seen people choke? Done it? Not too little or you won’t have an edge, you won’t be in the zone. Believe me, when you’re playing in front of 5000 people or more and the TV cameras are there you’re nervous. It’s freaky. But you need to put that out of your mind, you need to control your thoughts and the level of adrenaline flowing and just focus. You need to stop your brain from even thinking about failure and get that tunnel vision that makes you focus 100%. It’s this absolute mental control, this complete focus where nothing else matters that is one of the most interesting challenges in sports. The closest in professional life is public speaking - the moment, the control of your mental state.
- Requires you to be mentally in a really good shape To deal with pressure and anxiety
- What you do I don't want to do take responsibility for your clients the team to pick. Set boundaries. Thanks you don't want to do. Learn to say no. Team did not stay the same, 1 season, new blood, not stale, research, not disbanding, squadification We are not all equal. Some better than others. There is a hierarchy. Not bad. Star players and no asshole rule.
- What do we do in sports? today it’s called “mindfulness” - meditation, 10-20 minutes a day, focusing on your body, your thoughts, your breathing - learn to control your state of arousal Still do that. Well I forgot about it. Then it came back. I thought it was stupid. then I realised it’s the same thing. And I remembered how useful that was :-)
- Learned is: take breaks Sports people are good at taking breaks and having slack: In a training plan you always make sure there is enough time for restitution. If you don’t do this you won’t get better. You need downtime. Athletes are very good at doing this. But are really bad at taking breaks when injured.
- Injuries - dark side of sports People who are highly motivated. Young. They just want to achieve. Lose the big picture. Injured: cortison, pain management, stuff to build up muscle. Just train through it. Just push through it. No one protects them: coaches, adults. Sometimes doing the same in professional life: when we feel tired, are burnt out, we need to make sure to take care of ourselves. Ask family and friends. Very hard to keep the big picture overview when you are tired and fighting. Can be as bad as doping / internet scene around 2000: kokain, all nighters etc