When it began I thought it was crazy to bring athletes together from around the globe during the middle of a global pandemic, which could see one or two COVID-positive competitors spread the virus to dozens of countries – just for a sporting event.
How wrong I was.
Sure we watched transfixed as the Australian swimmers owned the pool, cheered our beach volleyball women to a silver medal, and celebrated Andrew Hoy’s equestrian efforts (would it even be an Olympics without him competing?!).
But in these difficult times, it was seeing the magnificence, the brilliance of honourable and humble champions which provided much needed inspiration and hope. The Olympics gave us Boomer Patty Mills inspiring his teammates in the basketball, Cedric Dubler helping Ashley Moloney to a bronze in the decathlon, Peter Bol running in the 800m final after fleeing war-torn Sudan and his incredible post-race interview. And so many other moments – too many to mention.
What it did bring home to me is that while we are locked down and more regularly working remotely, the opportunities we have to interact and be inspired by our work team-mates can be limited. The enforced isolation makes it critical for us (and for leaders to help) to find the motivation which comes from seeing firsthand the efforts of our colleageus, to celebrate their successes and to learn those invaluable lessons which come from watching how others deal with adversity and challenge.
Inspiration is important for any team – sporting or otherwise – if they are to work towards and deliver excellence. It makes our communications and engagement with our colleagues at this time so much more important in the more remote COVID world we are living in. The Olympics demonstrated that while we may be separated, there are still ways to inspire us individually and collectively – we just have to find them, to give us hope, to give us strength and to give us the stimulation and motivation necessary to rise to brilliance and deliver our very best.
We all need the inspiration to produce our own moments of triumph which will, to quote 100m backstroke gold medalist Haylee McKeown, have us yelling “F*** yeah”!
Micomm Consulting 