Coach takes performance psychology from athletic arena to business world

Rick McGuire, the University of Missouri’s head track and field coach since 1982, is well known for helping coaches motivate athletes at the collegiate, national and international levels. But his techniques apply to the board room as well as the locker room.

One of the few NCAA coaches who is also a graduate professor, McGuire says sports psychology could be called performance psychology, and is applicable to the business world as well as to other performance-driven activities.

On the track and off, performance psychology helps people understand how they can prepare more effectively so can they perform better and achieve more. The rewards? Pride, happiness and fulfillment. Armed with all three, people will want to prepare even more effectively to become capable of achieving even more.

This is the “luscious cycle,” McGuire says.

A musician, a surgeon or a pilot in the cockpit, all develop specific skills, McGuire says.

A musician, a surgeon or a pilot in the cockpit will each develop specific skills. Although their tasks are different, they’re challenged to be the best, the most effective performer they can be. The link to sports is performance, McGuire explained. For the business community, the cycle’s phase of practice or rehearsal might be a prep session before tackling a project.

The leader helps others be most effective at what they do, but the focus shouldn’t be on the leader. McGuire said the focus should be on what makes the others follow, and it’s key that the leader understands what motivates the followers.

“Leadership is about getting the people to do their part, whatever it is,” McGuire said. “It’s about the response of the followers. If they’re not following, you’re not a leader. If the boss is not on the page, the whole process dies.”

Although their tasks are different, they’re challenged to be the best, the most effective performer they can be. The link to sports is performance, McGuire explains.
For the business community, the cycle’s phase of practice or rehearsal might be a prep session before tackling a project.
The leader helps others be the most effective at what they do, but the focus shouldn’t be on the leader. The focus should be on what makes the others follow, and it’s crucial that the leader understands what motivates the followers.
“Leadership is about getting the people to do their part, whatever it is. It’s about the response of the followers. If they’re not following, you’re not a leader,” McGuire said. “If the boss is not on the page, the whole process dies.”

Understanding what motivates
McGuire sees three critical parts: motivation; communication; and “teamness.” The leader needs to ask himself or herself, “What is it that as a leader I can do to motivate my staff to be the best it can?” Once a leader becomes more attuned to the staff and what motivates them, communication comes into play. McGuire said communication is the mechanism to impart influence, which leads to No. 3, “teamness,” or understanding what makes a team a team.

Teamness, he explained, is the dynamic of going from being a group of people to a coordinated unit working together. In the sports world, that concept is more visible.

“It’s easy to see when a team is passing the ball,” McGuire says. In the business world, people usually have roles. They know how they fit, and coordinate with others so they complement each other.

To learn more about what makes a satisfying work experience, McGuire, an author himself, suggested reading First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.

“I took this study and applied it to the sport world and sports performance, and studied athletes, and got all the same results,” he said.

There are common-sense elements that increase the probability that work would be a satisfying experience, McGuire said. For an employee, some of those are:
• If I had feedback from my boss;
• To know the people I work with care about me away from the office;
• If I knew exactly what to do and had the tools to do it;
• If I’m able to get a chance to do something I am good at and enjoy.

McGuire said if people are more invested in their work or sport, chances are they’ll do better, perform better and provide better service. It goes back to the luscious cycle. For example, he says, in a bank, if the tellers are proud and happy and do their job well, that brings in more business, which in turn benefits them.

A business leader needs to be sensitive to workers and want them to be the best they can be.

“It’s thinking about the people who make the product, not just the product,” McGuire said.

The difficulty is that in a busy work situation, people don’t always have time for a shift in perspective.

Developing mental skills
McGuire says it’s important to engage “our mind, our other muscle. We can train this one, too.” He said people can undermine their preparation if the mind is not developed.

“With business people, we’re helping them step back, focus on the application, how to prepare,” McGuire said.

He prefers to deal with business clients in their workplace, not off-site. He likens that to training for a sport and concentrating on the movements specific to that sport.

Although the list of accomplishments and honors for himself and his teams is extensive, McGuire is modest about his impact. He is quick to point out that he’s just “a small, tiny piece of the whole thing.” The talent was already in the business and his role is to help them get organized and pointed in the same direction.

He prefers not to share specifics about his business clients, but he says “there are two things they let you know you have satisfied customers, when they call and tell you the quarterly results, and they ask you back.”

He says he receives those calls.

Thinking “right” in sport
Having the right mindset is crucial, as wrong thoughts can hurt a performance. McGuire has worked with Olympic teams for years, and the psychology he shares transfers to other arenas.

By the time an athlete gets to the Olympic level, McGuire says it’s easy for them to make the experience seem larger than it is. For years, the athlete has been training for this moment, and knows there are millions of viewers, watching from the stands and on television.

“So big it can be debilitating,” McGuire says.

For example, the 400-meter race is the same length in a junior high meet as it is in the Olympics. If the athlete is overwhelmed by the size of the situation, the event becomes a 600-meter race, while everyone else is running a 400. That’s why athletes should “make it just as fun as the seventh grade field day, doing the best they can do.”

“You should be trusting and confident that you can deliver your best,” he said.

McGuire applies that concept to the operating room. “Every time a surgeon puts a scalpel in hand, the patient is looking for their best game,” he says.

Through practice or preparation, all those good thoughts, such as confidence, trust and focus, are within. Fear locks in what the surgeon or athlete prepared.

“At the moment of delivery, the mind is the gatekeeper of the body. Right thoughts let talent out; wrong thoughts lock it in.”