“If you can do something beautifully in miniature, it convinces both you and your masters that you are ready for bigger things.”[1] (85)<\/p>\n
I’ve been involved in athletics most of my life. In my youth I played soccer and swam on the swim team. In high school and college I ran cross country, began working out with weights, and kept up my competitive swimming. As an adult I’ve added in some cycling, yoga, and hiking while mostly leaving my running days in the dust.<\/p>\n
What has surprised me is the enjoyment I find in lifting weights and not just ten pounders. I enjoy pushing myself with heavy weights, squatting until my legs are shaking, pressing until my shoulders shout at me to stop.<\/p>\n
Besides the rush of endorphins I enjoy exercising with weights because over time I can feel myself getting stronger. This strength translates into greater functional fitness such as carrying several bags of groceries into the house at one time, swinging my nephews over my shoulders and carrying them on my back, even wrestling with my teenage sons, though I am quick to surrender to them. \u00a0When I set up for a heavy lift don’t jump right to the greatest amount of weight. Instead, I work my way up, adding plates to the bar with each set. I take my time, make sure my form is correct, and breathe deeply.\u00a0When I finally lift an amount I haven’t been able to before I experience a sense of elation. I did it! I moved that weight! I didn’t think I could do it but I did!<\/p>\n
For me, weight lifting is practice for leadership but really, any sport have the same effect.<\/p>\n
I’ve heard others describe yoga in this way. Recently I took my daughter rock climbing. With each climb both she and I got braver and smarter and able to climb higher and higher. The next day at the park I noticed my daughter climbing to the top of the jungle gym, a feat she had never attempted before.<\/p>\n
When reading the book, “Leadersmithing” by Eve Poole, I couldn’t help but relate what she calls, “templating” to exercising or practicing a sport. Poole describes “templating” as “muscle memory for leadership activities” [2] Poole writes, “Templating furnishes leaders with the muscle memory to make them resourceful, because they are able to problem solve better under pressure. It also makes them resilient because they know they have survived and will do so again. The confidence that comes from this type of felt experience makes leaders cautious yet fearless which is exactly the combination they will need to get out of their own way and make the right calls in real life. “[3]<\/p>\n
Now, I know that Poole was talking more about “on the job learning” or what she calls, “Critical Incidents”[4] when she refers to templating but I just kept connecting the line to my experience with sports because both, “on the job learning” and exercise can build “courage, grit, determination, the character traits of leadership when the chips are down.” [5]<\/p>\n
While lifting weights is not an exact template for a leadership activity, it does teach my brain and body that I can do hard things. The discipline that fuels a consistent exercise routine and that regular practice builds extends into my life outside of the gym. I find myself less likely to procrastinate on a project, more disciplined in my work routine, willing, even to give more of myself than I might if I wasn’t regularly practicing discipline in the gym.\u00a0Exercise and practice builds self awareness. When I can feel the strain in my body, my lungs wanting to burst with the rapidity of my breathing, I am practicing noticing and working through uncomfortable sensations in myself. When I step back into my leadership role I am more aware of how a colleague’s comment makes me feel therefore more able to address it appropriately. As my body works through difficult movements my mind must also be focused on how I am moving which frees up other parts of my brain to process emotions, work through problems, and create pathways for new learnings. I can exit the gym or the playing field more centered and better able to make decisions. Participation on a team such as in football or soccer requires me to work with others for the good of the team. Learning to work with others is crucial for a leader who wants to see her team succeed. When I am faced with a new challenge in a sport, this, as Poole writes, “helps (me) to face stress and uncertainty more confidently.” [6]<\/p>\n
So many of the lessons I’ve learned about myself and about life have come from my time on the field, in the gym or on the trail. When Pool asked board level leaders what they “wished they had known about themselves ten years ago” as they tried to lead, they all responded, “they wished they had known more about themselves.”[7] I can’t help but wonder if time on the field or in the gym might have sped up this process for them.<\/p>\n
In the second part of the book Poole uses the metaphor of a deck of cards to offer us 52 exercises to hone our leadership skills. Picking a card for each week of the year and using the exercise suggested will “refresh your skill sets and keep your learning muscles supple.”[8] Reading through the focus of each card I found that once again, practice of sport or exercise was applicable. I am not going to go through all 52 cards but for the sake of example, Poole uses her first adult skiing lesson as a “most sobering practice in letting-go.”[9] When learning to ski you have to trust your instructor, your skis, your knees, your balance, and the other skiers around you. The more you practice on the slope, the better you are able to apply that skill to your life off the mountain and in the board room.<\/p>\n
Okay, so you may be rolling your eyes right now and thinking, “Wow. She was really stretching to relate exercise to this book! Also, isn’t she the woman who torn her knee up in a hotel exercise room in South Africa?” If so, the answer is yes. But a goal of mine that came to light through completing the LCP was that I want to begin using my personal training certification to create a “side hustle,” that can supplement our household income. I’d also like to explore how I can use fitness and personal training in my NPO, creating community and opportunities for health, and even perhaps, leadership, for those living with mental illness.<\/p>\n
So, yes, it may have been a stretch to relate the book to sport or fitness but it was a line I kept drawing and connecting over and over again as I read.<\/p>\n
Towards the end of the book Poole reflects, “One refrain that came out time and time again from leaders answering our question about what they wished they had known ten years ago was ‘I wish I’d known that I can do it.'”[10] In my experience, exercise and sport, help us to realize our strengths, giving us confidence.<\/p>\n
Poole continues, addressing the reader, “Tomorrow, do not be the best leader. Do not even try to be a good one. Just be better.”[11]<\/p>\n
I say the same to my fitness clients. You don’t have to be the strongest or the fittest. Just try to be a little bit better each day. Work on that yoga pose. Hold your plank two seconds longer. Squat an inch deeper. Try a push up on your feet instead of on your knees.<\/p>\n
You might surprise yourself. You might be able to do it. If not today, then maybe tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Whatever happens, you’ll be better for trying.<\/p>\n
[1] Poole, Eve,\u00a0Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership<\/i>. London\u202f; New York, NY: Bloomsbury Business, 2017,\u00a0\u00a0Accessed February 15, 2023. https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/book\/338727696\/Leadersmithing-Revealing-the-Trade-Secrets-of-Leadership. 85<\/p>\n
[2] IBID, 25.<\/p>\n
[3] IBID, 26.<\/p>\n
[4] IBID, 22.<\/p>\n
[5] IBID, 73<\/p>\n
[6] IBID, 28<\/p>\n
[7] IBID, 23.<\/p>\n
[8] IBID, 105.<\/p>\n
[9] IBID, 117.<\/p>\n
[10] IBID, 250.<\/p>\n
[11] IBID, 250.<\/p>\n
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