How to Become a Corporate Athlete (Bonus Interview)

Is it possible to achieve success both professionally and personally? Or is there always a cost to one or the other? Well, at Building Champions, we believe that you can find success both at work and at home, but it does take commitment to personal growth and healthy self-leadership. In this bonus interview-style podcast episode, learn from our CEO Daniel Harkavy as he discusses with Executive Coach Todd Mosetter the true meaning behind the Building Champions tagline: Better Humans Make Better Leaders. Learn how it became the central message of our coaching firm and why it remains relevant for today’s leaders.

High-performance is often viewed as the result of mental toughness—someone’s ability to focus, work hard, and get stuff done. But what if mental strength is just one component? In Harvard Business Review’s 2001 article, “The Making of a Corporate Athlete”, the high-performance pyramid is revealed to include four key areas. And this performance pyramid rings true with what we’ve at Building Champions seen contribute to the success of the lives and careers of our executive coaching clients. In this interview style podcast episode, join our CEO & Founder Daniel Harkavy and Executive Coach Todd Mosetter, as they revisit HBR’s article, its relevance for today, and how you can directly apply its learnings to make positive and healthy changes to strengthen your own leadership fitness.  

One way to prevent a weed from growing is by proactively planting something else before the weed has a chance to take root. And the same is true for our mindset. When you plant positive and healthy thoughts in your mind, it’s less likely that the negative ones will successfully take over. In this podcast episode, we head back to the garden to learn what fighting weeds, pests and threats can teach us about protecting our own mindset.

Mindset gets a lot of attention these days - and for good reason. If you can cultivate a healthy mindset, you'll see a positive impact in nearly every area of your life. But that's easier said than done, especially during challenging seasons.  In this episode, we'll head to the garden to explore the connections between growing plants and growing a stronger and healthier mindset. One that allows you to see increased production in both your leadership and life. 

Fault lines: a break or fracture in the ground—sometimes just a crack, thin and barely noticeable. Setting the stage for disaster, if tension builds along a fault line and then releases, we get an earthquake. Many teams experience something similar, slight divisions and differences that create challenges. And when left unchecked, those foundations can shake even the strongest of teams. In this podcast episode, learn from Professor Kim Blisnuik all about fault lines, how to find them and what to do when you see one.

Why do certain thoughts repeat in our minds? Author Jon Acuff calls these thoughts “soundtracks.” Is the stickiness of these repeating thoughts similar to the stickiness of the catchiest song? In this podcast episode, learn from songwriter and musician Rachael Price of Love, DEAN what makes a song sticky so that you can undermine the power of a repeating thought. Don’t let your leadership get stuck because of a limiting thought or belief.

If you have a capacity problem, you either reduce flow or increase size—and it’s vital to understand the variables and risk factors that can cause the limit to be reached. When we, as leaders, hit our capacity we need to either find a way to reduce the flow or grow our team and resources. But before we reach capacity, we can expand our leadership by properly resourcing, prioritizing, and delegating. In this podcast episode, learn from Joel Ayres of the Tualatin Valley Water District just how important it is to monitor capacity so that you can stay ahead of the demand curve and allow your work to flow with efficiency.

We like to think we have control over outcomes—but we really don’t. What we do have control over though is the process. An athlete disciplines themselves to get enough sleep, eat nutritiously, exercise, and practice, but they can’t control the weather on game day or whether the opposition shows up in a way that turns the outcome of the game in their favor. It’s the same in leadership—we can pour ourselves into the process, but we can’t always guarantee the outcome. In this podcast episode, learn from pickleball champion, Bonnie Williams, on how focusing on what you can control will ultimately help you trust yourself and the process you take to get the results you want. 

If you lead people, your regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings with them are one of your highest payoff activities as a leader. Yet too many leaders either don't commit to them – or are unsure about how to structure them to benefit both them and their people.  Dr. Tom Orazio has been a dentist for more than 40 years and sees the same things from some of his patients when it comes to their regular dental cleanings. We'll hop into the dental chair to learn more about how we can help set ourselves and our people up for success – and get the most from our one-on-one meetings. 

The Building Champions Podcast is back for Season 4.  New episodes coming September 10.  Catch up on past episodes at BuildingChampions.com/podcast