Debbie Laskey's Blog: OLYMPICS LEADERSHIP SERIES

Wednesday, August 7, 2024

OLYMPICS LEADERSHIP SERIES – Featuring Jerry Angrave

With the eyes of the world on Paris, France, for the 33rd Olympiad, which events are you looking forward to? Do you know that the surfing competition will take place 9,770 miles away from Paris in Teahupo'o, Tahiti, an island in French Polynesia? In the spirit of previous leadership series here on my blog, I've asked 17 leadership and marketing experts to respond to five questions with the hope that both the questions and answers lead you to think about the Olympics in new and interesting ways.

For today's post, I'd like to introduce Jerry Angrave. Jerry is Customer and Passenger Experience Director of Empathyce, a UK-based Customer Experience (CX) consulting and coaching company. His background is in CX roles in the corporate world, and as a consultant, he has helped organizations around the world culturally, strategically, and operationally in sectors including aviation, financial services, SaaS companies, and utilities. He is also a mentor and trainer for professional development of those in CX roles, and in 2020, he wrote his first book, the Customer Journey Mapping Playbook.

Before we begin, here are my two favorite quotes about the Olympics:

"In baseball and in business, there are three types of people. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happened." ~Tommy Lasorda (Team USA Baseball Manager in 1984 and Olympic gold medalist)

"You have to believe in yourself when no one else does — that makes you a winner right there." ~Venus Williams (Team USA Tennis, 4-time Olympic gold medalist)

QUESTION: What Olympic MOMENT do you most vividly recall, and why?

JERRY ANGRAVE: David Wilkie swimming the 200m Breaststroke at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada. Sadly, he passed away recently, but the memory will always stay. It was the early hours of the morning in the UK, and I was allowed to stay up to watch. Wilkie was like a hero to me, and to see him finally claim the Gold Medal, to add to his vast array of other titles, was genuinely inspiring. In my own swimming, I tried to replicate his dedication and mindset.

QUESTION: What Olympic MOMENT OR EVENT stands out due to EITHER a lack of OR evidence of LEADERSHIP?

JERRY ANGRAVE: The organization of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, led by Lord Seb Cole - bringing together all the sporting bodies, all the infrastructure, all the volunteers, and all the testing was a mammoth operation, but due to thorough preparation, was a success at the time and with the legacy it left.

QUESTION: What Olympic SPORT demonstrates effective and/or inspirational leadership?

JERRY ANGRAVE: I'd say any or all of them. To compete at that level needs strong leadership from the sports' governing bodies to make facilities available and fund athletes where they can. It takes strong leadership from the athletes' coaches who are equally as committed as the athletes and need to build a team around them, all working to the same clear goal. They need to set out crystal clear strategy to achieve those goals as well as play the role of mentor to bring out the best in their athlete.

QUESTION: What is an important BUSINESS LESSON we can learn from the Olympics?

JERRY ANGRAVE: Stay on the front foot and keep pushing. Have a plan but assume there is always at least one of your competitors who has put in a few more minutes training every day or has thought about the execution of their plan in a better way. In business, we know that our customers' expectations are rising relentlessly. Complacency therefore, however unintended, can mean at best we stand still while others surpass us, or at worse we just get left behind. By the time we realize it, the mountain may be too big to climb back up. It's also a long play: to win Olympic Gold takes more than 4 years, 10 years in some cases of pure dedication and sacrifice. It's why the emotion of the medal tops even the metric of a world record.