I was at the gym the other day running on a treadmill while watching the women’s marathon. Normally I run at a modest 10 kph pace which keeps up my fitness without killing me. But on this occasion I noticed I was running faster and needed to increase the treadmill speed. The strange thing was not feeling as if I was working harder than normal and that made me wonder why.
As I was cooling off, I realized that I had been following along in the foot steps of the marathon runners without consciously knowing that I was doing anything different or working harder. So simply by watching others perform my own performance improved.
Does this apply in the business world?
Absolutely. Finding and following in the footsteps of people we admire can have a very positive impact on our performance. We’ve all worked with colleagues who can show us how to better handle difficult people or go about a challenging project. So surround yourself with Olympic quality colleagues and watch your skills and abilities improve.
[Editor’s note: Peter seems to be suggesting he was running at the same pace as the women marathon runners and frankly he is deluding himself. The winner’s average pace was 17.58kph over 2 hours and 24 minutes. Somewhat faster than Peter has ever run in his life.]
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