I’m loving Amazon’s All or Nothing sports documentaries, the behind-the-scenes stories of mental toughness under pressure. In the Arsenal series, manager Mikel Arteta strives to create a strong, psychologically safe team identity. He sees the coaching job as being like a cardiologist – entering the player in their hearts so that the message reaches them.
One of his players, England’s star Bukayo Saka, joined the Arsenal academy at just seven years old and has remained with the club ever since. Now 24, he is regarded as one of the best players in the world. He’s smart, decisive and humble.
You’ll probably remember when Saka faced vile racist abuse after missing his first penalty kick when playing at senior level for England in a crucial match against Italy in the 2020 Euros. When he stepped up to take his next penalty, playing for Arsenal in a high stakes away game against Chelsea, he showed his guts and composure. He scored, securing Arsenal’s win.
As Arteta said, ‘if you have courage and big balls and you represent a club like this, you have to stand up in the next game and take it.’ Who knows what was going through Saka’s mind, but he had no time to drill into self-doubt.
There are inspiring stories of courage like this across all sports, from Sunday leagues to global arenas, with players stepping up in the moment and attacking a problem. So why, in the competitive business world, do we tiptoe around the topic of courage?
We obsess about fixing individual mindsets, rather than creating psychologically safe environments where everyone has the gumption to take risks and succeed.
I sat in on a talk on imposter syndrome recently, for an audience of highly capable young women. Feelings of being out of our depth are certainly not exclusive to women, but imposter syndrome seems to be a topic for women’s groups, not men’s.
If these wonderful women weren’t anxious at the start of the talk, they were by the end of it. It planted the idea that they should acknowledge feelings of inadequacy, of not being good enough. Even that maybe they should have more realistic expectations until they grew in confidence.
What they weren’t told is that confidence is a rear-view construct. We only get confident when we’ve done something so we know we can do it again. If we wait for magic confidence, we’ll opt out of new challenges that cause us discomfort. Sometimes we must make a plan, then crack on.
Fortunately, Imposter Syndrome wasn’t a thing when 7,500 women were working in Bletchley Park breaking codes during World War II. They didn’t have time for introspection. They stepped up with grit and got on with the job.
Instead of normalising imposter syndrome and other doubts, we should be normalising the expectation that we are all capable of a lot more. Otherwise, whilst we procrastinate, someone else with a pinch more courage will seize the opportunity. Maybe that’s why only 12% of AI developers are women*… so far.
We need to shape the world, not sabotage our success. There’s nothing wrong with any of us. We just need to be with people who believe in us and who lead by example. It’s not the time to dither.
Get a great team around you, plan and research properly, then act. Do it. Find a purpose. Fix a problem. Create an opportunity. Do it for the team, your customers, you. Bring it on.
What’s that expression, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take?
Book me to speak about this in your business, perhaps around International Women’s Day on March 8th.
Or to coach your leaders and high potentials. And a reminder that crazy busy distractions are a handy excuse for not having time to be brave, so eliminate them with a Crazy Busy masterclass or keynote.
Bookings in the next couple of months will receive at least 15 complimentary copies of The Crazy Cure or Badly Behaved People. Our London Business Forum’s Crazy Busy event is on 17 March next year: see here for booking information.
Do let me know what you think about Arteta, courage and imposter syndrome.
* The New Age of Sexism: How the AI Revolution is Reinventing Misogyny by Laura Bates