This week we have witnessed one of the most unlikely, entertaining and popular victories when Leicester City as 5000 to 1 rank outsiders won the Premier League in England for the first time in their long history beating major clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United.
It is a fantastic achievement and yet winning is a strange thing and sometimes not what you expect. I have won and lost sporting events throughout my life. Losing is a pain but at least it prompts further effort to avoid losing again. Winning is euphoric at the time - winning rowing regattas we would end up in the river and celebrate with beer and silverware.
And yet if I am honest there is also a strange sense of anti-climax. You have achieved what you have been striving to all year. What happens next? Success is hard to sustain for ever and so the future may be rather downhill.
In fact victory in sport or in business where a deal is successfully concluded or a new client won should be just the start of sustained improvement. By analysing what went right and led to winning as opposed to agonising about what went wrong if you lose the success can be maintained and lead to more. There are always reasons for winning if you look for them.
In Leicester's case it was maybe the right (slightly overlooked) players working for a manager who built a strong defence and a team ethos.
So for me in professional services the "Leicester lesson" is that after celebrating look for what went well in the transaction or task. Was it teamwork, leadership, preparation and maybe even some good fortune? Understanding and articulating these success factors and then applying them again if you can are what will make success in business as well as in sport a permanent feature and not just a one off event.
It is a fantastic achievement and yet winning is a strange thing and sometimes not what you expect. I have won and lost sporting events throughout my life. Losing is a pain but at least it prompts further effort to avoid losing again. Winning is euphoric at the time - winning rowing regattas we would end up in the river and celebrate with beer and silverware.
And yet if I am honest there is also a strange sense of anti-climax. You have achieved what you have been striving to all year. What happens next? Success is hard to sustain for ever and so the future may be rather downhill.
In fact victory in sport or in business where a deal is successfully concluded or a new client won should be just the start of sustained improvement. By analysing what went right and led to winning as opposed to agonising about what went wrong if you lose the success can be maintained and lead to more. There are always reasons for winning if you look for them.
In Leicester's case it was maybe the right (slightly overlooked) players working for a manager who built a strong defence and a team ethos.
So for me in professional services the "Leicester lesson" is that after celebrating look for what went well in the transaction or task. Was it teamwork, leadership, preparation and maybe even some good fortune? Understanding and articulating these success factors and then applying them again if you can are what will make success in business as well as in sport a permanent feature and not just a one off event.
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