As I watched the aftermath of the U.S. women’s loss at the Olympics last night something really stood out to me.  The US team didn’t lose because Alicia Sacramone fell on the balance beam or because she stumbled on the floor exercise. They lost because she didn’t know how to respond to and recover from adversity.  Alicia is the captain of the team, the oldest member, and had previously been to the Olympics. If there was one person on the team who should have been able to say “you know what guys I fell, but we are still in this”, it should have been her. What happened instead? She sulked around on the side, ignored the encouragement of her teammates, and made it clear that she thought “they were defeated”. The result? After a while, ALL of the team started to doubt themselves and it was apparent when two of the most rock solid gymnasts on the planet faltered and stepped out of bounds on the floor exercise. What does all this mean for you?

As a leader your attitude and ability to overcome adversity and hardship not only affects your ability to lead (and perform), but can also affect the performance of others. If you make a mistake or have hardship the only thing you can do about it is learn, and move on from there. Alicia is not the best gymnast on the team, but they looked to her for leadership. Her inability to shake off a mistake might have cost the U.S. a gold medal.

This is the law of the lid which says “A person’s level of effectiveness is affected by their leadership ability“. Teaching others can can an exponentially positive effect… but not demonstrating how you would have people react can have an equally negative effect.