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Special Report September 26, 2007, 12:00PM EST

Sports Lessons for the Business World

An excerpt from The Dynamic Path, by James M. Citrin, on using the secrets of champions to succeed in business and life

by James M. Citrin

The following is an excerpt from The Dynamic Path by James M. Citrin (Rodale Books, 2007).

"Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. Sport can awaken hope where there was previously only despair." —Nelson Mandela

I have been an athlete virtually all of my 48 years. Starting as an age-group swimmer at eight years-old, performing as a three-sport varsity athlete in both high school and college, and competing as a triathlete, marathoner, golfer, tennis player as an adult, even as the oldest member of the Vassar College Alumni Soccer Team, I have always been passionate about sports and fitness. I have also experienced and observed powerful lessons from sports and its relation to performance—both mental and physical—and success in business.

As a senior partner at Spencer Stuart, my professional life is dedicated to helping leading organizations around the world build their senior leadership teams. To this end, over the past 14 years I have had the privilege of interviewing and evaluating many of the world's most accomplished business leaders. I have also long been a dedicated student of leadership and success, having interviewed more than 3,000 executives and contributed five books to the canon of published works on this subject. One study enabled me to analyze the professional experiences of more than 1 million executives to distill the patterns of extraordinary careers.

About three years ago, a light bulb went off in my mind that an in-depth investigation of the world's most inspiring sports champions might reveal powerful lessons for business leadership and professional success. I became consumed with the idea of learning about the backgrounds, training regimens, mental disciplines, and competition experiences of the world's greatest athletes to see what could be applied to help unleash the performance potential that resides in each of us. I was certain that there were subtle but powerful linkages between the world's top athletes and the greatest leaders in business. As a corollary, I hoped that I might discover something about athletic performance that would allow me to maximize my individual potential and unleash my inner—albeit deeply buried—Olympian.

We live in a sports-crazed, youth-obsessed, and celebrity-oriented world. With 24/7 media exposure magnified by sophisticated marketing, it is no surprise that some of today's heroes are the sports champions whose physical splendor, profound dedication, and icy mental toughness are held up to inspire. And in many cases, inspire they do. Go on, "Be a Tiger." "Put your Lance face on." There is a lot to learn from the great sports leaders, and I've spent hundreds of hours meeting with, speaking to, and watching many of the world's best. I've also read thousands of pages of books and articles on their lives and I've studied some of the most important academic research on peak performance, sports training, the mind-body connection, and the attainment of excellence. I've also analyzed the lives and careers of many of the greatest sports champions from the past 50 years. With all of this input poured into a metaphorical centrifuge, I was able to isolate the key elements of achievement and stitch together a framework for living and a path to greatness for virtually anyone. The expedition to greatness is not static; it demands change and adaptation, learning and learning some more, letting go of the skills and actions that led to accomplishment at one level and developing new ones. It requires learning how to lead and inspire others and directing your efforts to a deeply meaningful cause.

It is The Dynamic Path.

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