How to Have the Mindset of a Top Performer w/ 6 Time World Champion Anna Hemmings

0:00There's no gold medal for the person who does it all by themselves. Anna Hemmings Olympic medalist. So many great championships. At the absolute foundation of any high performing team is trust. And it starts with the ability to be vulnerable with each other. She's not just a speaker and a coder on the subjects of team and leadership. This is someone who totally understands success. When you're already winning, when you're already number one, that mindset of what else do I need to do? How can I keep improving? How can I keep exploring boundaries? How can I keep innovating? The path to continued success lies in the realization that there's always more to learn.

0:36So, Anna, first question. What is success to you? Like, how do you define success? Success when I was an athlete was very clear cut. It was very tangible. It was like the goal is to win the world championships. Did we win? Did we not? Did we achieve success? Did we not? So it was very, very clear cut. I guess in terms of what I do today, success is a little bit different because I don't go out and win gold medals for what I do or things like that. So it's a little bit different. But I guess success for me, like if I'm going out to do a speaking engagement, then success is about having an impact on the audience, having a really positive impact on the audience, ensuring that people have something that they can take away and apply immediately in their life.

1:23So when you look at success, you must have over the years developed a formula for it or a way. How does success happen in your mind? There are a number of steps, I guess. It's not just a straightforward thing, but, you know, having a really clearly defined goal is the first thing. So knowing where you're going, why you're going there and then getting people on board. So I learned not immediately, but at a certain stage in my career that no one achieves success on their own. Like you just that doesn't happen. And also there's no gold medal for the person who does it all by themselves. So we absolutely, you know, three minds, four minds, six minds are better than one mind.

2:00Once we've got that clear vision of where we're going and how we're going to get there, getting a team on board, getting that team aligned to where you're going and everyone in the team understanding how they contribute to achieving the common goal is really, really crucial. It's a mindset. And so it's about getting the basics right and doing them right all the time. How do you turn failure or losing or coming second or third into success? What's your formula for that? How do you do that? So what's really crucial is recognizing that, yes, you're not going to win every time and that's OK. Let's be real here.

2:38Let's not be afraid of losing. If you're afraid of losing, you won't go for the competition that's too difficult. You've got to fail. Everyone's going to fail and that's OK. How do you get that mindset for high performance? It does begin with that attitude of, you know, what else? What else can I do better? And I think it's this constant desire to improve when you're already winning, when you're already number one, that mindset of what else do I need to do? How can I keep improving? How can I keep exploring boundaries? How can I keep innovating? Because no matter how exceptional you are, we can always improve.

3:10And so I think that's the mindset that, you know, making sure that everyone around you is constantly curious, looking for new ways to improve. The path to continued success lies in the realization that there's always more to learn. Yes, we might have a strategy for success that worked once, but it doesn't mean we need to just replicate the same thing again. Is that sort of the fundamental of the consistency factor in there? Yeah, so absolutely. You know, it's about every day looking at am I giving 100 percent in training every day? Am I really finishing every rep in the gym every day? My performance comes with consistent behavior.

3:47How do we succeed at being resilient through all of that and staying at the top of the game for a long time? I think some of the things that we've discussed already are what help you to stay performing at that highest level, the consistency, the attitude, the mindset, and also recognizing that we're going to have dips. sustaining that, not just the high level, but the ability to have a longevity, I should say. It's about resilience. It's about the ability to bounce back when things have gone wrong, setbacks, failures, whatever that might be. And knowing that that's part of the journey. When you go through those down periods, what's the way you get your head back in the game?

4:24What's the way you do that? What's your thoughts on that? One of the things that I talk about a lot is controlling the controllables. We can't always control the circumstances we find ourselves in you know I I had a big illness um that had me out of the sport for two years and you know we find ourselves in a global pandemic you know things like we can't control many of these circumstances but we can choose how we react and that's empowering you know when we're facing adverse situations that we don't like or or any kind of setback there'll be things that are happening around you that you can't control so we focus our attention on where I can have impact.

5:02When you teach how to build a high performance team, what are some of the fundamentals that we can take away from your teachings? At the absolute foundation of any high performing team is trust. That's where we have to begin. And I know that from the work that I've done in business, but I've also been in teams in sport where there wasn't trust and it didn't work. And I've been in teams where, and I'm just, I know the power of teamwork because I've been in teams where, you know so I raced in the four kayak k4 and I was in one year where we were in a team and there were four individuals four girls in that boat who were the four fastest in the country and we didn't make the best boat we didn't make the fastest four because there was the teamwork the cohesion the trust wasn't there and there'd be four other girls from another country who were not as quick as us four individually but we're a better unit and teamwork beats talent every time and it starts with trust and it starts with the ability to be vulnerable with each other to know that I can put my hand up and say do you know what I don't understand I don't know why we're doing this or you know I don't agree or you know I made a mistake all of that knowing that I won't be judged knowing that it won't be held against me, that it's okay if I show a weakness that is so crucial in a team.

6:26Multiple championships, world champions, six times, multiple. How do you go from that mindset to that mindset? What's your thoughts? One of the things that helps a team to become really optimal is things like what we call healthy conflict. If we want to get optimal solutions, the best ideas, take the best strategy, you know, be able to challenge, to question one another. And if you want ultimate commitment from the team, then everyone needs to feel heard. What did it take for you to set the goal of massive numbers, you know, of doing it year after year after year? How did you, how do you think differently to a lot of other people?

7:03So I never started out at the beginning with the intention of winning six gold medals. I started out with the intention of one and it's not until you've won one. And then even when you've won one, you don't go, oh, right, I've won one, I'm going to win six now. You know, it's almost like, okay, I've won one, well, I'm going to win again next year. I guess there was just no limits. I didn't put any barriers in my way that, you know, some people have limiting beliefs about what's possible. And that's a big success podcast for today. Hopefully you took a lot of notes, learned a whole bunch. And if you need to go re-listen to it, we dropped a lot of information right there today.

7:36Big success is what it's all about. And by the way, if you haven't subscribed, hit that subscribe button so you're here with us every single week on the Big Success Podcast. I'm Brad Sugars. That's BS. Big success is what we're shooting for. Check the show notes for all the links. Make sure you follow through. Keep learning. Keep coming back. Oh, and by the way, share this with any of your friends who you know are up for success. I'll see you next week on the Big Success Podcast. You've been listening to the Big Success Podcast with the number one business coach in the world, Brad Sugars. To learn more about how to achieve business and personal success, as well as how to level up or listen to past episodes, visit www.bradsugars.com.