The Emotional Connection That Binds All Olympians: Lessons for the Workplace

I’ve never been a sports person, but the Olympics and all Olympians have always enamored me. It’s something about the superhuman people who dedicate their lives to being the best in the world at their craft. There’s no shortage of jaw-dropping performances, extreme fans, and raw emotions. Perhaps that’s what has made them so appealing to me.

As I watched the Olympics this year, I took it in through a “cultural workplace” lens. An athlete’s office is their playing field, their managers are their coaches, colleagues are their teammates and their customers are everyone watching. With that type of pressure, it’s not surprising that the Olympic culture is grounded in dedication, teamwork, honor, and humility.

Listening to interviews this year, I picked up on something I hadn’t before from all Olympians.  It was always right there in front of my face for years. Reporters were desperate to humanize all Olympians. They wanted us, ordinary viewers, to have a glimpse into their lives and find a connection between us all. That link was almost always through shared emotions:

• People worldwide will be watching your performance tonight. Does that make you nervous?
• What are you most excited about these Games?
• What’s going through your head during the race?
• How does it feel to have won your first medal?
• When you’re on the podium, what are you thinking about?

Emotions are what bonds and humanizes us as a species.

When reporters ask about the emotional experiences of these athletes, we see that even with all their herculean qualities, they’re just like us. That emotional connection generates inspiration, pride, and honor for our country.

Now imagine a world where every day people are treated like all Olympians at their workplace. Colleagues would share coaching tips, talk through anxieties and care deeply about each other’s success as a team. Managers would check in with us about our headspace, our struggles, and our triumphs. And everyone would be okay talking about our emotional experience, not only because there was permission to but because it was necessary in order to get to the next level.

An Olympian’s mindset is one of the biggest factors in making it to the top. I’d argue that we can all be at the top of our game if we understand our emotions, know how to work with them and are allowed to be honest about their impact in our work. We need organizational cultures to encourage dialogue and help team members to connect and grow with them.

Athlete or not, we can all commit to intentional check-ins with our team members, more aware of our own headspace and being a part of an create environment where it’s okay to share your emotional experience. Just like the Olympics and all Olympians, a culture that promotes emotional connection has the power to generate inspiration, pride, and honor for our team.

Want to learn how? Check out my step-by-step guide, Permission to Be Human.