At VIM Executive Coaching we sort of keep mental notes on interesting comments our clients have shared. It’s all unofficial, of course, however our valued clients are so important to us we remember their words and we certainly recollect their journeys.
One executive we well recall, passed along a comment she heard from young adulthood and applied it to her (then) work situation.
She was not an “athletic person,” and indeed often felt discounted and mocked in her physical education classes.
At some point in her late 20s, she got caught up in the “Running Boom,” and while not an Olympian, with each passing race, and each passing month, she modestly improved. After a year or so, of running, she entered what is called a Prediction Race along with more than 200 other runners.
The race calls upon people to act honorably (always a good thing!). Runners put down a realistic finish time based on their usual race performances and determine if they can beat the time. As she recalled, it was two trips around a reservoir and approximately 4-miles.
Ran her heart out
The race started, and our client “ran her heart out,” unperturbed by the large pack that pulled ahead of her. As the path around the reservoir was partially obscured by trees, she had no idea if she was in last place or close to last. She didn’t care. She realized how far she had come in her physical fitness journey and how wonderful it felt to simply run free. As the race ended, she appreciated that rather than being last, she was running in “a zone” between the frontrunners and the slower participants.
As she cooled down, sipping her bottled water, the race announcer cheerfully called out her name to come to the podium for a prize. She thought that there must have been a mistake. Nevertheless, it was no mistake. She had beat her predicted time by several minutes and won the second-place medal. She wept as though she was an Olympian. We can well understand that emotion.
When she told her parents of the prize, one of them said, “How many were in the race, two?”
It was a sarcastic statement, one of many throughout childhood into adulthood and, in our opinion, cruel. In fact, she never forgot it.
Fast forward to a sales and marketing team
In school, our client excelled in both biology and business. She went into sales and outclassed many other sales people by outworking them. In fact, she was appointed to an important sales team. That is where she ran into an ethical problem. No matter how hard she worked, she was frequently “beaten” by a rather unscrupulous member of another team.
In her annual review, instead of praising her for her many accomplishments, her boss chided her for always settling for “second best.” And…he even said it, the sentence that caused her to seek executive coaching advice, “It’s almost as if you’re in a race with only two people and you are always content to be in second place.”
We asked if she could see the fallacy in the arguments of the vice president of sales, and ultimately, we made her realize that her mindful and ethical approach to both herself and to her team was the best approach.
She could have cheated and she could have offered illegal inducements as did the other team’s manager, but she chose a more authentic and mindful path. As the pandemic eased, she left that company for another organization that valued ethical behavior. Conversely, her old company is currently facing legal penalties for bribery.
VIM Executive Coaching not only counsels on authenticity and mindfulness, we value those principles. Sometimes, the second-place winner rather than being the so-called first loser, emerges as champion.