Mental Toughness – Mastering Your Mind For Work, Sport and Relationships (Second Edition)

Foreword by Chester Williams

I met Steve Harris more than 20 years ago when I was playing for the Springboks: he had been hired to give motivational sessions for the Springbok team and he subsequently became part of the Springbok management team on several of our tours. Since our first meeting, we have developed a close professional relationship. I have particularly valued his mental toughness and career development expertise, his willingness to act as a sounding board for many of my decisions, and his appreciation of issues around cultural diversity.

I am particularly grateful for Steve’s role in helping me transcend cultural prejudices. I have had the good fortune of being a black South African rugby role-model. However, my involvement in Springbok rugby so early in the genesis of our democracy combined with my marriage to someone who is outside what is generally accepted as my community, has it seems, been frowned upon by some influential gate-keepers. This has exacted a price on my ability to access coaching jobs in South African rugby.

With Steve’s support I have carefully developed my skills and abilities to ensure I will be difficult to ignore when opportunities arise. Since playing for the Springboks, I have achieved a diploma in coaching science and a degree in sport management. I am currently Coaching Director of rugby for the University of the Western Cape. Steve is providing a valuable resource in relation to the mental aspects of this team. So far we have gone from the second last place in the Varsity Shield to the top spot in one season.

This second edition of Steve’s book: Mental Toughness – Mastering Your Mind, attests to my appreciation of Steve’s knowledge and skills in this important aspect of sport and of life performance. I encourage anyone who is interested in self-improvement to read this book, I loved it.  

Dr Steve: Mental Toughness, Mind Doctor, Motivational speakers

Article Source: http://www.steveharris.co.za/mental-toughness-mastering-mind-work-sport-relationships-second-edition/

Irish Eyes Are Smiling Because They Created Synergy

When I present team building programmes I ask audience members to rank their organization’s greatest assets. They invariably place their staff and teamwork near the top of their list.

Consider the All Blacks’ rugby team over the period of their consecutive Rugby World Cup wins and the contribution teamwork made to their success. Teamwork may not have been at the top of their list but as my audience members’ say, it sat near the top. For example, in their organizational planning the All Blacks balanced a mix of old heads and young legs. Additionally, they made a deliberate effort to get the management team and operations team to work together, encouraging them to intuitively take up any slack in the team as it occurred. This enabled them to operate, when necessary, beyond their personal roles and responsibilities in their preparation and in operations, ensuring they achieved their outcomes, and ultimately, they achieved their intention.

At this stage I want to critically reflect on the benefits of having a leader and people with a mind for teamwork. The most common benefit is synergy. This means the outcome produced is greater than the sum of its parts. Hypothetically when you add up the contribution of say a fifteen member team the result should be greater than the sum of the fifteen people’s contribution. Let’s say it’s sixteen or more. If they achieve this superior outcome it means they created synergy. Does this imply that everyone in the team produces a little more? Or could one or two have produced more? Or is it that the composition of the team was carefully engineered so that the individuals’ contributions were complementary like the old heads and young legs example in the All Blacks team.

An excellent demonstration of synergy was provided by the Irish rugby team in their historic first win against the Springboks on South African soil at Newlands 11th June 2016. The Irish fielded an under-strength team due to injuries. Their disadvantage was compounded when they were reduced to fourteen players for sixty minutes and further reduced to thirteen players for ten minutes of this period; Courtesy of red and yellow cards. Yet, despite have less players on the field they produced a performance that exceeded that of their more fancied opponents’ full strength side.

The most illustrative depiction of synergy outside rugby teams, I can think of, is an orchestra. In this instance the synergistic teamwork outcome is a beautiful sounding musical piece.

My reflection on teamwork also brings entropy to mind. This is a loss of anticipated outcome. By entropy I mean the sum of fifteen could end up as the outcome of thirteen or less. This may occur because of a host of reasons including poor leadership, insufficient management, a lack of clear accountability and responsibility, insufficient skills, infighting, social loafing, underestimating the opposition, jealousy, corridor conferences and the informal organization becoming stronger than the formal organization. The downside of entropy is as significant as the upside of synergy.

I propose that creating synergy and the elimination of entropy will be achieved if all people in a team developed a mind for teamwork. This means they did what they said they would, when they said they would do it, in the way they said they would do it. Then the planned outcome for the team will be achieved and probably a little more.

Finally, I want to make the claim that getting talented people is very easy; getting them to work together and according to the team intention is very tough.

Dr Steve Harris. Motivational speaker, team building, conference speaker, keynote speaker

Article Source: http://www.steveharris.co.za/irish-eyes-smiling-create-synergy/

It’s Not Wise to Be a Despondent: There’s more

Are you feeling dragged down or depressed in your life? Get help of motivational speakers who inspires you to take challenges and not to go on your back foot. A motivational speaker helps you to motivate you by delivering inspirational speeches. They encourage you to look the world from a different perspective and introduce you to your talents and abilities that you have in you. They are a form of facilitator in your life who drags you out of the stress and gives you the green path to success.  The most common cause for a person to be depressed is getting lousy treatment from people around you who think that he/she is not worth the time. A good motivational speaker will retrain your mind by changing the process of your thinking.

Contribution to the society

The actual goal of an impetus speaker is to change people emotionally or mentally. This is the basic count of a person to be strong. People have a tendency on focusing on all problems they have in their life, but conference speakers will help them to focus on opportunities instead. They travel in a planned circuit from one place to another or they can be hired too as a special guest. Some speaker may also sell books and DVDs, or they may come on television channels too. They share their own personal experience to place an example of positive attitude. A motivational speaker expertise in personal development and in youth mentor ship.