Sean Brawley - Sustainable High Performance and the Inner Game (B2218)

Welcome to the Exit Coach radio show, the show for baby boomer business owners who are looking for cutting edge information as they plan their 3 to 10 year business succession and exit. Every week we interview top professional advisors for. Their best tips, strategies, and precautions so you can be well planned. And don't miss our one minute exit coach tip of the day on exitcoachradio.com. And now here's your host, the exit coach Bill Black. Thanks for joining us. Welcome to the show today. Uh, I have a very exciting guest that's coming up in just a minute. You know, we talk a lot at Exo Coach Radio about techniques and strategies, and we talk a lot about business types of strategies, but I want to ask you a question. How's your inner game? How is your inner game? And we're going to talk about that. We have Sean Brawley, who's a world renowned expert on sustainable high performance in the inner game, and his clients include Super Bowl champion coach Peter Carroll or Pete Carroll, and senior leaders of GE ITT and uh and Union Bank, and we're gonna talk about sustainable high performance, not something easy to do, so that's why we, we've brought in an expert, Sean Brawley of the Brawley Institute. Sean, welcome to the show and thanks for joining us. Oh thanks Bill it's my pleasure. Pleasure to have you with us today, Sean. Uh, if you would tell us a little bit about your background and, and the Brawley Institute before we get into the topic of the day. Oh sure, um, well, I'm a former professional tennis pro ranked in the top 150 in the world in singles and doubles, and after about six years in business, I decided that, uh, I would follow my heart back to tennis. So I became a tennis coach and within just a few months of doing that, I met Tim Galway who wrote the A very successful series of books called The Inner Game, The Inner Game of Tennis is the seminal classic, and there are also books on inner game of golf, music, skiing, work, and stress. And I had the very good fortune of being mentored by him for 5 years and working closely with him for another 15 and um And then after, uh, just, just recently, a couple of years ago, I formed the Brawley Institute um to continue doing similar um I work on my, on my own. That when I think of the inner game and of course as a tennis champion, I think of uh incredible mental stamina, uh, focus, concentration. What is the uh the basic premise of the inner game and by and you're the first certified in game coach in the world, right? I, I am, yes, um. And um the, the basic premise of the inner game uh is, is actually pretty simple. We, we all have uh an extraordinary amount of potential. That uh we're not able to realize and the reason is because we all get in our own way. Um, we all have self-interference that, that blocks our best performance and um And that actually leads to a very simple formula which is that performance is equal to our potential minus the interference. I'm gonna repeat that. It can be very helpful for people to think about, uh, your performance at any given time is equal to your your potential minus your self-interference. So according to that that simple formula, if you reduce the interference, if you. Reduce the fear and the self-doubt and the self-judgment, it can have dramatic uh impacts and immediate impacts on performance, learning, as well as the enjoyment of what you're doing. So let's go back to the formula. Performance equals potential minus interference. Now, um we would assume that that people have certain levels of potential of that come from their experience, their, their energy, their reputation, their contacts, things along those lines. Um, what are some of the typical uh categories of interference that come into play that detract from that? Um, well, you could, you know, easily split it up into mental, emotional, and, and even physical, um, but, um, Uh, I, I've mentioned a few already. I mean, we all, uh, we all struggle with, with fear, fear of failure, fear of loss, fear of, uh, being embarrassed, fear of taking risks, fear of, uh, making mistakes. This fear, you know, really can. Can, uh, hinder us quite a bit. Um, doubt can create a lot of confusion, um, being stuck, uh, of just not, of being immobile and not taking action. Um, it's some of, you know, the, the, the emotions of of shame and guilt, um, really can lock us into a kind of a dungeon of, of denied feelings if, you know, these are very difficult feelings sometimes and if we're not willing to take a look and, and feel our feelings. It can have a dramatic impact on our experience and on our on our growth and on our Relationships and with our performance. It is the premise of the inner game to uh to coach you to train you. To recognize, identify and deal with or to kind of put those away at the time of, let's say a tennis match, for instance. I mean, everybody has doubts, everybody has fears. Um, do you, do you actually train through coaching to, to deal with those and put those away, or is it like say at the time of the match, you're going to put all that aside and replace that with with winner type of emotions and thoughts? Walk me through it. Um. Yeah, you know, it's um. You know there certainly are a number of different um strategies and techniques that the inner game offers that uh can help. Um, that can help, uh, Help us play our best. Um, you know, another area, it's not just emotions, another area that, um, I really noticed that senior leaders uh in, in business really struggle with, uh, which is their focus. So athletes, you know, really need to be focused and disciplined and um. Being able to be present with what's happening here and now and a lot of uh senior leaders, no matter how good they are, no matter how experienced they are, um, we all seem to also have an ability to get easily distracted. The inner game offers. Some, some, some tips, some exercises, some, you know, ideas, tools, you could say, to help uh reduce the interference. But what I have discovered Um, that I think is most important. Then the tips Uh, and the techniques. And even sometimes the tools is the idea that you you really have to Um, create a practice. Um, I know we're gonna talk a little bit later about Pete Carroll, so I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but for Pete, he suddenly realized that that practice is everything. And in sports, you know, we practice 90% of the time to compete 10% of the time and in business. Um, we're pretty much competing all the time. We're just doing, we're, we're not really learning a lot. We're not really trying, you know, consciously, deliberately developing our potential, um, at work, most of us. And so, um, this idea um is really important and is now being promoted by, you know, other people as well, like Daniel Goleman, who wrote the book Emotional Intelligence. The, the, the, the research is extraordinarily clear and has been clear for now for 25 to 30 years that, that the path of mastery requires us to um To have a coach, number one, to have an instructor or an expert help us to deliberately practice and improve something. And to be committed and stay on the path. And um if we're not, you know, practicing, so to speak, then it's really hard. To change um some part of our life that we're not happy with or not fulfilled with. Yeah, and that's why I'm, I'm really excited and intrigued by this concept, because everybody knows that if you're going to try, if you're, if you want to be a better golfer or tennis player, get out and practice. You need to practice probably 9 times for every 1 time you're going to be on the course, and then when you're on the course playing, that's, that's not the time, that's the time to implement what you've been practicing. We all know that. But in in business, it's hard for a business owner to think about, well, how do I practice, uh, how do I practice what I am going to implement? I just go do it and that's what a lot where a lot of people get held up and they're bringing all of these. I like the formula, they're bringing the interference with them onto the course, onto the courts and uh into their business and that's what, that's where they need a technique and that's where the inner game comes in, right? That's right. Love it. So tell us about the Pete Carroll work because he's he's fresh on our minds. What a, what a crazy turn of events at the Super Bowl. But you know, I'm sure there's some second guessing going on there, but he had that play in his mind. He had a reason for the end play and what a great season and what a great run he's had with Seattle. So tell us about working with him and what was that like? Uh, I worked with him for nearly over 10 years. I actually met him about a year before he got the job offer at USC, and he hired me because I'm an innerga expert and he felt that the inner game was the formed the foundation of his coaching philosophy, but he had been fired by the Jets after one season and then fired from the New England Patriots after 3 seasons, and in both cases, You know, it could be called a failure. He, he, and he didn't know why. He knew he was, um, Uh, that he was one of the best, um, defensive coordinators in the NFL after he got fired from the Jets, for instance, he went to San Francisco and helped them. Very quickly, uh, become the number one defense in the NFL and help them win a Super Bowl, um, which gave him an opportunity to, um, to coach the Patriots. And, uh, but once he became the head coach, he really just didn't understand why he uh failed so miserably and he suddenly woke up one day and realized if he's lucky, he'll get one more chance at a head coaching job, but that's probably it. He, he wasn't at the time aware of any coach who had been fired 3 times and had had like a 4th chance, so. He became very committed, which, you know, to his credit, that becomes, in my opinion, a model for other senior leaders and business owners of, you know, not, not settling, you know, really being willing to go to your edge and that you don't know and really try to discover what is it gonna take to get to the next level. So he hired me and I believe he hired another. Gentleman who uh had more football experience. And uh I basically coached him, became his coach advisor, helped him to clarify his coaching philosophy in that process when he got the job at SC. Uh, and he wasn't the first choice. I think he was the 3rd or 4th choice, but when he interviewed, he really wowed them and he showed up and he basically said, um, here is my philosophy, um, here's what I'm gonna do, this is how long it's gonna take, and this is what I need from you in order to make this happen. And he was able to, to get all of that and, and the rest sort of his history, two national championships, played for a third, and now after um about 5 or 6 years with the Seattle Seahawks, he's demonstrating that, that same philosophy um and culture creation um can, can work in the NFL very successfully too. So going in with that clarity of the, the, the definiteness of purpose, the, uh, especially one thing you said, being able to tell the people what he needed from them. Um, that kind of is the complete, kind of the complete package there that that probably is different than what other people, um, the way other people approach things. Is that, is that fair to say? Is that what the inner game helps to, to, to figure out all of this stuff ahead of time? Well, one of the, you know, key um principles of the inner game is, is, is awareness, self-awareness, and so, you know, the result of greater self-awareness is clarity. You see yourself, you understand yourself, you begin to understand and, and see others better. Um, so the clarity that he gained from being just absolutely. Completely aware and understanding what his philosophy was, what did he do to be successful, and then to identify those Those areas um where he like wasn't successful and why. So for one example, At at both the Jets and the Patriots, um, he didn't have control and, and for, for personnel uh hiring and firing. And um, And so because you're working with these types of athletes with big egos and many of them are multi-million dollar franchise type players, um, if he's not in charge of the hiring and firing, then he really doesn't have any power over them. And so one of the things when he went into SC was to say I need to control everything and they, they, they gave him that and they also gave him that power at Seattle. He's, you know, he hires and fires something that most people aren't aware of is that um. Um, but, you know, when he won the Super Bowl last year, there wasn't one person on the team that had started with him 5 years previously. He actually hired and fired. Um, all new people after 5 years, uh, in order to get the players he needed who could fit into the culture that he's, um, trying to create because he's doing it much different than anyone has ever done it before in the NFL. So is that kind of saying that leadership stands on the shoulders of authority? Um, Well, you could say that except what I would suggest is the original meaning of the word authority. Um, actually is rooted in the idea of power from experience. So you know it's. He now knows and could repeat this anywhere he goes because his, his authority is based on knowing. He's got conscious competence you could say so and I, and I, and I've got several business stories. Like for instance, the vice chairman of US Bank, you know, basically went through a very similar process and became crystal clear about what were the 5 most important things. That were critical for being an extraordinary bank and as a result, the US Bank was the only big bank that didn't take any money from the government back in 2007, 2008 in the financial crisis and still there's still to this day, the um The the um what how do you say it, the best performing large bank on the stock exchange, um, and it's, it's based on the same principles that once you become crystal clear and you're able to focus everyone's attention in the organization on the team on basic critical factors that lead to success and get everybody motivated to focus on them. Uh, success and, you know, and high performance becomes sustainable and become a result of that process, and it actually is can become somewhat effortless. Out of the sustainability part of it, um, because everybody, you know, that it talks about businesses as well, there's, there's always going to be cycles in business and you're going to be effective for a while and then, and leadership changes at big corporations it seems like all the time. So the sustainability is that how, let's address that. What do we mean, what, what's your definition of sustainability? Well, if you go back to the formula, there's really two paths. If you're gonna improve performance and have sustainable high performance, you have to discover ways to. Um, Reduce the interference of the individual of the team members of the organization and you and you need to actually have a plan in place to develop potential so from what I've seen these are two big. Um, things missing and there's other things from sports. But, uh, the business world just isn't getting that really help performance, um, so, you know, be sustainable over time. Um, but so this idea of, of having a, a real plan in place to develop everyone's potential and have it be meaningful, um, meaning, you know, focused on the critical skills needed, um. To, to, to be successful, but a big one that's missing all the time is this idea of self-insurance. There's very few programs and companies that acknowledge that, uh, people get in their own way, that leaders get in their own way, managers get in their own way. We've often heard that, um, people don't leave companies, they leave. Bad managers they leave bad business owners and um you know usually that's the case because those people are not aware they're not. They're not seeing the impact of their behaviors on other people and so they don't change if they actually were seeing it and could see it. could observe it and feel it. And notice that they would make changes very, you know, automatically, very simply. Well, I, I like that the formula, it seems like to me, maybe tell me if I've got this right, but the performance equals potential minus interference could be held to a business entity, to a division, and to all of the individuals within that organization as well. Each could each uh kind of it holds to each both entity and individual. Absolutely, yep, uh, again. You know, teams are made up of individuals and normally teams, you know, are supposed to. have synergy. They're supposed to, you know, 2 + 2 equals 5, but that's not usually what happens. What happens in reality is there's so much interference. So much politics, so much gossiping, so much. Fear and um and worried about, you know, stepping on people's toes and making mistakes and getting fired, but um people generally don't work as well together as they could if there was a lot less interference. And this getting back to Pete, this is This is a big part of of why he's successful is what's happened is he became really clear. He was pretty clear before, but he became crystal clear of the main ways in which uh players get in their own way. And so as a leader, he creates a culture and creates rules and creates an entire culture. That reduces the interference. For instance, you can see it, you mentioned the last play. First of all, I can tell you almost for sure that he didn't make that call. I'm almost sure that the offensive coordinator most likely made that call and then he approved it. But Pete, because of one of his uh team, one part of his philosophy is always protect the team. So he would take responsibility for it and if you notice for instance the interview he had on the Today Show took total responsibility for it wouldn't get sidetracked on, you know, blaming anybody or talking badly about what happened he said what happened and then he's like we're moving on we're moving on we're looking forward, we're looking to next year he he's not gonna let anybody. Crack the armor and start, you know, getting people to think negatively. He's just, he's just not gonna do it. Um, that's great. Yeah, so great information so I'm sorry, go, go, go ahead, um, go ahead, go ahead. Well, I was just gonna ask you 11 last question on um applying this to to CEOs in in uh in general how does the process work? How does someone start working with you? Well, um, like I've got a, a project right now working with 20 senior leaders of GE, and, um, I'm helping them in two specific ways. One is to learn how to coach, not to be an advisor or a mentor or a teacher, but a specific way to communicate, um. Um, that can help them become better coaches because that can really help improve the performance of their team members and grow their, their, their staff because then by, by inquiry versus advocating, they um they get, they get people to think for themselves, become more aware, more responsible, and um that that typically leads to back to the formula development of potential. And also at the same time, a reduction of interference. But I mentioned practice, so, you know, what I, what I've learned is that instead of trying to put these band-aids on, so if you show up for a tennis match or you can show up for a presentation and you find yourself nervous. You know, you could argue that it's a little too late. I mean, what's really clear now though is that um That our, our subconscious really is quite powerful and it's really running the show. So if you show up and you're nervous, you're gonna have to live with that. You're gonna have to deal with that. There's not a lot of choice now that's involved. And so if you can build this into a practice, and so I help the leaders. Develop a ver a practice which includes like Pete Carroll is doing with his uh his uh team. Um, maybe one of the only football coaches that's doing it, um, is I, I help them, you know, get short moments of meditation anywhere from one minute to 20 minutes. Um, meditation is really proven as a practice. To have so many benefits and reduce interference in so many different ways, it makes uh just, and, and I know this from not only the research but my own experience. Um, That this is one of the most important things that a leader and a CEO and a business owner can do is to begin that process of meditating because it has impacts on your ability to focus, on your ability to be relaxed. So many things change physiologically over time. It's like compound interest. It starts reducing interference and nervousness and The negative self talk we all have in ways that um Uh, they're really, you know, Discovering more and more now. So yeah, yeah, the way your brain, the brain is wired, it needs that that return to calmness to regenerate and connect thoughts, and that's, that's great advice. Sean, how do people get in touch with you? What's the best way? Um, the best way to reach me is, uh, is through email Seanan at Serawley.com. Um, my last name is Brawley, B R A W L E Y, so Sean at Sean Brawley.com, and to any listeners, uh listening in today, um they can contact me and, and I'd be happy to set up a free 30 minute coaching session for them to to have a consultation to see whether, you know, we're a good fit and whether um coaching is right for them to help them. Achieve their personal and professional goals uh quicker, easier, and perhaps with a lot less suffering. Well, yeah, everybody needs help. Everybody needs coaching. And again, from a business standpoint, think of it. If you were taking up a new hobby, you would start with a coach and training and practice, practice, practice. This is a way to get better in your business leadership, your business thinking, to create your inner game and work on that. And Sean, you're one of the first certified inner game coaches. In the world we really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us today and give us some tips, and I hope we can get deeper into this at some time in the future. I look forward to our next conversation. Thanks a lot, Bill, appreciate you having me on the show. All right, my pleasure. That's gonna do it for our show today. We're going to, uh, bow out here and, uh, uh, with a, with an outro, but I wanna thank, uh, uh, our sponsors Business Enterprise Institute Provisors, which, which connects advisors out here in California with 4000 advisors. I want to thank Julie Tabazon for helping us out with our guest coordination and keeping everybody on task and. Again, we look forward to our next show. We have over 500 guests who have done interviews that you can find all of their content at exaoachradio.com in over 35 topic file folders and listen any time from your smartphone or mobile device. And remember we're here for you, our hero, the private business owner, so that you can be well planned. You're listening to Exit Coachradio.com, the information station for age 50 plus business owners, where we're interviewing top advisors for their best tips, ideas, and precautions so you can be well planned. We upload new one minute tips every day. Exitcoachradio.com. Come listen for a minute. Thank you for listening to Exit Coach Radio.