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Extracted from: Pitch to Win By Justin Cohen Published by: Burnet Media Available for R250 at all leading bookstores © Justin Cohen Pages 58 - 59
Professor Tim Noakes is one of the world’s leading exercise and sports scientists. One of his primary research interests is ‘brain regulation of exercise and performance.’ Having extensively studied and worked with a range of sports champions and endurance athletes, Noakes explains that when a fraction of a percentage separates the winner from the runner-up, the critical difference is not physiology, but belief.
He often cites the example of Roger Bannister, who was the first man to run the four-minute mile. Before he managed this great feat, many experts thought it was impossible. The closest anyone had got was 4:01 minutes, and that was nearly a decade before. There were doctors who thought that pushing the body below four minutes would kill a man. Even Bannister thought it was impossible, but one day before a race, his coach Franz Stampfl said something that changed his mind. He said, ‘You can do a 3:56 mile.’
A good coach sees you not as you are, but as you can be. When you trust that person and internalise their belief in you, self-imposed limits can be shattered. Bannister would later explain that everything changed after he heard his coach say those words.
On 6 May 1954, on Iffley Road Track in Oxford, Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds, breaking not only a physical but a mental barrier. Suddenly, it was seen as possible. Six weeks later the Australian John Landy became the second man to do it, and barely a year later three people did it in one race!
The way I see it, the real hero of the four-minute mile was Franz Stampfl, who made one man see that the impossible was possible.
Expressing positive expectations doesn’t just boost the performance of athletes, it boosts the performance of accountants. Half a group of new auditors who had recently joined one of the Big Four accounting firms were told that they had been singled out as having high potential to succeed, with the skills to overcome challenges, and that management had high expectations for them. Actually they were considered no better than the auditors in the control group. Yet for a full month afterwards they earned significantly higher performance ratings that those who did not receive this positive feedback.
For pitching, the lesson is simple. During your preparations be sure to express lots of positive expectations, particularly when you’re giving feedback.