The Power of Humanity:
Three Workplace Lessons from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games was a 17-day global sporting event like none the world has ever seen. Every Olympics has unique characteristics and defining moments, and this year’s will be remembered forever as the COVID-19 Games. After a delay from 2020 to 2021, Tokyo hosted the first international gathering of such magnitude since the start of the pandemic, and athletes competed without the typical energy and support from onsite spectators.
But as millions of fans watched safely from their homes, captivated by the sheer talent and grit of the world’s best athletes, they discovered much more than which countries dominate in track and field, swimming, and gymnastics. They learned that human strength transcends physicality. And they realized that character, compassion, and mental fortitude are far greater superpowers than any feat of the body.
Below we unpack three lessons the Tokyo Olympic Games taught us about leading our workplaces with the best of our humanity.
Champion the underrepresented.
Tokyo 2020 boasted 49 percent female participation, the most gender-equal Olympic Games of all time. And, according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), each of the teams participating in the Games included at least one female and one male. In a move to further promote gender equality, this year the IOC changed their long-standing rule of one flag bearer at the Opening Ceremony, allowing and encouraging one male and one female athlete to jointly carry their country’s flag.
With such strong female representation, women's voices rang louder and more clearly at this Olympics. United States sprinter Allyson Felix won a record eleventh Olympic medal, making her the most decorated track and field female Olympic athlete of all-time.
Felix is mother to two-year-old Camryn and an advocate for maternal health care and maternity protections. She is well-known for taking on Nike when the athletic company declined to contractually guarantee that she wouldn’t be financially punished if she didn’t meet her performance standards in the months surrounding childbirth. “When I think about the world that Cammy will grow up in, I don’t want her—or any other woman or girl—to have to fight the battles that I fought,” Felix says.
Likewise, progress in our workplaces is gained by elevating the underrepresented. Creating an organization where diversity, equity, and inclusion are foundational has a profound effect on your company values, practices, and culture.
Don’t shy away from failure.
United States swimmer Katie Ledecky is considered one of the greatest female swimmers in history, having earned the most Olympic and world championship gold medals. In Tokyo, Ledecky gained four new medals, bringing her total to 10 medals across three Olympic Games, including seven golds and three silvers.
Humility and grace characterize Ledecky’s wins, and the twenty-four-year-old does not take herself too seriously. “Each day I work on getting better, and even the bad days have something good that comes out of them,” Ledecky said when asked how she keeps up her swimming form. She continued: “One thing my coaches say is that I fail spectacularly in practice—and that’s something that I actually work toward.”
Ledecky’s emphasis on failure is a lesson for all of us seeking to lead our organizations to greater performance: Accomplishments do not come without pushing beyond our comfort zone and accepting that failure is part of the journey.
Prioritize mental health.
Perhaps the loudest lesson of all from this year’s Olympic Games emerged when American gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from the all-around competition, citing a case of the “twisties.” This sudden inability for a gymnast to make the requisite spins for a particular maneuver is incredibly dangerous, especially for competitions such as vault and uneven bars.
Biles arrived in Tokyo expected to double her Olympic medal count—having earned five in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Instead, she chose to listen to her body and put her mental wellbeing first. “I have to put my pride aside,” Biles explained. “I have to do what's right for me and focus on my mental health and not jeopardize my health and well-being.”
And in doing so, Biles allowed her US teammates a chance to shine, particularly Sunisa Lee. The Minnesotan clinched gold, making her the first Asian-American to earn the top medal in the all-around competition.
Biles’s decision to put aside the pressures and expectations from coaches, fans, and country and take care of herself speaks to all people carrying the weight of excessive stress in their personal and professional lives. And it’s an example to those of us who lead employees, create organizational policies, and engage talent: Get mental health right and all else will follow.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games inspired all of us at Cynuria Consulting. We believe your organization works best when your people are at their best. And we are committed to partnering with leaders to promote inclusion, fail fast, and engage employees’ whole selves.
We’d love to hear what you learned, too. How did the Olympics inspire you to do better and be better, at work and at home?
