Your Support Team Is a Critical Enabler for Personal Success

Imagine this.

You are running a marathon. You have just crossed the 41KM mark of the 42.1KM distance of a full marathon. If you run at my pace, you have done about four hours of running in the Singaporean heat. You are completely exhausted and almost crawling your way to the finish line. You start seeing a sizeable crowd cheering for you as you approach the finish line; you also spot your family and friends on the sidelines screaming out loud with unbelievable enthusiasm. A new rush of blood and energy is inexplicably now available to you. You muster all your strength, gather pace, and cross the finish line in glory.

The encouragement from supporters, known and unknown, inspires every human being to perform at their very best. The home advantage is a well-understood phenomenon in sports: a study of over 400,000 matches over 20 years in the English Premier League showed that 60 per cent of all points were won in home games.

Many of the greatest sportsmen, actors and politicians feed off the incredible adulation they get. It inspires them to reach even greater levels of performance.

Some of the best successes I have enjoyed in my career was when I was surrounded by the perfect support team, and we were united in our purpose to achieve the goal.

There is a strong business case to build a support team that can propel each one of us to perform our very best in our careers and personal lives. Here are some guidelines to help orchestrate this in a meaningful way:

1. Assemble a support team consisting of friends, family, mentors and clients. The larger the team, the better it is. We could also just use our existing networks on social media. For most of us, it is best to create a private group, rather than engage with all who are on our social media.

2. Communicate your ambition and goals to them. Take their feedback to help in building these goals, and be as clear as possible with measures of success. We do this quite well in the formative years of our life when we announce our goals regarding our education, so why not do this now?

Read: Are You Driven By Quick Gains or Passion?

3. Share your progress on these goals – both your successes and failings – to your support team. They will be the biggest anchor for you in tough times. You may share it individually or do this in small groups.

4. Celebrate your successes with them.You could use this four-step process for any goal: to find a new job, run a marathon, become a better listener, or even lose weight.

In 2018, I embarked on the biggest challenge and transformation of my life. I somehow mustered the courage to leave behind a fabulous company and career that gave me immense learning for almost 21 years.

As I embarked on this new journey, I am fortunate enough to have an incredible support team of friends and family – all cheering me along. Thank you to each and every one of you in my support team.

We will all run our own life marathons, and we will all run at different paces. But the support team can ensure we get the best of what is possible in each one of us.

I hope this inspires you to start building and communicating your vision, purpose and aspirations with your support team in the years to come.

Manoj Menon will be speaking at the Malaysia Leadership Summit 2019: Connect, Collaborate, Contribute on July 11, 2019. To find out more and register for the event, head to leaderonomics.com/mls-2019. Tickets for this event are HRDF claimable.

Manoj is a technology analyst, keynote speaker and management consultant who has a keen interest in future trends and business model innovation. He is passionate about working with people, organisations, and the wider community to help them achieve their potential and make a difference. To engage with him, email us at editor@leaderonomics.com.

Reposted with permission on Leaderonomics.com.