Kindness Is the Mechanism That Lets Standards Hold
When choosing who to work with, one thing mattered most to the brothers. “Skills can be learned,” Brian says, “but the right compatibility is [most] important.” For Brian and Robin, compatibility meant being able to handle feedback without eroding trust. It wasn’t about being agreeable, it was about keeping standards high while delivering feedback with kindness. “There could be criticisms, there can be hard conversations,” Brian explains. But when feedback came with “kindness in their hearts and how it’s being presented,” it became “much easier to listen to it and to debrief, and figure out a better way forward.” That difference mattered for learning. With trust in place, someone could say, “Hey, I think if you do something this way, you’ll be faster,” and it would be heard as help. As Brian says, “we all get better together.” Robin noticed the same effect. Strong trust meant “less micromanaging.” Standards didn’t drop; roles were clear, intentions were trusted, and learning could continue under pressure. Here’s Brian sharing about the importance of kindness to their culture:Kindness Can Raise the Bar
One of the most important moments in Brian’s Paralympic career happened because a competitor took the time to help him. Early in his Para Nordic career, Brian sometimes raced without a guide. In one event, he finished just “30 seconds behind the top guy in the world.” Afterward, the German athlete and his guide told him, “You need to have a guide, because today with a guide, you might have won.” Brian remembers thinking, “Why would another nation be helping me out on this?” The answer was simple: they were “just excited to have competition.” That advice changed Brian’s path. Because of that conversation, he asked Robin to guide him, beginning “10 years of pretty fun work racing together.” Sometimes kindness doesn’t make sport easier. It makes it better. On why others helped them out to raise the bar:Trust Is Built in the First Failure, Not the First Success
Their first World Cup together took place at the Salt Lake City Olympic course in March 2001. It was unusually warm – about 15 Celsius, Robin recalls – and the snow was wet and unpredictable. On a fast downhill, something went wrong. Robin reached the bottom and realized, “Brian’s not there.” He waited, then started hiking back up the course. He heard Brian yelling. What he saw first wasn’t Brian, but “a ski sitting off the edge of the trail.” Brian had caught an edge in the “sloppy snow,” gone off course, and ended up “hanging off of a tree upside down.” Robin climbed down, removed the skis, and pulled him back up. From Brian’s side, he stepped outside the track to get a push and hit the “mashed potatoes” snow: “My ski stopped and I kept going.” The tree became “the only thing stopping me from sliding headfirst down a steep mud slope.” He held on and waited for Robin. “I figured he’d eventually figure out I wasn’t there,” Brian says. Robin later called it “a very big failure on day one.” What mattered was what followed. “We laughed about it.” No blame. No anger. That moment set the tone. Trust wasn’t automatic – even between brothers. It was built through shared experience and protected by how mistakes were handled. Kindness showed up early, not as softness, but as steadiness. Here’s Robin sharing their early guiding failures:Autonomy in Preparation. Alignment in Execution.
The McKeevers succeeded because they didn’t pretend they were the same athlete. As Robin explains, “We have overlapping roles that work together … we have the same end goal, but we still need to arrive there in slightly different ways.” That showed up in training. “We have our own training programs,” he says. “It’s not exactly the same, but we still need to arrive at the same point where we can ski together, race together, and communicate in order to achieve a team victory.” Brian puts it plainly: “I can ski by myself. Robin can ski by himself, but he’s there to help me. And we are winning this together. We’re not doing this individually.” Giving each other space reduced friction. Coming together at the right moments kept them aligned. Trust and looking out for each other were the glue that made both possible.What Leading With Kindness Looks Like in Practice
The McKeevers’ story reveals three practical behaviours that translate directly to leadership and teams:01.
Reset without blame when something goes wrong.
02.
Deliver feedback as performance support, not personal judgment.
03.
Clarify ownership to reduce micromanagement and create alignment.
01. Reset without blame when something goes wrong
When Brian crashed off the course in Salt Lake City, the response wasn’t panic or finger-pointing. Robin described the day as a failure, but one they laughed about and moved on from. That response preserved trust in a moment where it could have fractured.02. Deliver feedback as performance support, not personal judgment
Hard conversations were unavoidable, but when framed with respect, people stayed receptive. The feedback that mattered most was specific and performance-focused: if you do this differently, you’ll be faster.03. Reduce micromanagement by clarifying ownership and alignment
Trust allowed Brian and Robin to prepare in their own way while still arriving at the same execution point. Different paths. Same outcome. This is kindness without lowering the bar: respect that keeps people engaged, paired with precision that drives improvement. In the McKeevers’ case, kindness turned trust into medals, and a partnership into a lasting competitive advantage. —- Brian will be coaching the Canadian para-Nordic team as they go for gold in Milan-Cortina starting on March 10 (see the team schedule here), while Robin will be supporting the Canadian Nordic team as a member of the coaching staff.Build Resilience In Your Organization
Bring the skills that elite athletes use to build resilience and perform under pressure to your organization. Contact us to learn more about our resilience programs.
That preparation mattered in Sochi. When pressure mounted, the team didn’t fracture emotionally. They had already agreed on how they would behave.
You Perform How You Prepare
A persistent myth about high performance – whether in athletes or business leaders – is that resilience appears when it’s needed most. The reality is simpler: it shows up only to the extent that it has been rehearsed. Months before the Olympics, Jensen met with the team before a game against a strong AAA boys’ team from Brandon, Manitoba. The discussion wasn’t about winning that night. Instead, it focused on a specific scenario they could face: being down 2-0 in the third period. The players began by talking through how they would manage the clock. “You think about it in 10-minute segments,” Jensen explains. “You break it in half … and break it down into achievable things.” He then narrowed the window. What if there were only five minutes left? Now it became two-and-a-half-minute sequences. Smaller problems. Clearer focus. The emphasis was not on emotion or outcome, but on behaviours the team could control under pressure. So when Team Canada found itself down two goals with around seven minutes left in the Sochi gold medal game, the players weren’t overwhelmed. The situation felt familiar. They had been there before and knew how to respond.
“Stay Positive” Is Not a Strategy
Another subtle but critical shift was Jensen’s refusal to let the team sidestep uncomfortable realities. When asked how they would respond individually late in a close game, players emphasized the importance of staying positive and supporting their teammates. Jensen pushed back. “The coach shortens the bench. And so you’re irritated,” he told them, adding players who weren’t getting ice time would feel frustrated and lose focus. Pretending otherwise wouldn’t make that problem go away. So the team discussed what that “irritation” might feel like and how players could still support their teammates on the ice. By talking about those moments in advance, they normalized them. Falling behind stopped being a psychological threat and became a known condition with a known response. That preparation mattered in Sochi. When pressure mounted, the team didn’t fracture emotionally. They had already agreed on how they would behave.Normalize Adversity Instead of Hoping It Won’t Appear
After the gold medal game, head coach Kevin Dineen summed up his team in a few words: They never gave up. From Jensen’s perspective, there was more to that explanation. “They didn’t give up because that’s who they were,” he says. “We’d done a lot of work on team vision and culture. But we’d also simulated what they would need to do.” The team didn’t treat adversity as an anomaly. They treated it as an inevitability. By rehearsing the moments most likely to derail them – shortened benches, frustration, time pressure – they removed surprise from the equation. And when surprise disappears, performance improves. The Sochi gold medal didn’t come from belief summoned in the moment. It came from preparation that made the moment feel familiar.Pre-Plan for Adversity
You don’t need an Olympic stage to apply these lessons. The same approach Team Canada used to win gold works in business, leadership and life. Here’s how to get started:- Identify two to three scenarios that are most likely to derail your team.
- Break each scenario into smaller, controllable steps to solve, rather than treating it as one overwhelming problem.
- Decide in advance what you will think, say, and do when those moments show up.
- Choose simple imagery or verbal cues that help ground focus and regulate emotion under pressure.
Key Insights:
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Resilience is not a personality trait; it is a trained response to pressure.
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Breaking high-stakes situations into smaller, controllable segments reduces cognitive overload and sharpens execution.
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Avoiding negative scenarios creates fragility; rehearsing them creates confidence.
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Teams perform better under pressure when they normalize adversity instead of treating it as failure.
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Preparation replaces hope with clarity.
Build Resilience In Your Organization
Bring the skills that elite athletes use to build resilience and perform under pressure to your organization. Contact us to learn more about our resilience programs.
“We can BE the best, even when we’re not AT our best.”At PyeongChang in 2018, on the other hand, “before our music even started, I felt different. I felt like a high performer, and I didn’t feel like I needed the judges’ results to prove that for me.” And contrary to the feeling after the 2010 Games, after 2018, “there was real joy and satisfaction that came from the hard work, from the pressure, from all of the things that I would’ve found totally depleting two, four, eight or 12 years earlier.” So what changed? In our conversation with Tessa, three evolutions stood out: embracing discomfort rather than focusing on the number of hours spent in training; a deliberate shift in mindset from chasing perfection to pursuing excellence; and – above all else – a reclamation of personal power.
01. Creating discomfort vs. over-training
After the over-use injuries and surgeries that characterized 2010, the comeback in 2018 was built on less training time – three hours a day instead of 12 – more recovery time, and using the limited training hours to deliberately create imperfect conditions to sharpen their resilience. Whether it was leaving the ice unflooded and chipped, pumping in crowd noise, or falling on command to practise recovery, each practice built confidence that, as Tessa says, “we can BE the best, even when we’re not AT our best.” Here’s Tessa discussing that process:02. Pursuing excellence vs. chasing perfection
In Tessa’s words, “We needed to stop chasing perfection and instead pursue excellence … and once we took perfect off the table, we thought excellence was possible.” Their daily goal became showing up at an “8 out of 10”; not in effort, but in execution. Reframing their approach unhooked them from the impossible standard of perfection and freed them to connect with the joy and challenge of consistent excellence. Listen to Tessa talk about this shift:03. Becoming drivers vs. passengers
At the heart of Tessa and Scott’s story behind the story is reclaiming a sense of agency and self-efficacy. After years of being “good little soldiers,” for their 2018 comeback, they stepped into the driver’s seat: assembling their own team, setting their own standards, and “operating as if we were the CEOs of our own business,” she says. “We had agency and autonomy, we really were steering the ship.” That changed their experience leading up to the Games and, she believes, made the ultimate win more fulfilling. Listen to Tessa talk about this shift: Of course, the effectiveness of these shifts is not limited to sports. We can all benefit from:- Increasing short-burst intensity and building time for recovery instead of focusing on hours worked or busyness as a proxy for effectiveness.
- ‘Roughing up the ice’ to build resilience into our projections, targets, pilots, and project plans instead of making plans that rely on perfect conditions.
- Embracing ‘8 out of 10’ efforts that will produce more from consistency over the long haul instead of aiming for the impossibility of perfection.
- Seeing ourselves as the author of our stories instead of allowing ourselves to fall into the mindset of being characters.
Build Resilience In Your Organization
Bring the skills that elite athletes use to build resilience and perform under pressure to your organization. Contact us to learn more about our resilience programs.
When people picture elite sport, they usually imagine the glory: the medals, the anthem, the moment everything comes together. What they don’t often see is the psychological turbulence underneath those performances – the doubt, fear, shame, and self-recrimination that show up when things don’t go according to plan.
Years ago, Third Factor founder Peter Jensen was working with a Canadian national team that was, by all measures, one of the best in the world. They were perennial contenders, a program with history and swagger. And yet, in the first days of a world championship, everything came undone. They lost to their arch-rivals badly, and the shock was devastating.
We’re always navigating the gap between what is and what ought to be. That gap hurts. But the hurt is meaningful. And if we can help people explore that meaning, we unlock the very thing that allows them to grow.
By the next morning, the athletes stood in the hotel lobby looking hollowed-out. Angry. Embarrassed. Anxious. They knew the tournament was short. They knew another loss could knock them out. And they knew they were at risk of spiraling.
This is the territory we work in every day – not just in sport, but in business, education, and leadership. People experiencing disappointment, failure, or the deep discomfort of not living up to their own expectations. As psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski wrote, we’re always navigating the gap between what is and what ought to be. That gap hurts. But the hurt is meaningful. And if we can help people explore that meaning, we unlock the very thing that allows them to grow.
What follows is how Peter helped that team turn a moment of psychological crisis into the fuel that carried them to a gold medal, not despite their negative emotions, but because of them.
01.
Acknowledge the pain and help people observe it
02.
Move toward compassion, not criticism
03.
Help them find the meaning inside the pain
1. Acknowledge the pain and help people observe it
When Peter asked the players how they were feeling that morning, they didn’t hold back: awful, embarrassed, sad, angry. A typical response might have been reassurance: You’ll be fine, shake it off, don’t worry about it. But reassurance rarely helps; it often makes people feel more alone in their emotions. Instead, Peter simply said: “Yeah. You look awful.”
It may sound blunt, but it wasn’t judgmental. It was observational. It told the players: I see you. What you’re feeling makes sense. Let’s look at it together.
When the strength coach announced they’d be doing lunges at practice, Peter asked: “How are you going to look doing lunges? How will your teammates know you’re back?” These were reflective questions not about the loss, but about how they were showing up in response to it. They invited the players to step outside themselves and observe what was happening internally. This is the first job of a coach in hard moments: Help people dis-identify from the emotion without dismissing it and let them see the feeling rather than become the feeling.2. Move toward compassion, not criticism
Negative emotions become destructive not because they exist, but because we weaponize them against ourselves. We interpret them as proof: I’m not good enough. I’ll never perform. I don’t belong here. A coach must interrupt that spiral. Peter did this in an unexpected way. That morning, a staff member had told a long, mundane story about buying a T-shirt on sale. The players had zero patience for it. Peter asked the staff member to tell the story again to the entire team. Afterwards, he asked: “Why did he buy that T-shirt?”. Eventually someone answered: “Because he got a good deal.” Peter replied: “Right. He wasn’t going to overpay. He knows what shirts are worth. You guys are overpaying right now.” No judgment. Just compassion and perspective. The point was simple: Don’t pay more than the moment is worth. You lost a game. It hurts. But don’t add interest by beating yourselves up. A coach helps people see the whole truth, not the narrow, distorted version they’re stuck inside.3. Help them find the meaning inside the pain
That afternoon, the team played a weaker opponent and won only 2–0. Instead of relief, they felt further proof that they were failing. So Peter gathered them and asked each player to share what it meant to represent their country. What surfaced were stories of parents driving endless hours to practices, communities fundraising to support them, comebacks from injury, and dreams that had taken years to build. It was emotional. And it was clarifying. The problem wasn’t that they had lost a game. The problem was that they weren’t living up to what the opportunity meant to them. And when people reconnect with meaning, they reconnect with agency. They can choose how to move forward. From that point on, Peter reinforced that meaning daily: At practice: “An American player woke up today preparing to face you in the gold medal game. How are you preparing?” In the weight room: “Can you improve 1% today? What will you do to show you’re getting better?” By naming their pain and understanding its purpose the team turned the emotional energy inward, toward growth instead of self-attack. They never lost another game. They won the gold medal.When negative feelings become a weapon
Negative emotions are not the problem. What hurts performance is when people interpret those emotions as evidence of inadequacy: “I failed, therefore I’m a failure.” This is the voice of the critic – a destructive internal narrator that convinces us we’re incapable of growth or unworthy of success. A coach’s role is to challenge that voice by asking better questions:- What is this feeling signaling?
- What is the conflict between what is and what ought to be?
- And what does this moment make possible?
The takeaway for leaders and coaches
Whether you’re leading a national team or a project team, the principles are the same:- Acknowledge negative feelings without trying to eliminate them.
- Help people step back and observe their internal state.
- Guide them toward understanding what the discomfort is pointing to.
Meet our expert: Garry Watanabe, Principal Trainer & Sport Lead
Garry Watanabe is an expert on coaching and performance under pressure. A former corporate lawyer, Garry spent eight years as an elite swimming coach in Southern California, has a Master’s Degree in Sports Psychology, and has worked with thousands of executives in organizations like Deloitte, RBC, and Acuity Brands. As Third Factor’s sport lead, Garry supports the performance of Olympic and Paralympic athletes, and teaches at UNC Chapel Hill and Queen’s University.
“What is the difference between leadership and coaching?”
The insight: It’s about who chooses the destination
Leadership is about having a vision, enlisting others, keeping the group on course and sustaining motivation on the journey. Coaching is about helping someone clarify their destination, navigate their obstacles, and keep going when the waters get rough. Is there overlap? Of course. Am I missing something? Almost certainly. Both leadership and coaching are about movement – helping people go from here to there. The question is: who chooses the destination?Key Takeaways:
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Leadership is about setting a vision, mobilizing people, and sustaining group motivation toward a shared goal.
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Coaching focuses on helping an individual move from where they are to where they want to go: clarifying goals, removing barriers, and offering support.
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Leadership involves choosing direction and rallying others; coaching helps someone articulate their own destination and progress toward it.
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Both involve movement and growth, but differ primarily in who defines the goal.
While uncertainty and change present an array of challenges for today’s leaders, a less obvious one is the need to coach for confidence.
Confidence – the inner belief by an individual in their capacity to successfully meet the demands of a performance situation – is an ephemeral quality or state of mind. It’s difficult to observe, quantify or measure, and yet it’s an undeniable performance enabler. When people are confident, they can more fully express their capabilities, and are more willing to make decisions, innovate and take calculated risks.
When the New Zealand men’s National Curling Team undertook a largely self-funded move to Calgary, Alberta to enhance their preparation for the 2024 World Championships, they encountered a frustrating obstacle: rental housing was scarce and expensive. Cassandra Murray, a Retirement Living Consultant with Chartwell, one of Canada’s largest owner-operators of retirement residences, saw their appeal for help on social media and reached out with an offer: the team could stay at the Chartwell Colonel Belcher retirement village during their 2-3 month stay.
Now, having a group of young athletes sharing a living space with a group of retirement residents is not without its risks, but Cassandra saw an opportunity that she was confident could provide huge benefits for all involved. The outcome was not only a heartwarming story, but a win for the team, the residents, the staff and the organization.
Three-quarters of the New Zealand men’s national curling team in 2023.
And that’s the key thing. When we are truly confident, we think win-win. When we lose confidence, we play not-to-lose.
What follows are two practical approaches that we have seen effective leaders use to support the confidence of their people as they navigate change:
01.
Clarify strengths AND how to apply them in the new environment.
02.
Focus on progress, not perfection.
Clarify strengths AND how to apply them in the new environment
During times of significant change, people sometimes lose sight of their strengths or are unsure of how to apply them in new circumstances. As a leader, you may not have all the answers about how things will operate in the future, but you can help your team regain a sense of direction by reconnecting them with their core strengths and how to leverage them in a new environment.
Start by revisiting familiar ground. Encourage your team members to reflect on their past successes and identify the strengths that contributed to those achievements. Ask them specific questions that prompt introspection:
- Where have you been most successful in your current role?
- What skills or abilities helped you achieve those outcomes?
By guiding them through this process, you help them rebuild a foundation of confidence based on what they already know about themselves.
Once individuals have reconnected with their strengths, the conversation should then shift to the new environment. Discuss how their roles are changing, what challenges they anticipate, and what aspects of the new setup feel most daunting. From there, work together to identify ways their existing strengths can be applied to these new challenges. This process of translation—helping individuals see how their strengths remain relevant—creates a bridge between the past and the future.
Focus on progress, not perfection
The second coaching tool you can apply is to help people see progress. A proven track record of accomplishments is a huge source of confidence to rebut doubts, fears and voice of your inner critic. One of the challenges we face when we go through significant change is that we lose that track record. We’ve been successful in the environment and conditions of the past – but have a blank slate moving forward. And so, building a new track record becomes vital.
Start by creating a roadmap that identifies where they want to be six months or a year down the road, and then add-in markers of progress along the way. When our founder, Dr. Peter Jensen, works with a team one of the first things he does is create a visual staircase in which the bottom is the current moment, the top is the target (e.g., “Make the Paralympic team” or “win an Olympic Medal”) and the individual stairs are the key milestones. These can be skill-building initiatives, for example holding week-long winter training camp, or important accomplishments, such as finishing in the top 2 at a qualifying tournament.
It is remarkable how often high performers take for granted how much they know and have learned along the way. The goal for the coach is to highlight that growth and make it visible to the performer.
Once the staircase has been created, get them moving forward with a singular focus on the next step. The smaller the better. When a technical expert with a large US wealth management firm described how she got seasoned investment advisors to be comfortable using Zoom technology for client meetings during the Covid-19 pandemic, she replied “one meeting per day”. She scheduled a daily 15-minute zoom meeting with some of her veteran advisors to get them comfortable being onscreen and to allow them to play around with the technology in a safe, non-judgmental environment.
The value in having the overall framework is twofold. First, it helps the individuals embrace a learning mindset. Peter often reminds teams that “we’re going back to school” and that the key objectives are learning, practice, and improvement – all of which are under our control.
Second, having the roadmap allows the coach to periodically help the individuals and team step back and connect with the progress they have made. This can be particularly useful during a tough slog when it feels like nothing is getting done, or when a set-back occurs to help the team get past the disappointment by reminding them of how much has already been accomplished. It is remarkable how often high performers take for granted how much they know and have learned along the way. The goal for the coach is to highlight that growth and make it visible to the performer.
In Summary
Confidence is essential to sustaining courage through change, but confidence is ephemeral – and building it can be tricky: coaching for confidence requires empathy and a willingness to meet people where they are. With a twin focus on helping people see how their strengths can be applied in a new environment, and helping them connect with progress and small wins as they adapt, you can help them remain the bold, adaptable go-getters you know them to be.
Rosie MacLennan is a powerhouse: she was the first Canadian athlete to defend a gold medal at a summer Olympics by winning back-to-back golds in trampoline in 2016 and 2020, she served as the Chair of the Athletes Commission at the COC and fought tirelessly for safe sport, and she has an MBA from Stanford. We were fortunate enough to have Rosie join us at our annual Third Factor client dinner a short time ago, where she shared a behind-the-scenes look at her path to Olympic triumph, the significant challenges she faced on the journey, and the tools she used to help overcome them.
Here are three lessons from Rosie’s talk that can help anyone striving for their own version of a gold-medal performance.
1: Confront failure head-on
One of Rosie’s most interesting insights was slightly counter-intuitive: when the fear of failure is strong, don’t shy away from it – lean into it. Ahead of the Olympics, Rosie consciously worked to confront the possibility of failure directly, and work through her worst-case scenario in vivid detail.“By confronting the possibility of failure, you can free yourself from its grip.”In partnership with her mental performance coach, Rosie sat down and played out two scenarios: what if things go well and I win? And, what if I stumble and fail? With these two scenarios in mind, she vividly worked through how she would feel and what her life would be like: 1 day after, 1 week after, 1 month after, 1 year after, and, eventually, 5 years post-Olympics. Rosie’s realization? Ultimately, the outcome at the Games would have little impact on her life 5 years down the road. Regardless of the outcome she would be okay. This mental exercise allowed Rosie to remove the distraction of fear from her preparation. By confronting failure head-on, she could redirect her energy from worrying about what could go wrong to focusing on what she could control. Whether you’re preparing for a major presentation, launching a new business venture, or pursuing a personal goal – instead of trying to avoid thinking about failure, take the time to visualize the negative scenario. When we “play out the full movie” what we often find is that the fear comes from the fact that we are just imagining a moment in time – an incomplete thought or image that doesn’t reflect the fullness of time. By confronting the possibility of failure, you can free yourself from its grip and focus entirely on performing at your best.
2: Embrace direct feedback
Rosie’s coach, Dave Ross, is known for a style that is extremely candid. While some athletes balked at his bluntness, Rosie saw something deeper: a genuine commitment to helping her succeed. She understood that behind his straightforward critiques was a profound belief in her potential. Instead of resisting his feedback, she consciously worked to lean into it, using it as information to unlock higher levels of performance. This ability to harness the value in blunt feedback came from her taking the time to understand Dave as a person. She took the time to look beyond personality and style to understand his values and ultimately his character. These insights didn’t just unlock her own performance, they also allowed her to help other athletes shift their perspective on Dave’s feedback by sharing her insights into what was behind his style. When you find yourself chafing at direct feedback, consider the intent of the person delivering it. Where are they coming from? What are they trying to help you accomplish? Often, others are trying to help – even when their wording or approach might trigger some reactivity.3: Use visualization to overcome obstacles
In the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics, Rosie faced a daunting challenge: a series of serious ankle injuries that left her unable to perform her trampoline routine for weeks. In fact, she was unable to practice her full routine until one day before leaving for the Games.“When we imagine something with enough vivid detail – to our body, it’s real.”Rather than letting this setback derail her preparation, Rosie turned to the power of imagery and visualization. Unable to train physically, she trained mentally. This started with simply imagining herself bouncing on the trampoline again. She shared that, initially after the injury, every time she would close her eyes and visualize jumping on the trampoline – she would see herself falling. With effort and (mental) practice, she was able to start to imagine herself jumping with confidence, and eventually to visualize her entire routine in vivid detail. Remarkably, Rosie finished 4th at the Tokyo Olympics— less than a single point off of the podium featuring the best athletes on the world, all of whom had been training regularly, despite having been unable to physically practice until a single day prior to travel. When we imagine something with enough vivid detail – to our body, it’s real. Some studies estimate that for elite athletes, mental rehearsal delivers roughly 85% of the benefits of physical rehearsal. Rosie’s experience certainly backs up that research. Visualization isn’t just for elite athletes. It’s a tool anyone can use to prepare for high-stakes situations —whether it’s a speech, negotiation, or exam—spend time visualizing your performance. Imagine every detail: the environment, your actions, and the desired outcome. This mental preparation can help you feel more confident and prepared when the moment arrives.
Bringing it all together
Rosie MacLennan’s journey to Olympic success is more than a story about athletic achievement. Her approach to confronting failure, embracing feedback, and harnessing the power of visualization provides lessons that can help all of us. Here’s a challenge: think about your own version of a “gold medal performance.” What are you striving for in your career, relationships, or personal growth? Now, consider how you can apply Rosie’s three strategies: Confront failure head-on: What’s holding you back? Imagine the worst-case scenario to start to rob it of its power. Embrace direct feedback: Who in your life is pushing you to be better? How can you listen with an open mind and use their insights to grow? Use visualization to your advantage: What mental rehearsals can you do to prepare for your big moment? Coaching is, at its core, a deeply human endeavor. It’s a skill that requires empathy, curiosity, and an ability to connect with others on a personal level. Effective coaching demands patience, insight, and adaptability, making it a uniquely human process. Yet, as artificial intelligence (AI) tools like Copilot and ChatGPT become increasingly advanced and widely used, the potential to integrate AI into the coaching process is becoming more apparent. Rather than viewing AI as a replacement for human coaches, we see it as a complement—a tool to augment the learning experience and extend the reach of coaching. Our approach, inspired by our company’s founder Dr. Peter Jensen, is rooted in the idea of AI as “the coach’s coach.” Instead of attempting to replicate the nuanced human interactions of coaching, we’re leveraging AI to sustain learning and assist leaders as they progress toward coaching mastery. AI becomes a tool that helps leaders get comfortable with coaching and sharpens their skills, rather than replacing the critical role of a human coach.Drawing inspiration from “The Coach’s Coach”
Dr. Peter Jensen has been known for decades as “the coach’s coach.” Over 35 years, his focus has been on empowering coaches rather than stepping into their shoes. He works to help them improve their craft and support their teams more effectively, offering guidance, insights, and tools to help them reach their potential. His role isn’t to be the head coach, but instead to act as a mentor and resource for those who are. This philosophy guided us as we considered the potential of AI in leadership and coaching development. What if every leader had access to an AI-powered coach in their pocket—one they could turn to for advice, guidance, and practice whenever they needed it? This vision drives our integration of AI as a tool that complements and supports, rather than competes with, human coaches.Understanding AI’s role in the learning curve
The learning curve is a familiar concept in skill development. It illustrates how people acquire new skills over time, beginning with an initial uncomfortable phase of struggle and slow gains, progressing through steady improvement, and then hitting the final grueling ascent to achieve true mastery. AI’s role is most valuable in the intermediate stages, where learners have built a foundation and consistent practice and support can help them to make big leaps up the curve.
High touch to learn
At the beginning of the learning curve, learners are stepping into unfamiliar territory, and progress can be slow and frustrating. At this stage, motivation, encouragement, and a safe environment to make mistakes are critical. This is where the presence of a human coach is indispensable. Human interaction provides the emotional support and expert guidance that learners need to build confidence and take those first steps.“The goal of this high-touch phase is to equip learners with a solid foundation and prepare them to apply their new skills independently.”For example, in our 3×4 Coaching program, leaders regularly report discomfort with delivering corrective feedback and therefore delay or outright avoid it. In the classroom, we are able to set them up in pods with their peers and, through a triad exercise, show that giving “negative” feedback can be a positive, developmental experience. With the encouragement (and accountability) of their peers, participants take the first steps up the learning curve and start to build confidence. This is not much different than learning to ride a bicycle. Initially, the learner needs someone to hold the bike steady, provide feedback, and offer reassurance. This hands-on support is essential for achieving balance and overcoming the fear of falling. Similarly, in leadership development, learners benefit greatly from in-person workshops or coaching sessions where they can practice new skills, ask questions, and receive real-time feedback. The goal of this high-touch phase is to equip learners with a solid foundation and prepare them to apply their new skills independently.
High tech to transfer
As learners move past the initial hurdles, they enter the middle phase of the learning curve. This is the growth phase, where they’ve gained a basic understanding but need consistent practice to refine their skills and build confidence. At this stage, AI can play a crucial role in supporting learners’ development. AI tools excel at providing scalable, consistent support during this phase. They can simulate real-world scenarios, offer constructive feedback, and serve as a resource for learners to practice and refine their skills. Our pilot programs have confirmed the value of this approach. Leaders who have used our AI tools report that these tools help them apply what they’ve learned in their training programs. For example, our AI tools have been instrumental in helping leaders simulate coaching conversations, deliver feedback effectively, and prepare for performance reviews. By practicing in a non-judgemental, low-stakes environment, they gain confidence and improve their skills before applying them in real-world situations.AI as sustainment
AI is particularly effective at supporting sustainment. To understand this, it’s helpful to distinguish between two types of motivation in the learning process: the motivation to learn and the motivation to transfer.“People are motivated to learn when they encounter new ideas, engaging experiences, or compelling stories.”The motivation to learn is rooted in intellectual curiosity. People are motivated to learn when they encounter new ideas, engaging experiences, or compelling stories. This type of motivation often requires a human touch—someone who can inspire and captivate learners, sparking their interest in the subject matter. These are areas where human coaches excel. They can create dynamic, interactive learning experiences that draw learners in and motivate them to engage with new concepts. The motivation to transfer, on the other hand, is about applying what has been learned in a real-world context. This requires an environment where learners feel supported and confident in their ability to succeed. Motivation to transfer comes from having access to resources, someone to turn to for advice, and a sense of accountability. These are areas where AI shines. By providing tools and guidance for application, AI helps learners bridge the gap between theory and practice. AI can simulate coaching conversations, offer tailored feedback, and provide reminders to keep learners accountable to their goals. It creates an environment where learners can experiment, refine their skills, and build confidence in their abilities—all while supporting their long-term growth.