Why Belief Matters
A recent Survey of 18- to 24-year-olds for the Prince’s Trust found that two-thirds had lowered their career expectations.
As reported in the Guardian*, young people are abandoning their dreams and ambitions because of the cost of living crisis and mental health concerns. Harbouring hopes for an enjoyable career that makes them financially secure seems unimaginable and too risky, with young people saying they are only able to plan for the short term: half of those surveyed said they were not able to think beyond the next six months.
A lack of self-confidence was cited as among the biggest problems by young people in achieving their ambitions, along with a lack of opportunity and experience.
The findings echoed prior research from the Prince’s Trust that found wellbeing among young people was at a 15-year, all-time low.
Why am I drawing attention to this?
Because it’s a stark reminder of how important hope, and belief, are. And how damaging it can be when they are not present.
I had one of those complete juxtaposition moments this week when I read a fascinating piece in the Wall Street Journal**. The piece highlighted how US business leaders are increasingly turning their attention to the story of Deion Sanders, coach of College Football team Colorado Buffaloes, for ideas on how to lead turnarounds. A former NFL player himself, Sanders has transformed one of the worst teams within college football to one of the best within months. He has deployed a variety of tactics, with one of the most notable being setting incredibly high expectations and expressing extreme confidence in his team’s ability to meet them.
One of the business leaders quoted in the piece, Carter Pate, who specialized in corporate restructuring at PricewaterhouseCoopers before a three-year stint as chief executive of MV Transportation, stated: “Confidence is absolutely key because people need to believe that you know which levers to pull, whether you really know or not…What always hangs in the back is: Be careful how much you hype if you can’t back it up.”
Sanders’ team recently suffered two defeats, showing they still had some way to go. Turning this round with a win last Saturday against Arizona State, Sanders stated in his postgame news conference: “Wonderful win…Played like hot garbage.” He explained that he was pleased by the outcome but felt that his players’ effort and discipline were lacklustre at times. He refused to accept mediocrity, he said.
Several executives later told the writer of the article (Callum Borchers) that Sanders’s assessment revealed something important about his brand of confidence: It isn’t about a cocky feeling of inherent superiority but rather a belief that you’re capable of greatness through hard work.
Reading this immediately made me think of the Stockdale Paradox, something I write about in Chapter Eight of my book Staying the Distance. The Chapter is titled: How to Find the Right Balance of Belief. In the chapter I pick out a selection of sporting stories, from Pat Riley’s famous assertion of a ‘Repeat’ after the LA Lakers had just won the NBA Championship in June 1987, Muhammad Ali’s belief that he couldn’t lose with Allah on his side, through to the trickle and then flood of sub 4-minute miles once Roger Bannister had broken the barrier. The Stockdale Paradox, first brought to life by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t, meets head on the downsides of both limited belief, and unjustified belief. In his book Collins writes that every good-to-great company faced significant adversity along the way to greatness, of one sort or another. In every case, the management team responded with a powerful psychological duality. On the one hand, they stoically accepted the brutal facts of reality. On the other, they maintained an unwavering faith in the endgame and a commitment to prevail as a great company despite the brutal facts. Collins and his team came to call this duality the Stockdale Paradox as a result of a meeting Collins had with Admiral Jim Stockdale, the highest-ranking US military officer in the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ prisoner-of-war camp during the height of the Vietnam War. On discussing with Collins who survived and who did not, Stockdale said: “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
All of this just reinforces why I feel so sad on reading the latest Prince’s Trust research. The Youth Index Report 2023 also states that 64% say they need help to build their confidence and skills to overcome challenges.
Fortunately, as we know, there are a good number of organisations out there working hard to help and support. To enable young people to build the confidence, resilience, and self-esteem that will enable them to raise their aspirations, and achieve in education, work and life. One of these is the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, on whose Board I am privileged to sit. Most of these organisations, with the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust firmly in this category, have a constant struggle to raise the funds required to enable them to really make a difference. The Trust has an ambition of supporting over 10 years 10,000 young people facing disadvantage due to inequality in their everyday lives to become the best version of themselves.
Whether it’s in your business, your leadership, or the key societal issues we are facing at the moment, belief matters. Confidence matters. And having someone who believes in you matters.
For more on this or any aspect of leadership, with a healthy dose of mindset, sport, and I hope usefulness thrown in, do feel free to browse through all the articles in the Huddle, or get in touch with me directly on catherine@sportandbeyond.co.uk. For more detail on the area this blog covers, as well as many others, please do order a copy of my book - Staying the Distance: The Lessons From Sport That Business Leaders Have Been Missing. Links to buy the book can be found here And for more information on the work of the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, and how they put a Champion in the Corner for each young person with whom they work, please do take a look here https://www.damekellyholmestrust.org/