Over the two weeks of the Olympics in Tokyo,  I was totally captivated by the human drama that occurred…from the highs of winning medals to achieving personal bests to the disappointment of missing out due to injury or not living up to expectations to the athletes supporting each other regardless of the outcome.

With my coach’s hat on, I was reminded each day of competition of how the lessons from sport can be applied in business and life.

This was never more clearly illustrated in the last event of the decathlon being the 1,500 metres when Ash Moloney was in contention to win the bronze medal.  In the moment when Ash was struggling to complete the event, his teammate, Cedric Dubler, stepped up providing encouragement and guidance for him  to continue and win the bronze medal.  The great thing was that Cedric took great satisfaction from Ash’s achievement.

Will Swanton in “The Australian” beautifully summed up the lesson from these actions as follows:

“Perhaps Dubler has captured the imagination even more than Moloney, for now, because the real heroes of today’s world are people like him. The selfless. The motivating. The doctors. The nurses. The Dublers.

But Moloney had a message, too.

If you’re gasping for breath, if you don’t think you can take another step, if it’s all too hard, lean on anyone you can.

Let someone help pull you through. Life and 1500s are easier when you’re not on your own.

Sometimes we all just need a Cedric Dubler in our ear.”

Here is the challenge…who is the Cedric Dubler in your business and life?