Using anecdotes and metaphors from sport, combined with psychology and behavioural models, this book provides guidance and pointers as to how business performance can be improved and common obstacles overcome. An easy to read and entertaining journey through a variety of sports, with an intriguing dive into subject areas as diverse as motivation, optimism, flow, neuroscience, leadership, teamwork and collaboration. Includes worksheets with ponder questions at the end of each chapter allowing the book to be used as part of team-building, leadership development and coaching programmes.

1. “The Vital Edge”
Sporting Mindsets for Business
Performance

2. What is “The Vital Edge”?
“The Vital Edge” takes you on a fascinating journey through
the minds of athletes, Olympians, tennis players and more, as
you discover insights that will transform your thinking and
enable you to perform at your very best.
“The Vital Edge” is available to order direct, either as a
paperback or eBook at the following locations…
Amazon.co.uk http://amzn.to/1jhFHpi
Amazon.com http://amzn.to/1qIQEHO
Lulu.com http://bit.ly/1gySqlB
Apple iBookstore http://bit.ly/1jNPO53
Barnes & Noble http://bit.ly/1jNPT8Z
Read on for a taster of what you can expect from “The Vital
Edge”

3. Do you have what it takes?
• Are you part of the new breed of corporate athlete?
• Are you equipped to face everyday challenges?
• Capable of performing in the face of adversity?
• Resilient to disappointment?
• Know you can handle any situation thrown at you?
• Prepared to step out beyond normal limits?

4. Part I Teams & Individuals

5. Winning Margins
• What do you do when you have an unassailable lead?
• Choke?
• Drive home your advantage?
• Stay focused on the present?
• What did Adam Scott do?
• What did Bradley Wiggins do?

6. • Play in the Present
• Quieten the Inner Voice
• Adapt to survive and thrive
• Learn from both personal experience and from the
outside

7. Personal Sacrifice
• How do you respond when team-mates falter?
• Are you prepared to sacrifice personal glory for the
sake of the team?
• Always?
• How would you define team-work?

8. • Personal sacrifice &
the greater good
• Team-work & Co-operation
• Collaboration – more than compromise and
agreement

9. Collaboration
• When have you experienced true collaboration?
• What made it different from team-work?
• What gets in the way of gaining true collaboration?
• What more can be achieved when collaboration is
given full rein?

10. • Knowing the system
• Flexibility & Adaptability
• Telepathic understanding
• True collaboration

11. Part II The Game Inside

12. Visualisation
• How routinely do you dream?
• How vivid do you dare make your dreams?
• Does your brain know the difference between a
dream and reality?
• To what uses can mental rehearsal be applied?
• What did Muhammad Ali do?

13. • The power of dreams
• Positive visualisation
• Future History
• Mental rehearsal

14. The Inner Game
• Do you find yourself dwelling on past mistakes?
• Do you find yourself getting anxious about what you
will do next?
• If so, you are either thinking about the past or the
future
• Best performance comes from being completely in
the present

15. • Master the ‘inner game’
• Eliminate internal
interference
• Focus on the present
• Let it happen (without judgement)

16. Playing your ‘A’ Game
• Do you play your ‘A’ game – day in / day out?
• What gets in the way of you doing so?
• When things go badly, what is your ‘go-to’
response?
• Do you have any rituals to help you stay focused?

17. • Your ‘A’ game is closer
than you think
• Vision as a state of mind
• Quieten the inner critic
• Create familiar routines to stay in the present

18. Optimists Win
• What is your dominant style – optimism or
pessimism?
• What is your explanatory style when things go
wrong?
• How do you respond to setbacks?
• What more might be possible with a more positive
outlook?

19. • Optimism wins out
over pessimism
• Treat setbacks as temporary (not permanent)
• Think of failures as specific (not pervasive)

20. Part III Motivation

21. Breaking Barriers
• How do you look upon challenges that have not
been achieved before?
• Do you prefer to tread well-worn paths or push out
into unexplored territory?
• What learning and feedback do you typically gain
from setbacks and disappointments?
• How important is resilience for you, in both work
and in life?

22. • Psychological barriers
• How are barriers viewed in your experience?
• Pressure and its role in performance
• Importance of role-modelling
• Resilience and how it can be developed

23. Motivation
• How do businesses typically go about getting the
best out of people in your experience?
• Are traditional methods fit for today’s challenges?
• What differences exist in what motivates and drives
people?
• What’s the difference between internal and
external motivation?

24. • Internal v external
motivation
• Competition
• Reward & reinforcement
• Recognition & legacy
• Peer Pressure

25. In the Flow
• Do you recognise the feeling of ‘flow’?
• How often do you experience it?
• Do you work at a level of challenge that is above or
below your current ability?
• Do you experience either anxiety or boredom on a
regular basis in the work you do?

26. • The role of Flow
• Optimal performance
• Balance of ability and challenge
• Chaos v Rigid banks
• Mindfulness

27. Part IV Sporting Knights

28. Identifying Talent
• How is talent identified in your experience?
• How is it nurtured?
• Is your organisation in danger of losing its talent to
more ambitious rivals?
• Which ‘non-traditional’ areas might be a good
source of new talent?

29. • Talent identification
• ‘Teachability’
• Beware creating the ‘prima donna’
• Screen adjacent disciplines
• Stretch and challenge talent

30. Half-time Pep Talks
• What sort of leaders do you respect most?
• What do you expect of your leaders?
• How effective are the leaders in your organisation?
• How consistent is the culture in terms of integrity,
values and behaviours?

31. • Leadership tone
• Controlling the
temperature
• Getting on the balcony
• Handing back responsibility

32. Marginal Gains
• In what way do you strive for continuous
improvement?
• How feedback hungry is your organisation?
• How well-equipped do you feel to handle
performance conversations?
• Do you settle for external commitment from people
or do you strive for internal commitment?

33. • The winning edge
• Continuous improvement
• Strategy & execution
• Discipline & commitment
• Aggregation of marginal gains

34. Part V Going Beyond Limits

35. Riding on the Edge
• What things don’t you control?
• What things have you been trying to control?
• What things could you influence more?
• What happens when you relinquish control? Have
you tried?

36. • Riding on the edge
• Taking risks
• Levels of control
• What can you control or influence?
• Flexibility

37. Exploration
• What new territories are you exploring?
• What is your next big ‘learning edge’?
• How does your business ensure people are
challenged to find their edge?
• What qualities are most valued in your business?
• Is coaching used in your organisation to help people
explore their landscape and make discoveries?

38. • Perseverance
• Mental preparation
• Exploration as a change and learning exercise
• Coaching as exploration

39. Many thanks for taking the time to view this presentation on “The Vital Edge”
I hope you enjoyed what you saw
If you would like to purchase “The Vital Edge” it is available from the following sites as
a paperback or as an eBook
Amazon.co.uk http://amzn.to/1jhFHpi
Amazon.com http://amzn.to/1qIQEHO
Lulu.com http://bit.ly/1gySqlB
Apple iBookstore http://bit.ly/1jNPO53
Barnes & Noble http://bit.ly/1jNPT8Z
If you would like to contact me directly about any of the material, or would
like to find out more about the coaching and leadership development services
I offer, here are my contact details below….
Contact Gyro Consulting Services
Email gyrocoaching@gmail.com
Web www.gyroconsulting.com
Tel +44 (0) 7710 055601