The Champion’s Mindset: What Elite Athletes Can Teach Us About Mental Toughness and Success

The year is 1997 and the Chicago Bulls are once again in the NBA Finals. It’s game 5 and the team’s star player, Michael Jordan, isn’t feeling so hot. He’s suffering from flu-like symptoms caused by food poisoning.

Despite his weakened physical state, Jordan went on to score 38 points. He was reportedly injected with fluids and painkillers at halftime.  Jordan scored a three-pointer with 25 seconds remaining, and the Bulls beat the Utah Jazz 90-88. The Bulls went on to win the NBA Championship in game 6.

This pivotal game has been dubbed “The Flu Game.”

Twenty years later, in 2017, tennis phenom Serena Williams won the Australian Open while secretly two months pregnant. That point of pregnancy often causes fatigue, nausea and vomiting.

Williams would later tell the media that she dealt with her unexpected exhaustion by not losing a single set in the tournament. The win marked her 23rd Grand Slam singles title.

Once the news of her pregnancy was public, Williams remarked: “I really felt that I didn’t have time to deal with any extra emotions, any extra anything, because, pregnant or not, no one knew, and I was supposed to win that tournament.”

Are Athletes Just Built Different?

It’s easy to conclude that Jordan and Williams—both regarded as GOATs in their sports—are just built different from the rest of us. And while this may be true in many physical aspects, their mental fortitude is what got them through the examples above.

According to Wendy Borlabi, Psy.D., a sport psychologist and closing keynote speaker for Women’s Executive Forum™ this year, elite athletes are more like us than you might think. Dr. Borlabi has made a career of working with elite athletes on building the mental fortitude they need to compete on a professional level. She has worked with Olympic athletes, Navy SEALs, student athletes, and currently serves as director of performance and mental health for the Chicago Bulls.

Dr. Borlabi works with athletes to help them dig deep and remain mentally tough. In the same way they train their bodies to become the best, Dr. Borlabi helps them train their minds. Over her career, she’s realized that many of the skills she teaches to elite athletes can also be applied to your home office or the board room.

The Keys to Maintaining a Game Face

How does Dr. Borlabi help athletes face a particularly stressful game, not crack under pressure, or conquer the yips? She emphasized a range of principles:

• Intrinsic motivation is the key to sustained performance and success
• Set the right kind of goals
• Balance and boundary setting are crucial to preventing burnout
• Effective communication is essential
• Dynamic leadership is important on diverse teams

These principles can be applied in both sports and business. Let’s dig into how Dr. Borlabi coaches the minds of elite athletes and what we can learn to bring back to our day jobs.

Find Your Intrinsic Motivation

“I personally feel there’s nothing that I’m going to do that’s going to help motivate someone else to be better,” Dr. Borlabi says. After all, she’s a psychologist and not a hype woman. “What I can do is help them figure out what is within them that helps give them motivation. But it’s got to be intrinsic,” she adds.

She related this kind of motivation to why she wakes up at 5 a.m. to work out on weekdays. “Honestly, it’s something about the first 10 seconds of a hot shower after a workout that makes me do it,” she says. She describes those first 10 seconds as feeling good for both her body and mind. It’s a motivation deep within her that helps her get out of bed and work out before she gets the kids up or makes breakfast.

Finding that motivation within yourself can help you unlock healthy habits and maintain a positive perspective on your life and work.

Set the Right Kind of Goals

No, we’re not going to opine on the efficacy of SMART goals–we’ll leave that to your HR department. Rather, Dr. Borlabi focuses on performance goals and process goals.

Process Goals

These goals focus on the steps you take to achieve your desired performance. Dr. Borlabi gives the example of a businessperson preparing for an important presentation. Process goals would include tasks like creating the presentation, designing a slide deck, and determining the key points to cover. These goals ensure you follow a structured path to success.

Dr. Wendy Borlabi is a sport psychologist and mental health consultant for the Chicago Bulls.

Performance Goals

Performance goals are how you perform. In the case of the example above, the presentation is the performance. These goals could include injecting personal anecdotes or humor into the presentation. Another performance goal could be to not read off a script or notes.

What’s most notable about these goals is that neither includes outcomes. Dr. Borlabi says she’d never advise an athlete to make “win the game” a goal, because they can’t control every aspect of the game. But she may give them goals around processes and performance aspects they’re trying to improve. For players on the Chicago Bulls, that might look like a goal of getting to the free throw line x number of times in a game.

Even in the business presentation example, Dr. Borlabi says she wouldn’t make it a goal that “people enjoy the presentation” because there is no way to control the reactions of others.

By setting goals within your control, you direct your energy toward what you can truly influence. Accepting that some outcomes are beyond your control can also help relieve stress.

High Pressure Situations

Perhaps you’ve got your process and performance goals set, but now it’s game time. How does Dr. Borlabi help athletes through high pressure situations? Remember, she’s worked with Olympians–a bad day for an Olympian can mean waiting another four years for their next chance.

“I like to think about the phrase: ‘act like you’ve been there before’” says Dr. Borlabi. She tells athletes to put themselves in that mental space and simply act like it’s no different than every other game.

She also stresses the importance of routine building. She advocates for a pre-performance routine to help athletes get into the mental space of the game. Have you ever noticed a professional baseball player’s movements as they enter the batter box? Some undo and redo the band on their batting gloves. Some make a specific number of taps into the dirt with their toe while adjusting their stance. Many of these small movements are routines and more ceremonial than necessary. But repetition helps build calm and create a sense of familiarity for the athlete.

Finally, Dr. Borlabi says that whenever you’re in a high-pressure situation, assume that you are the expert in that moment. “There’s nothing that you can learn in the next five seconds to the next five minutes that’s going to make a difference in what you already know,” she says. She tells athletes to forget all the thoughts of “what can make it better?” because you already know it. You’ve done it and you are ready.

“Use what you have because, again, you wouldn’t be in that position if you couldn’t do it; because you are the expert and being an expert doesn’t mean you don’t make mistakes,” she says.

Do professional athletes get the jitters? “Of course they get jitters. Of course they get nervous, but they’ve learned how to handle it in their way,” she says. She tells athletes to reframe nerves. “I think it’s the way that we present it to ourselves,” she says, adding, “This game is an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to go out there and have fun, do great things, challenge yourself, and embrace the jitters. I always tell players it’s a good thing because your body is telling you you’re ready.”

Finding Balance to Prevent Burnout

While working with Olympic athletes, Dr. Borlabi remembers reading research that asked Olympic gold medalists what they need to be successful. While various things made the list, the one that stood out to Dr. Borlabi was balance–gold medalists said it was important that they a life outside of their sport.

“When they left their sport, they left it. When they went home, they were home. There was a stopping point,” Dr. Borlabi says. How many of us can relate as we check work emails on our phones at the dinner table or sit in front of the TV with a laptop open?

“When I say balance, I don’t mean 50/50,” says Dr. Borlabi. She explains that everyone’s idea of balance is different. Especially for elite athletes, the balance may look more like 80% sport and 20% life. This often goes for CEOs too. The important part, says Dr. Borlabi, is to find a ratio you can live with. Find what feels balanced to you.

The other way to combat burnout, she says, is to step away. This doesn’t mean going on vacation and still answering emails on your phone. “You’ve got to completely shut it down,” she says.

Working in the NBA, Dr. Borlabi has the month of August off. She uses this time to take a vacation. “My vacations are 17 days long,” she says. She has found that this number of days works for her and it takes the first three days of a vacation to really let go. She acknowledges that a 17-day vacation isn’t always feasible, but it’s important to find a length of time that truly allows you to disconnect.

How to Communicate Like LeBron James

“I always say that communication is a wonderful thing, if you use it” says Dr. Borlabi. It’s not surprising that communication is paramount to success for a professional sports team. Dr. Borlabi advises players to use clear and assertive communication.

She gives that example of a play in basketball. When you’re guarding someone and a side is clear, someone has to say “clear.” Players say that they do that and she says “it’s the same as the other kind of communication. It’s not just on the court. You’ve got to do it off the court.”

Dr. Borlabi remembers the Covid season when fans weren’t allowed to attend games. She would sit courtside, as usual, but the arenas were quiet without 20,000 people filling the seats. She remembers when the Bulls played LeBron James and thinking “Oh my God, he talked the whole time! The entire game.” She said that if he was on the court, she could hear him talking and see his lips moving. “It’s great. You’ve got to communicate and it may not be something that someone wants to hear, but if you don’t do it, you don’t progress,” she says.

Just like other skills that require practice, Dr. Borlabi recommends practicing your communication. She says to practice with a friend or trusted colleague. If you’re in a professional situation where you’re trying to find the right words, bounce some ideas off a friend first. You can practice your communication with someone safe.

Dr. Borlabi adds, “I honestly think there’s nothing wrong with going into a conversation with someone and saying, ‘this is hard for me to say.’” Just the act of saying that makes you a better communicator because you’re being transparent.

She also recommends starting small. Don’t try to tackle your largest communication challenge right away. “Start with something smaller where you can get in there and get more comfortable,” she says. This could look like speaking up in an internal meeting as a form of practice before you have to communicate in a high-stakes situation, such as pitching your organization’s board. 

New Power Leaders are Dynamic

“I tell coaches and athletes that they have to be dynamic leaders, meaning you have to learn how to lead everybody,” says Dr. Borlabi. She says that coaches often say “the best way to treat everybody the same is to treat everybody different.”

Being a dynamic leader means you don’t have just one leadership style, but rather you adapt to the needs of the individuals you’re leading. This type of leadership takes time in getting to know the people you work with and finding out what motivates them (yes, intrinsically).

Dr. Borlabi remembers learning about this type of leadership from her work with the Navy SEALs. The Navy SEALs call it “extreme ownership” at every level. This means that each member of the team, regardless of rank, is responsible for the success of the mission and takes ownership of their actions. There is a strong focus on accountability, decisiveness, and prioritizing the team over personal ego.

When a team takes this philosophy to heart, there is a leader in every space taking accountability for the success of the organization and its mission. Think of what this could look like at your organization–it could be game changing to have so many dedicated professionals driving towards the same goal and feeling empowered to lead.

Unlock Your Peak Performance

With any luck, you’ll never find yourself in your own high-pressure version of Jordan’s “Flu Game.” But we all face a variety of mental barriers to performing at our jobs. Try out a few of Dr. Borlabi’s suggestions around setting the right goals, managing pressure, maintaining balance, and mastering communication. You just might find yourself hitting a three-pointer in the final seconds of an important game.

Thank you to the Closing Keynote partner, Visit Seattle.