12

CONFIDENCE

HENRY V, SHAKESPEARE, AND CHURCHILL

Methodically prepared people not only achieve their objectives and perform at a higher level, they also have distinct levels of self-confidence, effectiveness, and satisfaction.

One of my favorite speechmakers is Shakespeare’s Henry V. When actor Kenneth Branagh makes Henry’s battle speech in his 1989 film version of the play—“Once more unto the breach, dear friends”—I can imagine the roar at the original Globe Theater back in Shakespeare’s day. History’s pundits would have it that Henry V was a playboy prince who, when the Crown beckoned, transformed himself into a great ruler and a fearless warrior overnight. Baloney!

Here’s Winston Churchill, in his book History of the English-Speaking Peoples, setting the record straight:

A gleam of splendour falls across the dark, troubled story of medieval England…. Henry V was King at twenty-six. The romantic stories of his riotous youth and sudden conversion to gravity and virtue when charged with supreme responsibility must not be pressed too far. If he had yielded to the vehement ebullitions of his nature this was no more than a pastime, for always since boyhood he had been held in the grasp of grave business.

That “grave business” is Churchillian rhetoric for something called preparation. Churchill tells us that, beyond the gallant confidence and eloquent bravado, Henry V was a master preparer. Churchill here states that victory at the Battle of Agincourt was more a result of methodical preparation than masterful rhetoric:

During the whole of 1414 Henry V was absorbed in warlike preparation by land and sea. He reorganized the Fleet. Instead of mainly taking over and arming private ships, as was the custom, he…built many vessels for the Royal Navy…. The expeditionary army was picked and trained with special care. In spite of the more general resort to fighting on foot…six thousand archers, of whom half were mounted infantry, were the bulk and staple of the army.

Henry V was no doubt a confident, dashing, and daring leader. But even in 1414, I’m sure it was preparation and not genetically granted or God-given poise that produced the resolute confidence that Branagh captured in the film.

I love to read history and biography to improve myself as a businessman and person. Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, like Henry V, were masters at using preparation to raise the possibility or even probability of succeeding. Each developed a thorough understanding of the people, circumstances, and facts of situations facing them. Each methodically analyzed challenges in a way that developed alternatives. Sure they came off as confident and charismatic, but the confidence they displayed was tied in large measure to the preparation they performed.

Despite his sometimes morose disposition, Lincoln embodied the old-school preparation ethic and remained steadfast during some of the darkest moments of any presidency in American history. You probably remember memorizing the Gettysburg Address in grade school. You probably remember the first time you visited the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.—and felt those wise eyes watching you as you read his great words inscribed on the walls.

How did Lincoln ever craft the eloquence and perfect pitch of the Address? How could Lincoln summon the confidence to deliver it at such a daunting moment in the young nation’s history? By preparing in his devastatingly thorough way. Doris Kearns Goodwin, in Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, details the preparation that Lincoln put in as a wordsmith.

Books became his academy, his college. The printed word united his mind with the great minds of generations past. Relatives and neighbors recalled that he scoured the countryside for books and read every volume “he could lay his hands on.”…He read and reread the Bible and Aesop’s Fables so many times that years later he could recite whole passages and entire stories from memory…. Everywhere he went Lincoln carried a book with him. (Chapter 3)

Reading provided Lincoln with wisdom for writing and reaching his decisions. The precedents of history gave him the confidence he needed as a decision maker and writer.

Roosevelt had a famous swagger. But he prepared incessantly. For example, Edmund Morris notes in Theodore Rex that in 1903, in response to a request from the president of Columbia University for a list of recommended books, Roosevelt recollected the books he had read since taking office in 1901.

It seemed like a strange request coming from the President of Columbia University, yet deserving of a full answer. He cast his mind back over what he had read since taking the oath of office, and began to scribble.

Parts of Herodotus. The first and seventh books of Thuycidides; all of Polybius; a little of Plutarch; Aeschylus’ Orestean trilogy; Sophocles’ Seven Against Thebes; Euripides’ Hippolytus and Bacchae; and Aristophanes’ Frogs. Parts of The Politics of Aristotle…

Morris adds several more books in Greek, and then another long list of books Roosevelt had read in French, as well as those he had “browsed if not deeply studied.”

In my favorite example, Morris writes about how Roosevelt brilliantly prepared for his mediation of the Russo-Japanese War. He brokered the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905 and won the Nobel Prize in 1906 for his efforts. To succeed, he acquired an unbelievable grasp of the history of the combatants; and he prepared for the negotiations by creating links with allies, building relationships within each combat sphere of influence, and analyzing alternatives with them. He defined each party’s interests and set his strategy accordingly. He knew thoroughly that Japanese economic weakness drove their interest in peace. He understood the damage done to the Russian psyche and their expansionist plans by a series of stinging defeats by the Japanese. All this preparation gave him the confidence, that is, the swagger, to bully and broker the parties into peace.

I have always viewed the accomplishments and personas of Lincoln and Roosevelt with awe. But reading about them in the recent biographies humanizes them. And the books really drive home the link between their confidence and their preparation.

Sometimes seeing certain people and companies perform, I wonder if there is such a thing in any given field as a true natural who only needs minimal preparation to perform well. I used to think Lincoln and Roosevelt were naturals. But the more I study them, I realize they were more like you and me. They needed to prepare.

Babe Ruth might be a mythic example, an extraordinary talent who, according to legend, likely had to prepare less than others. There is no denying the genetic and cultural advantages that certain people have. In business as in the arts or sports, you might find a person who makes it seem as if luck and genes have conspired to make preparation unnecessary.

But most naturals are made and not born. Be it Lincoln or Roosevelt, a confident athlete, doctor, politician, or confident-seeming company, methodical preparation plays an essential part in developing the self-confidence that plays so important a role in success.

SCENE: A BASEMENT IN MINNEAPOLIS, MIDWINTER

CAST: AN INVENTOR AND HIS SON

          Joe Mauer

Joe Mauer, a quiet midwesterner, has become one of the best baseball players in the game and could someday be one of baseball’s all-time greats. In 2006, Sports Illustrated put him on its cover below the headline, “American Idol.” I laughed when I saw that cover: associating Joe with the television program of the same name plays into the notion of Joe as the natural. He isn’t. He is another master preparer. Lots of talent. But first and foremost he is a preparer.

Joe is also one of the most quietly self-confident people I have ever worked with. He exudes confidence—not in what he says but how he moves and acts. He walks up to the batter’s box and it reminds me of watching him walk into a room; his confidence is almost tangible. But if you know Joe, you realize that most of his confidence results as much from his methodical preparation as from his bountiful talents. He is an incessant and methodical preparer as both a hitter and catcher.

I have known Joe well since he was in high school. The expectations have always been high for him. How many people get voted by USA Today as High School Baseball and Football Player of the Year in the same year? Had he not opted for baseball, he would have been the starting quarterback for the Florida State Seminoles.

His preparation ethic comes from his family. Joe’s father, Jake, saw his son’s talent and zeal for playing. But the cold Minnesota winters made baseball a daunting activity. So Joe’s father analyzed the alternatives for his son’s year-round development. He tried to find facilities large enough to allow for indoor batting practice. He looked for precedents of ballplayers from cold regions who succeeded despite the more limited practice opportunities. He researched how college programs in the North deal with the bad weather.

With no valid alternative at hand, Joe’s father decided to invent a type of pitching device called Quick Swing, which deposits balls for batters to hit in confined areas like basements in Minnesota. It also allows hitters to practice the timing of a swing in a more precise way than other pitching machines.

“It, as you know, gets rather cold in Minnesota,” Jake said. “And Joe loved to swing the bat. We don’t have that big a basement, so I tried to concoct something that would allow Joe to keep practicing his swing all year long. Basically I built a tube that you feed a ball into and it accelerates very quickly as it comes down and drops in front of you. Joe and his brothers loved it.”

Jake continued, “I think from an early age Joe was more confident than most kids because he simply practiced more. So when he was sixteen and playing on the 18 and Under USA team, he didn’t seem nervous because so much repetition and practice made him sure of what he could do. Joe was never cocky, but he was confident beyond his years.”

For hours each day Joe would work with his father perfecting his swing and, additionally, his understanding of the swing—its physics and mechanics, its flaws and strengths. This preparation refined Joe’s talent. And, more important, the preparation gave him the confidence that comes from an effective method.

“If I know that I’ve done the necessary things to prepare for a game or even an at bat, then my confidence level rises and definitely improves my performance,” Joe said. “You definitely have a greater confidence level going up against a pitcher or calling a game as a catcher when you have reviewed your notes on that pitcher or that team’s hitters, when you have analyzed previous at bats and studied them over and over. I imagine entire games in my head before we play. I play out certain scenarios over and over so I can react when they happen. The preparation takes more time and energy, but it is all about gaining confidence.”

Joe Mauer, though young as batting champions go, gained confidence of major-league proportions through preparation.

CONFIDENCE AS THE CLOCK TICKS ON A HOSTAGE’S LIFE

          Gerald Brooks

You think Joe Mauer feels pressure when he is batting in the bottom of the ninth with the tying run on second, two outs, and a three-ball, two-strike count?

Imagine the pressure of facing life versus death: you’re a hostage negotiator. Not like the guy in the movies who swaggers in, never sweats, and talks a potential murderer out of his rage with a few cool-as-a-cucumber chats on the cell phone.

Imagine the real thing: you arrive at a row house in which a fellow police officer is holding several people hostage. You don’t know that he has already killed one of his hostages. You learn this in the middle of the negotiation just as you think you have established a rapport on the phone with him. Would the realization that you have developed an emotional connection with a murderer shake your confidence? You have to continue to give the suspect the feeling that you empathize with him despite the fact that you know he has blood on his hands.

It takes a lot of confidence to not lose your confidence when you get a midnegotiation jolt.

Or imagine you arrive at a farmhouse and a man is threatening to hang himself. Through your binoculars you see the rope with the noose hanging down from a beam. You also see empty liquor bottles scattered around the room. The suspect is demanding a bottle of whiskey or else he will hang himself. You know the first rule of negotiation is never to provide the suspect with alcohol. Suddenly he hangs up the phone, steps on a chair, and puts the noose around his neck.

Both of these events happened to Gerald M. Brooks, a police officer and member of the FBI’s hostage task force. Without the preparation that gives him seamless confidence in his words, body language, tone of voice, and strategy, Gerald probably would have witnessed several more murders in the first case and a man hang himself in the second. Gerald believes that methodical preparation explains how he and his team convinced the police officer to surrender and how they rescued the drunken man just as he was about to take his own life.

“We were well into the conversation before I even knew what he had done,” Gerald said of the negotiation with the police officer. “It can be a real blow to your confidence to find out something like that in the middle of a negotiation. But that circumstance had come up before in many of our mock exercises, so I was prepared for it. And I kept my focus on staying outside my role as a law enforcement officer and staying dedicated to providing a fellow human being with another day to live. In a funny way it takes real confidence in your preparation and approach to not judge anyone despite what you know they have done. My training gives me confidence that I won’t make the worst mistake in my business—judging someone.”

In the potential suicide, Gerald used his ability to identify interests to shift the topic of the conversation from suicide. He spent so much time talking with the man about the brands of different liquors and their different tastes that he bought time for a rescue squad to get into the house and snatch the man as he hanged himself.

Gerald focuses on two preparation principles to gain and maintain his unflappable confidence: scripting—rehearsing empathy in his daily relationships; and precedents—learning from previous hostage cases.

When he is negotiating, Gerald’s primary strategy is conveying empathy. He must do it with sincerity, truly stepping out of his role as a police officer and shedding any moral position he may have with regard to what the hostage taker has done or threatens to do. Gerald needs complete confidence to be able to establish a relationship with a very confused and potentially dangerous individual. Preparation for this challenge is never ending. Gerald scripts empathetic statements in his head daily as he interacts with friends, family, and colleagues. The type of confidence he needs demands that he constantly be preparing. The collateral benefit to his family and friends is that Gerald must be the most empathetic person in their lives.

“I use every interaction in everyday life to practice my listening skills, my probing skills, and my ability to communicate clearly,” Gerald said. “I always try to compliment people and offer positive critiques instead of criticisms. I need to find what people like and need and find the hook into their life and mind. This is not just something you turn on when the crisis hits. It’s not like the movies where this natural negotiator walks in and saves the day. The preparation in real life is relentless.”

In terms of learning from precedents, Gerald attends seminars around the country that are usually organized by police forces immediately after noteworthy hostage incidents.

“You start to develop a method based on all this study of other cases,” Gerald said. “You have a checklist to assess the situation and the content and emotions of the person in this crisis. By studying each hostage event with colleagues, you establish a list of precedents so you go into the next negotiation with as much insight and confidence as possible.”

Gerald, like Joe Mauer, develops his confidence by relying on a method. Whether for a ballplayer or a hostage negotiator, preparation fosters confidence.

CONFIDENT COMPANIES

          Under Armour

Confident businesspeople are one thing. I see them all the time in my work. But over the years I’ve wondered whether there is such a thing as a confident company, a confident management team, a collectively confident group of people. The confidence of a leader can often rub off on a staff or team. But how does the whole become greater than the sum of its parts? My experience is that the best source of collective confidence is collective preparation.

Methodical preparation can cascade through the levels and divisions of a company or team. Sometimes skills of the best-prepared employee are simply imitated. This person can be the boss, a manager, a staffer, or a secretary. Sometimes team spirit makes preparation spread.

A preparation ethic can build internal momentum at a company so that individual preparation becomes a corporate methodology. It can become contagious to the point that it even becomes associated with the brand. Preparation itself can be marketed if the product is properly prepared. That was the case with Under Armour, a company as confident as its name.

I have watched Under Armour grow from an idea in the head of founder and former college athlete Kevin Plank into a leader in performance apparel—clothing made for athletes and outdoors aficionados. Its marketing campaign sells confidence, and even associates the right apparel with confidence. You may be tempted to think Under Armour is as much a marketing juggernaut as a substantial company. After all, two of its commercials have become minor cultural phenomena. The first brought us the rallying cry, “Protect This House.” The follow-up, which launched Under Armour’s entry into the shoe market, delivered the catchy refrain, “Click-Clack.”

But a look inside Under Armour reveals that preparation, not slick marketing, underlies that confidence. Research and development precede the image. Research and development give the company enough confidence to be brash in its marketing.

Under Armour has mastered the principle of defining interests. Customers’ needs drive product development. Under Armour prepares by knowing its customer.

“We prepare a product for the market by asking a fundamental question: how does it help the athlete?” said Steve Battista, the head of marketing at Under Armour. “We build our brand by researching what athletes need, what innovation might help them. Then we start marketing by selling directly to them before we even advertise. Word starts to spread that the product works even before it becomes a brand.”

Grassroots research among athletes from Little League to the big leagues, then, constitutes the foundation of Under Armour’s preparation. Internally, Under Armour develops different designs that fit the criteria developed through their research. Chemists work on refining and advancing the product’s materials. Veritable architects of apparel produce different designs that attempt to meet athletes’ needs. And testing includes months of trials with potential customers whose feedback leads to still more refinement of the product.

The Click-Clack shoe launch is a case in point. I often have heard from athletes over the years that cleated shoes used in most sports are too heavy. Under Armour heard it, too, and set out to enter the market by leveraging these customers’ interest. Its product development team designed a shoe, got feedback from athletes of all ages and talents, did extensive field testing, and adjusted the product according to the market’s input. It stayed dedicated to the fundamental question: how do we make performance better?

The Click-Clack marketing campaign was also built on Under Armour research with focus groups. It made a connection with athletes by replicating the sound of cleats on concrete—the last sound they hear before stepping on the field. This seemingly small bit of preparation paid off: Under Armour captured a 20 percent market share of the cleats market sector in three months.

The commercial is catchy and clever. It presents very confident-looking athletes at the moment when their confidence must be at its greatest, their entrance into the arena.

As you walk the halls of Under Armour’s headquarters, you feel a confidence among the employees. I have done corporate consulting for over thirty years, and I have been in many offices. But I have rarely felt such collective confidence as I do at Under Armour. When I talk with employees of all levels there, I notice that they are as eager to talk about their method of preparing a product as they are about their famed commercials. Under Armour is very clear about its objective of taking on the behemoth Nike in the sports apparel market. Its confidence in the face of such a challenge would seem farcical if Under Armour were a one-hit wonder with clever commercials. But a preparation principle—define the interests—gives credence to its confidence.

The confident company or team or university or firm or hospital, like the confident individual, more often than not prepares according to a set of clearly defined principles.