When Good Intentions Miss the Mark: A Lesson in Presence
- Julie Jones
- Apr 14
- 7 min read
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This morning, I enjoyed speaking with about 100 high school athletics directors. I was prepared, passionate and eager to share insights.
Even so, I walked away feeling that it wasn’t my best. Somewhere along the way, I became convinced that I needed to finish by 9 a.m. Believing we had started late, I felt a bit rushed as I worked through the “Three Mental Performance Power Moves to Elevate Your Leadership”.
We did some fun interactive activities, and I shared the Three Power Moves that you have come to know and love (or so I hope 😊). But in the meantime, I trimmed a few things, skipped past a story and didn’t love it. It wasn’t as if I took 30 minutes out of the presentation. I got the main points across, received nice post-session comments and emails, but, like so many of our performances, it could have been better.
It was only afterward that I realized my time constraint was self-imposed and inaccurate. The time constraint was in my head, and because of it, I went there (in my head) more than I normally do, too!
This experience underscores how easily our performance can be compromised, not due to a lack of preparation or skill, but because of internal distractions and cognitive biases, throw in external distractions without a plan to manage them and OH NO!
But here’s the truth. Things like this need to happen to keep us sharp. I have already begun to plan a pre-presentation checklist, not unlike those I have for team sessions and the camps we run, to ensure I have all the information I need before I start so I don’t trick myself into something that isn’t true, creating a pressure that doesn’t exist!
As I was driving home after the presentation, I began to think that no matter how many times we do something or how prepared we may be, there are ALWAYS invisible forces at play! The way we think affects our results!
Here are a few of those pesky cognitive distractions and biases that come into play!
Psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky identified the "planning fallacy," a cognitive bias where we underestimate the time required to complete tasks, even when they have experience with similar tasks taking longer.
This is MY LIFE STORY. My dad has been trying to teach me this forever! He often reminds me that there are only 24 hours in a day, and everything takes 3 times as long as you think it will. The funny thing is when is, I pared this down to fit into my time slot…but I probably still had too much.
Although this wasn’t my problem today, it has been I the past and this is an important bias to acknowledge because it can lead to rushed work and unmet expectations.
How does this show up in sports or the boardroom (other than trying to jam too much info into a timeout or a PowerPoint presentation)? Teams often underestimate the time it takes to execute plays. Because these things show up differently I competition than in practice, we often fail to factor in factor in real-time obstacles like defensive pressure and decision fatigue.
It all goes back to keeping it simple. If you have more time, awesome. But chances are, you won’t!
Have you ever relied too heavily on the first piece of information you received, in this case, my mistaken belief about the presentation's end time? That’s anchoring bias. My initial anchor, what I thought was a time constraint, influenced my subsequent decisions, leading me to adjust my presentation just enough unnecessarily.
This bias shows up on the field…and in the boardroom, too. A pitcher comes into a game having dominated the same opponent in a previous outing. Anchored to that prior success, he assumes the same pitches and sequences will work again. But the opposing team has adjusted, studied film and prepared a new game plan. Our pitcher wants to stick to what worked before, anchored to past data. But not adapting to new cues is a recipe for disaster! It sounds a little like Tip #237 when we talked about staying on the hunt…for important information and observing the landscape for adjustments and adaptations!
Things change. And we must, too. So often, we get stuck on one thought and can’t move past it, even when we know something doesn’t feel right. Here I was, talking about choosing one thought over another, and still, I stuck with a thought that wasn’t helpful. It happens to the best of us!
As soon as the thought of time popped into my head, it was time to OBSERVE and ASK…not assume and adjust to incorrect information!
Then, throw in the overconfidence effect! In this case, it wasn’t that I was overconfident in my presentation skills, preparation or the content. My overconfidence came in my assumption (a long word for ASS U ME) that I had the correct schedule and not verifying the timing. Simply put, the overconfidence effect describes our tendency to overestimate our abilities or the accuracy of our information.
It’s easy to see how this shows up on the field. You think there is one strike, but there are two, and you call for a bunt (who would ever do this 😊?). You were so sure that you didn’t take a split second to look at the scoreboard…or ask your assistant…and…well, you know what happens next! OUT!
All I needed to do was ask my buddy, Jeff, at the front table how much time I had left! Problem solved. But we know simple isn’t always easy!
How do we combat these biases and show up as our best selves?
Routines. Checklists. Help. And MINDFULNESS!
As of today, as I mentioned, I have a new ROUTINE! I will start by asking myself 4 or 5 important questions before I begin.
This new routine will be anchored to a CHECKLIST! From now on, my note sheet will include a list of other important information, like start and end time. This will help me adjust my plan when changes to the schedule due to the program running behind. I will add a note asking someone to give me a 10-minute warning and more. There may be a few more cues to check off, too. My new routine is a work in progress!
I mentioned help! As I said before, my entire issue could have been solved by asking my buddy Jeff what the timeline was, even in the midst of my presentation. HELP is vital to us being our best.
In fact, in talking with an athlete last week, we enlisted some help from a teammate as she goes to the plate. She has been SO DEEP in her head that she was making bad decisions at the plate.
We added in a cue from a teammate, and this week, she was a TOTALLY different hitter! Ask for help. It changes everything. In her case and mine, it provides a small change of perspective that changes how we feel…then how we act, then how we perform!
Finally, practicing some mindfulness can help, too!
Oh, here we go with the foo-foo stuff! Not foo-foo at all! Mindfulness practices have been shown to enhance focus and reduce the impact of cognitive biases.
Here are a few really simple…and practical…practices!
Between tasks, meetings or plays, stop and sit or stand still. Take 3–5 deep breaths. Tune into your body and surroundings. Ask: “What’s the most important thing I need to focus on right now?” This creates a mental reset and clears lingering distractions before moving on.
Before games, talks, or big decisions, choose a cue word (e.g., “calm,” “lead,” “clear”) and take a breath while repeating it silently. It anchors us to our values and regulates our physiology in high-pressure moments.
Start the day or a coaching session with this. Set a timer. Close your eyes and focus only on your breathing or a calming word (like "steady" or "focus"). Let thoughts pass without engaging. This trains our brain to return to the present when distractions hit.
No time for this stuff? During a walk, drive, or while setting up for practice, do a mental scan: What am I feeling? What’s distracting me? What do I want to bring into this space? Getting in the habit of asking these questions can help us when the pressure mounts!
These tools don’t require a meditation cushion or hours of quiet, they just require intention. When practiced consistently, they train our brains to pause, reflect and lead from a centered place instead of a reactive one.
We never enjoy performing out of kilter. But sometimes, it is the best thing that can happen because it makes us look at what worked and what didn’t. Win or lose, we learn. As I learned at Michigan almost 30 years ago when we could have scored but our baserunning didn’t allow us to, sometimes the tough lessons are the best lessons (we changed, and that mistake NEVER happened again!).
My new checklist. My new routine that will now include at least one of these mindfulness practices and asking for help just improved my performance. And because of that, more people will come to understand the importance of our mindset on our performance.
By acknowledging and addressing the subtle factors that can derail our best intentions, we can enhance our effectiveness, ensuring that we bring our full presence and capabilities to every interaction.
All’s well that ends well!
Manage the moments!
Julie
P.S. Get your team started with a mental performance training program! Are you a high school coach? Check out our 5-week program to help you get to and through your conference play at your peak! You can find out more about it HERE.
Julie Jones
Mental Performance Coach
SSB Performance
juliej@ssbperformance.com • 234-206-0946
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