By John Weeks

John Weeks is professor of organizational behavior at IMD, Lausanne business school. He teaches in the orchestrating winning performance and advanced strategic management programs. He will take part in an event with Usain Bolt 6 July 2009 at IMD in which the Olympic gold medalist will share his insights on motivation with a business audience.

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt is the fastest man in human history after setting three world records at the Beijing Olympics last year. Reaching the heights that Bolt attained required motivation, critical thinking and focus. Even more important, it required turning early setbacks into advantages, turning weaknesses into strengths and developing the motivation required of a world champion. These three attributes are lessons that can apply to those working in business.

Play to one’s strengths

If a sports coach hadn’t recognized that Bolt’s special gift was speed when he was young, he might have stopped at being reasonably good at cricket, a sport he had been practicing in his youth. When coaches advised Bolt to concentrate on a 400-meter race, Bolt had enough self-confidence to realize that his strength lay in the 100-meter dash. The Olympics proved him right. Bolt was cognizant enough in his own abilities that he knew when to accept or ignore feedback.

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This is the way football should be. A true celebration of the beautiful game. During the three weeks of Euro 2008, Swiss,Turkish, Spanish, Portugese, German, French, Russian, Dutch and other nationalities all congegrated in the UBS Arena in Nyon.

Not once did I see any violence, any problems, or confrontations. All I saw was a healthy respect for each other’s country.

The arena was not just a place for fans, it was also a place where parents could feel comfortable about bringing their children too.

There were days when the downpours made the atmosphere more subdued; on others the fans cheered on in baking heat. Plenty of beer was drunk on the hot nights but there never seemed to be any over-drunkenness.

Some evenings saw the arena packed; at other times there were not many folk, but throughout it all there was a spirit of bonhomie. There was collective sighing and booing at the referees, frustration at missed shots and sheer joy when goals were scored.      

After matches the crowd often congregated around the railway station and it became a noisy, but fun place to be. The police were there but kept a healthy distance, with an eye on it all whilst smiling at the fun. The law about the tooting of car horns was completely ignored, they just let the fans celebrate. If there were any problems, I didn’t see any any. What I did see impressed me enormously.

The Spanish fans were in joyous mood last night around Nyon but those whose team didn’t make it still got in their cars to wave flags and be part of the celebrations. A fitting way for a town that has the headquarters of UEFA along its lakeside.

This is how football should be. The football fans of Nyon should be proud of themselves. 

With a clear sky, a warm night and lots of celebrating Portuguese fans congregating around Nyon railway station, the party atmosphere was infectious at the start of Wednesday evening. This encouraged the Swiss fans walking down to the UBS Arena for their big important match.

Eveyone looked hopeful and when Switzerland scored the first goal, and the celebrations continued, at least for the first 40 minutes or so.

Sadly, whenTurkey scored a second time, the atmosphere changed to desperation and frustration, and the walk back up the hill from the arena was a walk of real sadness compounded by the fact that the rain had now come on thick and fast, as if things couldn’t get any worse.

Being the cosmoplitan town this is though, there were bound to be some fans somewhere celebrating and true enough there were some Turkish fans in the centre of town chanting and waving flags.

The UBS Arena is a good place to watch the match with beer and food tents next to the 1,900 free standing places and a good atmosphere guaranteed.

It’s just a shame the right result isn’t guaranteed also.      

Slam dunk: these are the only words I know about basketball. In fact it’s the only thing I know about the game. If you grew up in a small Northern Yorkshire village in the ’60s, then basketball didn’t really feature on the sports horizon. You either kicked a ball around a pitch if you were a boy, or you "bullied off" in a game of hockey if you were a girl (usually freezing to death on a frozen pitch as the Yorkshire moors are not too conducive to outdoor play). We did get to see the antics of the Harlem Globetotters on TV in cartoon form, but this game that involves a "jump off" with giants never really made it to my part of the world.

So when Graham Dunbar (GenevaLunch’s sports reporter) sent me an email saying that Nyon was doing rather well in basketball, in the cup and league, and there was a match on Sunday in le Rocher, with BBC Nyon against Fribourg, I was intrigued, so went along.

At 17:00 it was already busy in the lobby before the game started with a mixed crowd of different ages and a buzz in the air. Families with enthusiastic children, grandparents, supporters of the visiting team were there either chatting, snacking, drinking beer or sharing a bottle of Chasselas.

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