5 Ways you can be just like Olympic Champion Simone Biles

Simone Biles may be just 4’ 8” tall, but she’s a giant when it comes to mental fortitude. She continues to show her strength throughout the 2024 Olympics on and off the mat, beam, bars, and horse.

While many thought she was weak when she bowed out of the Tokyo Olympics, that step may have taken the most strength of all.

What do you think Biles may have considered to make that move?

• Years of hard work it took to earn the Olympics spot

• Letting down her teammates

• Wrath from her coaches

• Obligations to sponsors

• Disappointing her family and friends

• Becoming a punch line about mental health

• Fear of the future

Heck, we all know people who won’t even call in sick for a day, much less take time off for their own mental health. Would you?

Biles has something important figured out.

She knows there is something inside her that made her capable of improving her mental health and being even better after the improvement. It’s called resilience.

Resilience is not making it through. That would have been Biles being fine and healthy after leaving Tokyo. Throughout the 2024 Olympics in Paris, however, Biles has shown she is even better than prior to those “twisties” that caused her to depart Tokyo.

These are five times Biles has shown her Olympic-sized mental fortitude during the 2024 Olympics:

Simone Biles during the gymnastics all-around final. Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty 

1. Celebrates Others. Floor silver medalist Biles and her teammate, bronze medalist Jordan Chiles, bowed to gold medalist Rebeca Andrade when Andrade stepped to the podium. Pure joy on Biles face showed no regret over her routine or for winning silver instead of gold. Her responses to questions about the bow show mental fortitude as well. She celebrated the moment genuinely.

2. Focus. When asked about her messy hair, she shut down comments saying there was no air conditioning on the bus. She was not going to let messy hair occupy her mind and neither should anyone else. In the past, her hair would have made the cover of every media outlet; however, since she shut it down, it did not become a major topic around the world.

3. Stands up for Others. Biles has stood up when people she cares about have been criticized or insulted. When her husband was criticized for wearing her gold medal, she shut it down. When a former teammate criticized the current team, she shut it down. When people kept asking Olympians, “What’s next?” Biles, suggested they stop asking and let the Olympians enjoy their moment. She speaks up on behalf of others because she is not afraid.

4. Supports Others. When Biles learned that her teammate Jordan Chiles was going to retire from gymnastics, Biles invited her to train at Biles’s gym in Texas. This was several years ago, and the two bonded over mental health and fortitude ever since. Their support for each other spread over the team at these Olympics. Perhaps that bond even contributed to the bow mentioned above.

5. Protects her Mental Health. She continues her mental health practices during the Olympics. She has spoken about calling her therapist from Paris, and the beautiful photo above of her meditating in the gym shows how centered she is. (Photo credit: Jamie Squire/Getty)

So, what does Simone Biles have to do with business leaders?

• When was the last time you genuinely celebrated a peer?

• When was the last time you shut down useless criticism and didn’t take it personally?

• How often do you stand up for others without fear?

• How do you bring out the best in others?

• How do you protect your mental health and that of your team?

We can learn from Simone Biles and try to be like her. Okay, there may be no way we can do her double layout with a half-twist in the second twist, but we sure can do the same five things when it comes to mental fortitude.

We can become self-aware of our physical and mental needs so we are able to...
⚫ Celebrate others. Do it today. Identify a peer or teammate who has worked hard to improve or contribute differently and give them the recognition they deserve.
⚫ Focus on your priorities. Release what you are taking personally, especially when evidence does not support those thoughts.
⚫ Stand up for others. Encourage others to stand up for their needs, and don’t stand by when others disparage professional colleagues.
⚫ Support others. Watch out for your peers and teammates. Notice and offer help when they need breaks before they get burned out or self-sabotage.
⚫ Protect your mental health. Create a morning routine that centers you to start each day and keep it no matter what else goes on in life.

As Biles has shown, self-awareness of our physical and mental needs is just as important to championships as twists, flips, and jumps.

Taking care of our mental needs might be even more important to enjoying championships.

The lesson Simone Biles taught CEOs today

What do your employees, colleagues, or teammates have in common with Simone Biles?

A.     Nothing at all.

B.     They are GOATS! (Greatest Of All Time)

C.     Mental health is on their minds.

D.    B and C

This week, Ms. Biles, the world's greatest gymnast, known for handling pressure and has a variety of coaches at her disposal, withdrew from Olympics competition citing her mental health as the reason.

Simone Biles said, "I know I brush it off and make it seem like pressure doesn’t affect me but damn sometimes it’s hard hahaha!"

"Physically, I feel good. Emotionally it varies on the time and moment." Ms. Biles told a reporter after she withdrew. (SOURCE: NBC News 7/27/2021)

Professionals across businesses feel the same way as Ms. Biles. They are acting like the pressure of the past year has not affected them, but it has. They feel well physically but not emotionally.

It took an emotional toll over the last year when people had to...

• turn dining rooms into classrooms

• become teachers for their children and help them overcome social changes

• stay healthy and keep their families safe from the deadly pandemic

• care for loved ones who got ill, suffered, and died

People had to do all of that, plus oversee changes within their teams and supporting their people, while performing at the highest levels with minimal support from the highest levels within their companies.

They did it all while grieving.

People have been grieving for lost loved ones, lost childhood experiences for their kids, and lost career opportunities and goals. Many grieved and performed under pressure alone because so many companies did not put a priority on mental health. Some companies even exacerbated the mental health decline of their people, which has shown up as burnout and resignations.

It is unreasonable for companies who ignored mental health during the last year to expect people to stick around now. Something needs to change or people will exit, like Ms. Biles did this week.

Consulting giant McKinsey even says, “…identifying behavioral-health conditions and offering the necessary support for employees affected by them should be a top C-suite priority.” (SOURCE: McKinsey 7/23/2021)

The good news: it’s not too late. You can do something to help your people before they exit.

CEOs who care will lead the way.

McKinsey shares three specific strategies companies can employ to improve mental health in their workplaces.

Use the strategies to bring your team of GOATS together to improve the culture, and bring home championships. Or, risk losing them to someone else who is doing just that.