‘Large corporations, business leaders must have an athlete’s mindset’, says Abhinav Bindra

'Mental health is the foundation of human wellbeing and it is the foundation of performance,' says shooting legend Abhinav Bindra

Shooting legend Abhinav Bindra is a member of the International Olympics Committee (IOC) Athletes’ Commission and IOC’s Working Group on Athletes’ Mental Health. He also served on India’s Olympics Task Force and is an independent director on the Board of Bajaj Auto. He spoke exclusively to Moneycontrol on the drivers of sporting and business performance, the role of mental health and India’s Olympics preparation. Edited excerpts:

You continue to play a very important role in global sport at the IOC, including with its mental health working group for athletes. A lot of Indian athletes are now preparing to go to Paris for the 2024 Olympics. How important is mental health as part of this preparation?

I think mental health is the foundation of human wellbeing and it is the foundation of performance. You just talked about Paris and athletes preparing for Paris. Of course, when you go and compete at an event such as the Olympics, the grandest stage of all, the mental side obviously plays a very big role.

Often there's a lot of commentary on the psychology of an athlete and the mental toughness that is required by athletes. But let me tell you that the base and foundation of all mental toughness for every athlete comes from how stable they are as human beings. How physically healthy they are – that’s often talked about - but also how mentally stable or mentally healthy or mentally balanced they are matters. Not just as athletes, but as human beings. Like in any other pursuit of excellence - whether it be sport, whether it be the arts, whether it be corporate life - society, sometimes dehumanises that effort to a great degree, whenever you are chasing excellence. That also happens at times in sports. It is very important to ensure that human wellbeing is at the heart and centre of performance.

This is something that I have focused on in the past 4-5 years in the work that I have done. Firstly, with advocacy and then with breaking stigma, which is massive in this area. Not just in sport, but in society. One of the only silver linings of the COVID pandemic has been the de-stigmatization of mental health to a degree. I think all naysayers of mental health currently have issues on their own. There is now a greater sensitivity to this topic, to an extent. That has also helped in sports.

The Olympic movement, in particular, started acknowledging the importance of mental health even before the pandemic. When the pandemic actually came by, we were quite ready to provide support and resources to athletes. There has been a lot of work that has happened there. This includes the creation of tools that assess mental health.

The physical health of athletes is always assessed several times during the course of the year, but now there is a validated tool, which also looks at the mental health side of an athlete. This is the work that our working group has done. A toolkit has been prepared for organizations to really prioritize mental health and to help create psychologically safe environments for athletes.

It's not just about the athletes. It's really important to notice the environment that is created around the athlete and how psychologically safe it is. The entourage, the coaches, the administration have an equally responsible role to play in ensuring the mental health of athletes, because that has a direct impact on our lives.

There is a lot more acceptance on mental health issues now. We've had many athletes talking about it now – like you, Virat Kohli and PV Sindhu. What more can we do to lift the stigma around mental health for athletes?

Education is a massive aspect is here. Sensitizing the environment is very important. I will give you a small anecdotal example. When we started working in different sports environments, there was a lot of stigma and a lot of pushback that we received early on from coaches, from the administration, etc. So, we changed our strategy.

Instead of going to the athletes, we started workshops and seminars on coaches’ mental health. They are also human beings, they are also in very high-pressure jobs. They could also face issues. Nobody thinks of their well-being. In a sports career, the athlete is the centre of everything.

That was a game changer. Number one, the coaches were very happy because never, ever, nobody has ever asked about their well-being. They were kind of taken aback – that finally somebody was asking about how they were feeling. Just by education, by understanding, there was a greater amount of sensitivity that was achieved. I think, was a very big breakthrough because coaches are the real mentors. They are the day-to-day touch points of an athlete. They decide what sort of an environment is created for an athlete daily, which directly impacts an athlete’s physical and mental well-being. When coaches started becoming ambassadors for this kind of work, that helped us to reach more athletes effectively.

There are two elements to this. How you deal with a problem when you have it is one aspect. But there's also massive work that needs to be done on prevention. When there is a problem, there are certain protocols that you can set. But the more important and deeper work that needs to happen is on the preventive aspect. And it’s a tough one. Because as a society, we are so outcome driven.

Very often, athletes link their self-worth to they find their name on the ranking list of a sporting competition, which I think is absolutely idiotic. Because you're basing your happiness on where your name will appear on a ranking list of a sporting competition. And there's no guarantee in sport, right? That is the beauty of sport, that it is unpredictable. So, you have to build different parts of yourself as a person. You can't depend on one pillar as an athlete. You need balance. I mean, whether you're a journalist, whether you are heading Moneycontrol or whether you are heading a multibillion dollar corporation, your personal performance is really dependent on how you are feeling as a human being.

If you're feeling unhappy, cranky, tired or worn out, it's going to affect your decision making, it's going to affect how you perform at the workplace. And it is absolutely the same for athletes.

What lessons can business leaders or leaders in other fields draw from your sporting experience? Do you think the same principles would apply for people who run big companies as well?

Absolutely. For example, I sit on the board of Bajaj Auto. I know what a large corporation is. I know what it entails, what the day-to-day pressures are like.  Large corporations, businesses all have an athlete's mindset. We are all after certain outcomes. But the outcomes are dependent on so many things going right. It's all about fixing and setting processes. It's all about having adaptability, about dealing with unexpected challenges that come your way.

Business leaders also have an athletic mindset. But again, that mindset can only be at its peak performance when the humanization of that effort is not overlooked. When you are feeling good physically and feeling good mentally, that gives you the best possible chance to be performing at the workplace in a sustainable way.

You can push yourself through a crisis or a personal crisis, when you're not feeling good, once, twice, thrice. But at some time, you are going to break down. So, at some point, that prioritization of that human effort is important.  As you said, this is critical, to all walks of life - whether it be business, arts, or anything which is chasing excellence.

It's very easy to tip the other way. It is very easy to become obsessed, like I was as an athlete. I know the two sides of it, because I've experienced it, I've lived through it.

How did you deal with mental health pressures when you were performing at your peak? And you say that your identity shouldn't be linked to being on a sports winning list? How do you deal with all of that? 

We have to firstly separate mental health from mental performance. Let me start with, with a confession, which is important. While I achieved many goals in my life -  I won a gold medal at the Olympics, I won a World championship - I failed. I failed miserably, to achieve my fullest potential.

Looking back dispassionately, I can very honestly attribute that massive failure of mine, to the lack of balance that I had, as a human being. I was so obsessed, I put all my eggs in one basket. I lost my sense of being. I lost my sense of balance. That had a direct impact on performance. Because as an athlete I was always struggling to have any degree of self belief. I was always assailed by tremendous amounts of anxiety. As athletes, you need belief, you require confidence. That's something that is always associated with athletes, about self-belief. I had absolutely none, none of it.

Because I had no balance, had all my eggs were in one basket and I was always trying to chase perfection. Chasing perfection is an untameable beast. I never looked at what went right. I always looked at what went wrong. That had an impact. It certainly had an adverse impact and put limitations on reaching my fullest potential. You can also argue it also had positives because it propelled me to really push myself. I full agree to that and admit it. But I think the limitations were more than the positives. It limited from achieving more and from achieving my fullest potential.

However, how did I deal with this? By learning to coexist with it. By learning to accept the situation - that I am not going to have self-belief, that I am going to be assailed by a lot of anxiety, I am going to feel horrible before a competition, I am not going to be able to sleep, I'm going to probably have a couple of nervous vomits prior to competition. It was acceptance, accepting that there would be pressure. Once you accept it, you learn to coexist with it, learn to work with it. That is what I did.

I didn't chase self-belief, I chased self-respect. And I chased self-respect by just giving it my all. By trying to be the best that I could be and trying to leave absolutely no stone unturned. So, that's how I learned to cope. That was my coping mechanism.

What has changed in the last few years of course is social media and the amount of pressure that adds. Before the last Olympics, for example, coach Gopichand famously took away PV Sindhu’s phone for a few months before the Olympics games to ensure no distractions in training. What is your sense of the impact of social media? And how athletes use it?

Social media comes with its positives. It democratizes sport to a greater degree. Athletes are able to share their journeys. Especially athletes from some lesser sports where there's not much fan engagement, it helps them connect with a larger audience, which in earlier times, for example, it wasn’t quite there.  There are lots of positives to it.

But from an athlete’s perspective and performance perspective, and a well-being perspective, it is important not to overdo it. At the end of the day, you are going to be a better athlete on the field of play. You are not going to be a better athlete if you get more likes on Instagram. At the end of the day, the pursuit has to be pure. The pursuit has to be for excellence on the field of play.

Athletes also need to be responsible. Athletes, at the end of the day, are role models. They are public figures to a certain degree – with the power to shape young minds and society in many ways. Whatever athletes say, or portray, carries weight and they need to say it in a very responsible way. Athletes will have to keep this in mind while dealing with this because social media is here to stay. It is about keeping two-three aspects in mind: staying true to your values, to your pursuit, never compromising on the purity of your pursuit of excellence and doing the best you can as an athlete.

So, you would say social media also brings in a lot of responsibility for athletes?

Absolutely. Social media should not start cutting into your performance time. I know anecdotally that some athletes have lost balance in it. Where they will spend more time in trying to build social media content than they spend on training. Building content is not a joke either. It is also hard work. I acknowledge that. But their primary role is to be athletes and to be the best that they can and to play. They must never compromise on that aspect. Whatever they say, their words carry weight. After all, what is sports? Sports is based on certain value sets. It gives hope to society and athletes are the true ambassadors of these values. If sports had no values, you think there would be any fan base for sports? Probably not?

It is these sheer values of sports that intrigue society and athlete are the true ambassadors of these values. That is something that athletes need to keep at the back of their minds.

In recent times, we have seen instances like the 'YPU' controversy in sports, and a book has recently been published on it. When something like this happens on social media, what's your advice? How do you deal with the impact of controversies like this?

Frankly, there is no easy answer there. I haven’t experienced it myself to that great degree. But I think it is important to show empathy on all sides. Empathy in society is something which is becoming less and less world over. I think that is the most important aspect that keeps the human bond going and keeps humanity going. Empathy is critical here. We are seeing less and less of it in the world.

We have a contingent going to the Paris Olympics. What would be your advice to them and what do we expect from these Games?

The athletes are going there as ambassadors of our great country. More than anything, they must, first and foremost, be wonderful ambassadors of our country at this world stage.  They are also ambassadors of sport. They are going to be Olympians. Olympians are special people in many ways. The Olympics is a very special event in many ways. Perhaps the Olympic Games is probably the only event left in the world where the world comes together, competing in intense competition but peacefully, and these athletes are the real ambassadors of this.  I think they should be superbly proud to be Olympians.

Of course, there's the performance side of it as well. I would only tell them to be the best that they can be, to go about their preparation with absolute integrity and give it their heart, give it all they have. More importantly, to enjoy the journey, the process, and then try to perform at the best that they can be.

Many will come back victories. Most will not come back with victories because that is the very nature of sport. But that doesn't mean that they are losers in any way. They are wonderful ambassadors, champions in their own right. We must acknowledge that. We must cheer all these very different facets of sport, not just look at sport as just the three people who will stand up on the podium.

In terms of performance, do you think we will do better in Paris than at the last Olympics?

I think our performances will continue to improve and will continue to get better. We are a young country.  Participation in sport is increasing, consumption of sport is increasing, investment in sport is increasing. With each Olympic Games we will see our performances better and improve.

Of course, it is a completely different ball game if we want to see a jump from seven medals in Tokyo to maybe 30-40 medals which will start making us a much bigger sporting nation. I don’t think it will happen in Paris, but in order to make that jump to 30-40 medals, we will have to, as a nation, embrace sport from a very different way.

We will have to see sport from a very different perspective. We will have to see the perspective of how it can contribute to nation-building. We have to give more opportunities to young India. To just experience sport and to just play sport for the sheer joy of playing sport, for our society to become healthier as a nation through sport. We need more participation, not just for the elite aspect of sport, but for the many positive aspects that sport will bring: values, integration, health, the unifying aspects of sport. When that starts to happen, the byproduct of that will be that our performances will increase. The byproduct of that will be that there will be a larger participation in elite-level sport. When that starts to happen, that is when we will make a larger leap.

We will still make a leap in Paris. We will probably even make a further leap in L.A. But when we want this massive improvement to happen, we have to embed sport in our culture. For example, in Australia where sport is so embedded in the culture of that country. That requires time. To embed, something in our culture is not an overnight exercise.