Leadership Lessons from an Olympic Judo Champion
Medallist Flávio Canto has created a network of dojos that is
transforming lives in some of Brazil’s roughest neighbourhoods.
"A man is the
size of his dream." – Fernando Pessoa
These words of the
Portuguese poet greet visitors
in a dojo in the slums, or favelas, of Rio. Purpose permeates this
NGO, created by Olympic judoka Flávio Canto. Central to the mission of Instituto Reação (Reaction
Institute) is the transformation of lives. In business schools, transformation
is an oft-used word – especially when we onsider digital or organisational transformation.
But sometimes we need to take a step back and see the bigger picture. For
Canto, individual transformation starts with the first step, the first kick,
the first fall, the first bit of self-respect.
Canto, who won bronze
for Brazil at the 2004 Olympics, is committed to improving the lives of
children in precarious communities, pulling them up through the values of his
sport. He turned to the world of education to put into practice one of the
highest principles of judo, Jita Kyoei: mutual benefit. All growth
must be shared.
The favelas around
Rio de Janeiro are poor, crowded and violent places to grow up.
Canto told me how he lost students from his dojo, and just what this community
is up against. The first time he was in a favela was when he
visited Rocinha, Rio’s largest slum, at the age of 25. Initial funding for his
NGO came from crowdfunding and sponsorship from about 40 friends and family
members.
Instituto
Reação works to promote human development and social inclusion, training black
belts on and off the mat. Founded by Canto, his coach, Geraldo Bernades, and friends, the NGO
promotes true social transformation, using sport as an educational and integrational
tool, turning judo from a sport to a way of life in vulnerable regions of Rio
de Janeiro. With sponsorship from companies such as IBM and Visa, the NGO
offers judo lessons to more than a thousand children, adolescents and young
people, working on the principles and values of sport in dojos around Rio and the central city of Cuiabá.
Reaching out
The word “reaction”
is an important concept in this VUCA world. Global NGOs need to be able to
react quickly, like UNICEF did when it had to rework its supply lines into Yemen.
Entrepreneurs restart whole businesses or even industries in reaction to a
need. Reacting, as we have seen, can lead to a push forward. Consider Go-Jek, which started out
as a motorcycle-ride hailing app, threading through the dense traffic of
Jakarta, but moved into other services, including fintech. There
is a resiliency borne from reactions to hurdles, and this is clearly an
important part of Instituto Reação.
“The kids, they
arrive in Reação through martial arts, judo and jiu-jitsu. We have an
educational programme and cognitive skills methodology,” explained Canto. The
NGO goes beyond martial arts into transcendental meditation to help the
judokas.
Well known in Brazil
as a presenter, he said, “I don't
believe in the hero kind of leadership. I think you have to make everyone feel
that they are very important.”
Training for the
Olympics and competing at the highest level have taught Canto the importance of
getting up off the mat. “Judo is a sport one normally associates with someone
throwing someone else, and someone falling. Not many people see the most
important part of judo is when you stand up,” he explained.
Canto said, “One of
the ideas in judo is that every time you fall, you have to stand up stronger
than you were before. You have to learn something from that defeat.” Judo
taught him how to lose and, most importantly, how to recover from failure
stronger than before.
Olympic lessons are
about far more than standing on the podium and watching your flag hang in front
of thousands of people in an arena. A key one is understanding that we aren’t
going to win all the time; sometimes we lose and we can ask ourselves why. The
only way to win all the time is to avoid risk completely – the opposite
of leadership. The opportunity of failure should not be belittled.
“Every time I had a
defeat in judo, I stopped, I breathed, and I realised and I knew that that was
a very important moment. What I was going to do at that moment was absolutely
up to me,” he said.
“Instituto Reação
came from my biggest defeat in judo. I lost the trial to the Olympics in
Sydney. I had to do something to give purpose to that difficult moment,” Canto
said. “That's when Reação started. If I have a gold medal in my life, that's
the one.”
Always training
Although Canto is no
longer a professional athlete – his last medal was gold in the 2010
Pan-American Judo Championships – he continues to evolve. With other Brazilian
CEOs and leaders, Canto was a participant in PGA, a programme for
Brazilian leaders run in partnership with Fundação Dom Cabral, aimed at those
who face the business challenges of continuity and sustainable growth in
volatile, uncertain and complex environments. Including leaders like Canto in a
group of CEOs has enormous benefits as diversity of thought, of
backgrounds, opens up discussions.
Although there is a
perceived division between the heads of for-profit firms and non-profits,
leaders of these organisations can learn from one another. For example, leaders
who make the connection to others inherent in
their purpose encourage ethical behaviour.
At Reação, Canto
fights against what he refers to as “the lack of opportunities at the start
line”. From the beginning, children who live in poor areas are at a
disadvantage in terms of education and opportunity. When he talks about Olympic
lessons, he mentions the difference between changing the way people feel for a
moment while watching the Olympics and changing whole lives – from a momentary
feeling of pride, glee, jubilation to a transformed life.
One “fairy tale”
transformation has been that of Rafaela Silva. She started judo at
Reação when she was eight years old because her parents wanted to make sure she
wasn’t involved in street fighting in the Cidade de Deus favela,
which received global attention in the award-winning film, City of God. She went on to win Olympic gold in 2016 in Brazil; it was
the first gold for the host country that year. Canto, who is also a sports
television presenter, was there when she won and he spoke about his immense
pride in Silva, especially considering all she endured.
Management training, which seems a
million miles away from Rio’s favelas, can be a force for good. Canto hopes to
scale up the number of dojos in Brazil. For him, the transformative mission is
obviously at the centre of Instituto Reação. He is encouraged to see how purpose, like performance,
is a priority amongst CEOs. This step forward can transform lives.
Felipe Monteiro, INSEAD Affiliate Professor of Strategy
Read more at https://knowledge.insead.edu/blog/insead-blog/leadership-lessons-from-an-olympic-judo-champion-11006#uYs9I45ZeZSkHqGH.99
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