After 15 years of
research, these questions have been answered by Yehuda Shinar, the man who helped steer Sir Clive Woodward’s England
rugby team to World Cup success in 2003.
He has just returned from the USA, where he has been presenting his Winning philosophy to the National Soccer
Coaches of America Association, and is currently actively working with the Scottish Institute of Sport Foundation and the
Royal Bank of Scotland.
Shinar is a graphologist
by profession with a number of international business clients and had no background of working in sport when he first began
to develop his theories on winning 20 years ago.
His curiosity was aroused by a couple of clients who had asked if he could identify potential
successful business leaders. He realized that what he was being asked was “Can you pinpoint winners?”
"I decided to initiate a research study, in order to answer this fundamental question," said Shinar.
"Are there winners? What is a winner? What does it take to be a winner? And can anyone be a winner?”
Shinar's research focused on examining
the characteristics of leadership and performance in high-performance individuals from the military, business and sporting
fields, and identifying those who were clearly successful.
"People used to consider winners
as magicians or supermen. That's the typical stereotype, but we now know for sure that there is no such thing.
"Winners are ordinary people and the biggest difference between them and others is they are very pragmatic individuals.
"They are people who deal with challenges based on thinking and not just reacting. There's no secret or wonder behind
their success stories. They all share what we call `winning behaviour', that when analysed, is based on certain rules and
principles to which winners are totally committed.”
In simple terms, Shinar found that if you can think correctly under
pressure then you control events.
He took his findings further and identified eleven
behavioural traits that are consistent with winning behaviour.
Both the concept and methodology
of Winning are applicable in a variety of environments:
Business, Sport, Education, Governmental
departments and more,
and the Winning method can be employed for individual
executive development as well as for creating a “winning” spirit and culture in the organisation
When Sir Clive Woodward heard about Shinar’s
theories, he flew to Tel Aviv in 2000 to meet him. The rest is part of sporting history; Woodward applied the winning behaviours
to rugby, and England’s results improved dramatically, culminating in them winning the World Cup in 2003.Blackburn Rovers have also taken advantage
of the Israeli guru’s theories, and the application of them helped their Academy team win the league play off final
last season.
"Yehuda has been working with the Scottish Institute of Sport for the past six months.
"During that time he has had a significant impact on individual athletes and coaches, in Track and Field, Rugby Sevens
and Swimming.
"He has been working on developing a winning attitude in the groups he has been working with. Already in this short
time he has been able to influence their attitude and approach and in all cases this has transferred into better and consistent
performances.
"We look forward to working with Yehuda in the coming years as it is now an integral part of our coaches' and athletes'
preparation for major competitions."
- Marty Aitken, Director of Performance at the Scottish Institute of Sport Foundation
"The insight and experience that Yehuda brought to the team has meant that my management team think and act better when
they are under pressure. Their results since the series of Winning seminars have improved dramatically and I see the principles
taught as a key aspect to this"
- Paul Fox, Regional Operations Manager, Royal Bank of Scotland.
"It isn't necessarily the best team or the team with the most talented players that wins games, but the team that can
'think correctly under pressure'; T-CUP for short. It's what's between the ears that counts."
Clive Woodward
"He's not a business guru, consultant, motivator, performance director, or a psychologist, but there are elements
of all of these"
Graham Watson, Scottish Institute of Sport Foundation
"Working with Yehuda has been an extremely challenging and rewarding experience. I can see that his approach and
methods can benefit many sectors of our society not only in Sport"
Bob Easson, Coach for Scotland's Ruby Sevens team
