Maximize Your Strengths w/ John Coyle

Welcome to Season 3 of Innovators on Tap!

On the first episode of this new season, we have an incredible guest. I sit down with John Coyle, an Olympic medalist, sought after speaker, design thinking expert, and a best-selling author. 

But John’s success has been far from a liner path. After failing to qualify for the 1992 U.S. Olympic Speedskating Team, he decided to quit, abandon what was considered best practice at the time, and instead he trained by himself in a completely different way.  Instead of working to better manage his weaknesses, he focused on maximizing his strengths. This approach led to John a Silver Medal in the 1994 Olympic Games, a U.S. record and an unofficial world record.

But that is only the beginning of John’s story as we talk about his later work with Lance Armstrong and former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling - and then we get into his unique ideas and insight around leadership and innovation - including the realization that I spent far too much time focusing on what team needed to do better, instead of putting them in positions to maximize their strengths.

You can follow the podcast and host Chuck Swoboda on Twitter for further exploration and discussion on innovation.

The episode is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!