Tony & Julia: From a performance psychology perspective

The last few months have been a fascinating time to be a peak performance psychologist living in Canberra. It’s been one of the most interesting political periods in memory. But it’s not the politics that I want to talk about today. Instead, I want to briefly examine some of the performance psychology issues that have been evident over the past few months. Forget about whether or not you like Tony Abbott or Julia Gillard just for now. Please also ignore how you feel about their politics. Let’s focus for a moment on the more personal side of the recent election.

When you think about your own life journey and the sort of challenges you’ve faced over the course of your life, you’ll probably notice that your life landscape has been peppered with hills and troughs: Times when your life has ticked along smoothly, without any particular excitement, and times when your life has been dominated by intensely demanding challenges. That’s how it is for most of us.

If you think about the life of a politician from that life journey perspective, it’s hard to imagine a more intense challenge than running for leadership of your country. Yet that’s the challenge that both Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott faced in the recent election. Let’s have a look at how they handled that challenge from a performance psychology point of view.

Tony
I think a lot of people underestimated Tony Abbott. He was considered an outside chance at the beginning of the election campaign. To put it bluntly, he just wasn’t a particularly popular politician.

He showed visible signs of performance anxiety at the start of the Great Debate but delivered a solid performance anyway. His mental toughness, experience, and self-regulation skills got him through.

By the final two weeks of the election campaign he’d gone from ‘outside chance’ to ‘serious contender’. And in the final few days of the campaign he pulled all-nighters and gave it absolutely everything he had. I’d expect no less from a man who runs marathons in his 50s.

And this is where I think he was underestimated. Tony Abbott has a psychological strength profile that I’d expect to see in a high achiever. He’s mentally tough, he has stamina, he’s determined, he works relentlessly in pursuit of his goals, he believes in his capacity to achieve, and he’s a hard worker. These personal strengths became more and more evident as the election campaign progressed. And, in my view, he achieved what he did because of them.

But he has weaknesses too, and they came more obviously into play immediately after the election. More about that shortly.

Julia
Julia started out with mixed fortunes. She had a brief new leader honeymoon period, and strong support from women, particularly in the early stages. But she also faced a sentiment backlash over the routing of Kevin Rudd.

She showed no sign of nerves at the Great Debate. She looked confident and polished from the outset. Her mental toughness (and possibly calmer temperament) gave her the edge in terms of psychological self-management during that debate.

Yet her polish also worked against her. “Plastic Julia” copped a lot of flack from opponents, while supporters were dismayed by the conspicuous absence of the witty, tough talking Julia they were used to. From a performance psychology point of view, she lost her way here. Some of Julia’s core political strengths – her sense of humour, quick verbal wit and tough rejoinders were all silenced through the adoption of the persona she thought she “should” have in order to succeed.

Julia didn’t pull out all stops at the end of the election campaign like Tony Abbott did, but she didn’t let up either. Where Tony drove himself towards a big finish, Julia delivered a more constant, stable and sustained level of effort. She used her own psychological strengths well here. Julia has all the psychological qualities that I used to describe Tony. She’s mentally tough and she has incredible stamina. She works relentlessly in pursuit of her goals but in a much more measured, even patient way. She believes in her capacity to achieve, and she’s a very hard worker. But rather than working in intense bursts, she works hard, day in and day out. Her consistency and persistence are core additional strengths.

Post-election
Julia has other strengths that came into play immediately after the election too. She’s a strong negotiator with a notable ability to see things from other people’s point of view. From the moment the hung parliament was announced, she had a key advantage, because the environment matched her strength profile far better than it matched Tony Abbott’s. Negotiation is not a natural modus operandi for Tony Abbott and soft skills are not his strongest suit. This placed him at a disadvantage. He was competing in an area of personal weakness while Julia was competing where she’s strong. Having said that, it does, of course, logically follow that Julia’s strength profile offers the new government the best chance of success too, since ongoing negotiation is going to be the cornerstone of successful government in this new climate.

Interestingly, having delivered a big finish at the end of the election campaign, Tony Abbott seemed to really struggle with energy in the first week following the election. He had a cold and he appeared to be running on empty for a while – a post-marathon collapse, if you will. Julia, of course, just kept on keeping on after the election. That seems to be what she does.

Take home message
This mini case study highlights some important strategies that you can use to improve your own outcomes when you’re facing big challenges.

1. Pacing matters. Even though Tony Abbott’s big finish would have worked well under normal circumstances, it came at a cost this time. Unexpected events do happen and you should always keep something in reserve. Pace yourself carefully and keep something in your tank in case an unexpected final push is required.
2. In competitive environments, you should exploit your personal strengths as much as you possibly can. Find a way to operate out of strength. If you’re competing where you’re weak you’re unlikely to win. Success is built on the back of personal strengths.
3. Be yourself. That sounds trite, but it’s important. People sense insincerity and it will count against you. Not only that, but success is about making the most of who you are, not trying to be someone else. Let other people have their strengths. Learn to make the most of your own.

Whatever hand you've been dealt in life, you can turn it into a winner. But you'll have to play your own game to do it.