Learn­ing how to ​“come back stronger,” in busi­ness and in life, is key to ensur­ing suc­cess. That’s accord­ing to Sarah Robb O’Hagan, CEO of EXOS, a human per­for­mance coach­ing company. 

Dur­ing the most recent Empow­er­ing Women in Sup­ply Chain vir­tu­al event, an SAP webi­nar series focused on net­work­ing and learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for women in sup­ply chain, Dar­cy Mac­Claren, Chief Rev­enue Offi­cer, SAP Dig­i­tal Sup­ply Chain, mod­er­at­ed a keynote ses­sion and fire­side chat with Robb O’Hagan on the top­ic of grow­ing from pro­fes­sion­al peaks and valleys.

Often reflect­ing on her own career as an exec­u­tive and entre­pre­neur in the hour-long Sept. 8 ses­sion, pre­sent­ed by SAP in part­ner­ship with Mygo Con­sult­ing, Robb O’Ha­gan — who pre­vi­ous­ly served as Pres­i­dent of Equinox, Glob­al Pres­i­dent of Gatorade, and Mar­ket­ing Direc­tor at Nike and the Vir­gin Group — dis­cussed the impor­tance of get­ting com­fort­able mak­ing bold career moves and ​“tun­ing your mind and body for high per­for­mance” in the com­plex and fast-evolv­ing world of sup­ply chain.

Fre­quent­ly, she also dis­cussed the impor­tance of fail­ure, from get­ting fired twice in her twen­ties to cham­pi­oning what she play­ful­ly describes as ​“the worst ath­lete cam­paign in the his­to­ry of Nike” dur­ing her tenure there. Robb O’Hagan still updates an ​“anti-resume” on her LinkedIn pro­file where she lists fail­ures along­side successes. 

“I’m clear in my point of view that fail­ure is great for build­ing poten­tial, and years of doing it has taught me how to rebound from it bet­ter,” she said. ​“It is these moments that help us become the high­est-per­form­ing ver­sions of ourselves.” 

Below, find Robb O’Hagan’s three key insights into nav­i­gat­ing dis­rup­tion and per­se­ver­ing through adversity.

1. Rejec­tion is the begin­ning, and not the end. 

“Break­throughs are not for the faint of heart,” said Robb O’Hagan, reflect­ing on how con­verg­ing busi­ness trends have impact­ed our abil­i­ty to achieve new break­throughs in business. 

As pro­fes­sion­als con­front the real­i­ties of work­ing in ​“a world of instant grat­i­fi­ca­tion” that incen­tivizes quick wins but deval­ues long-term ini­tia­tives that might not work ini­tial­ly, it’s more impor­tant than ever to trust your instincts, she said. Today’s busi­ness­es are ​“drown­ing in data,” which can com­pli­cate deci­sion-mak­ing if lead­ers become over­whelmed and can­not remain focused on long-term end goals, she added. 

In under­tak­ing a mul­ti-year busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion at Gatorade fol­low­ing the 2008 reces­sion, Robb O’Hagan believed the only way for­ward was to evolve the com­pa­ny into a ​“health­i­er busi­ness,” build­ing upon Gatorade’s foun­da­tion in bev­er­ages to estab­lish a full line of sports nutri­tion products. 

“One orga­ni­za­tion mov­ing into all these prod­uct forms was com­pli­cat­ed from a sup­ply-chain stand­point, but sup­ply-chain part­ners leaned in the fastest to fig­ure it out, faster than oth­er areas of the busi­ness,” said Robb O’Hagan. ​“We couldn’t afford to lis­ten to the many voic­es telling us this couldn’t work. Instead, we worked with the right part­ners and kept opti­miz­ing and improv­ing, until we got to where we want­ed to be.”

In reflect­ing on this dis­rup­tive expe­ri­ence, Robb O’Hagan said that trans­for­ma­tion takes time, and that trans­form­ing a company’s inter­nal cul­ture hap­pens grad­u­al­ly and requires lead­ers to ​“own the mes­sage” of their vision repeat­ed­ly, until oth­ers begin buy­ing in. 

Robb O’Hagan not­ed that those ear­li­er in their careers can stand out by stand­ing along­side lead­ers in the midst of imple­ment­ing change. ​“Every leader is look­ing for some­one who’s going to step up, who’s on board and can help spread the word to oth­ers,” she added. ​“It’s almost as hard to be the first fol­low­er as it is to be the leader.”

2. Stand proud and will­ing to learn.

“You won’t stay at the sum­mit for­ev­er,” said Robb O’Hagan, as she reflect­ed on the ups and downs of her career. Instead, she explained, cul­ti­vat­ing a mind­set of open­ness, humil­i­ty, and resilience can help any­one nav­i­gate the head­winds of pro­fes­sion­al development. 

“We’re going to have the highs, and the lows, but those can hap­pen to every­one, and there’s more in com­mon than there is dif­fer­ent between those times,” she said. ​“It’s how we respond to them that mat­ters most.”

Every day, Robb O’Hagan advised, ​“take a step.” Com­plet­ing one task a day that in some way moves you toward where you want to be in your career is a key part of build­ing per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al momentum. 

Robb O’Ha­gan also advo­cat­ed in favor of spe­cial­iza­tion, ask­ing, ​“Are you the leader in a cer­tain cat­e­go­ry, or are you try­ing to be all things to all peo­ple?” The dan­ger of spread­ing one­self too thin, she said, is that imposter syn­drome can set in. Man­agers, she added, notice employ­ees who shine in spe­cif­ic and mea­sur­able ways, and favor those who are hon­est in assess­ing both their strengths and their weaknesses.

3. Get ready for greatness.

In her cur­rent role, Robb O’Hagan focus­es on prepar­ing peo­ple to take on the moments that mat­ter most in their work, sport, and dai­ly lives. Work­ing with sup­ply-chain pro­fes­sion­als and train­ing pro­fes­sion­al ath­letes, she said that it’s cru­cial not to let ​“extreme efforts lead to extreme burnout.” 

Instead, Robb O’Hagan advised, focus on build­ing ​“inten­tion­al recov­ery” into the work­day. ​“As exec­u­tives, we often go with­out rest, and then we won­der why we’re so exhaust­ed,” she said. ​“Opti­miz­ing your psy­chol­o­gy and your biol­o­gy, to get your body ready for the day, will help you devel­op readi­ness and feel the oppo­site of over­whelmed.” In clos­ing, Robb O’Ha­gan offered three tips for inten­tion­al recovery:

1. Keep mov­ing. In day-to-day work for remote employ­ees, focus­ing on a com­put­er screen all day can add to phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal strain. At EXOS, rather than hav­ing all-day Zoom calls, one-on-one meet­ings are sched­uled as walk-and-talk phone calls.
2. Nutri­tion is essen­tial. Being inten­tion­al and pre­pared for the week ahead, and stay­ing healthy in what one con­sumes through­out the work­day, can make one more effec­tive at tack­ling all kinds of work-relat­ed challenges.
3. Pro­gram the day thought­ful­ly. ​“Enter­ing a flow state, as I call it, is when you feel like you can get lost in a spe­cif­ic task,” Robb O’Hagan said. ​“When you have thought­ful work, move your body for 30 min­utes before you sit down. I think of this as putting your oxy­gen mask on first before you can help others.”