We’re back—back from an unplanned podcasting hiatus, and back again for part two of David Plummer’s Finding Leadership series.  You can find part one here.  We’re happy to be back in front of the microphones, and happy to be in touch with our audience again (hello, you three).

In this episode, David remembers the leadership relationships he’s forged in his life as an amateur athlete and Olympic hopeful, the bounties and limitations of those relationships, and how one late-arriving leader, grizzled swim vet and acclaimed “water man” Jack Roach, changed everything and opened a pathway to self-discovery and Olympic gold.

“He was genuinely engaged and wanted to know about me.  He wanted to know about me as a person, me as a father, me as a husband, and me as an athlete.  He looked at all of it, and said we have to see all of these things in order to get better.  That was the difference-maker for me.  I wasn’t immediately more motivated.  I wasn’t immediately smarter.  I wasn’t immediately a better athlete.  But I was immediately more comfortable.  And when you’re more comfortable, you find these ways to get more out of yourself.  I was able to invest in myself and say, ‘I’m good enough.  I’m as good as I need to be.'”

– David Plummer