I often read books where people pit themselves against the forces of nature.  Climbing Everest, crossing Antarctica to get to the South Pole, kayaking across the Tasman, etc. 

One book I read in this genre, was the book “Team Spirit” by Brendan Hall.  It is a story about Brendan being skipper of the winning yacht in the 2009-10 Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. 

For those who don’t know, the only professional on each yacht in this race is the skipper.  The rest of the crew paid to be on the yacht.  They can be on the yacht for one leg, multiple legs or the whole race.  They come from a wide range of backgrounds, nationalities, objectives, skills and experience.  None of which is a professional sailor.  The skipper does not even select their crew.   They are given their crew roster and even their yacht by the organisers at the start of the race.

This is often like business, with a team of disparate individuals that the leader needs to get all going in the one direction in order to succeed. 

And in this book, Brendan has some very useful lessons to help improve your leadership skills.  All that can transfer into your business or professional life.

Skillset

One of the first lessons that Brendan learned in researching and preparing for the race was that being a winning skipper was only about 20 per cent sailing skills and 80 percent people management skills.  This would be the same in the business world.  Yes, you need the technical skills but if you don’t have the people management skills you will struggle to be an effective leader and grow your business.

Sailing around the world in some of the harshest conditions can be life threatening.  Brendan realised that leader does not have to a master of everything.  Instead they need key people in the leadership team that complement their strengths and make up for their weaknesses.  This is the same in business.  Don’t fill your key team positions with clones of yourself.

Mindset

One of the questions Brendan always had at the back of his mind was “Does it make to boat go faster, safely?”.  And combined with this was the view to “Think long term victory – not short term glory”.  Don’t win the race to the first marker if it is going to damage your sails and cost you later.  This is similar for business owners, where the question at the back of their mind should be “Does it help the business reach its business goals quicker with less risk?”

Another view that Brendan had was that “You don’t win a race, you lose a race”.  You have to keep racing as hard as possible, don’t make mistakes and stay motivated.  If you can do that, the competition will eliminate themselves through their own mistakes and problems.  Persistence was one of his key mottos for the race, and one of the key reasons why Brendan believed his boat won the race.  It is the same with business.  It is the business that pushes past the setbacks and knock downs, minimises and learns from its mistakes that has a higher chance of succeeding.

For the team to work well, there had to be chemistry and momentum that came from a positive collective attitude.  Brendan was given his team for the race and he saw some gifted people in his team, who had excellent technical sailing skills, but very poor people skills.  He found that these people often stopped others from performing at their best.  We have all seen people like this at work.  The great salesperson who no one can manage.  You, as the business leader need to decide whether their output makes up for the lost output from the rest of the team.  Time and time again, I have seen teams significantly improve once the unmanageable person has moved on.

Next Steps

I recommend reading the book, as it has much more about leadership skills than I have covered above, but if you don’t have the time, just think about how you can apply the key skillset and mindset thoughts of Brendan to help you improve your leadership skills and successfully grow your business.

Let me know your thoughts.

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