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The Moment - A great example of teamwork and persistence - Mar 12, 2009

Posted by: James E. Bateman in Articles

The Moment

A great example of teamwork and persistence

I often find that sailing is a metaphor for business and life. The following is an article, written by my friend and crewmate, Jeff Blanton, that shows how teamwork and persistence can make the difference between victory and defeat. I had the pleasure and priviledge to also be on the boat with Jeff and share his views on the regatta and lessons learned. I hope you find this enjoyable and valuable.

The Moment
Last summer I competed in the Shock 35 National Championship. This is a 3 day, 8 race sailboat regatta. Besides a trophy the winner claims fleet bragging rights for the entire year. The key to success in a multi-race series is to stay consistent and avoid the big disaster of a bottom of the fleet finish. Over the first two days that was exactly what we did; finding ourselves in first place. With two races to go we had a two point lead over the second place boat. It was our regatta to lose.

The plan was simple; get around the course clean, sail the boat well and avoid the big screw-up. Apparently we did not like that plan. We found ourselves dead last rounding the first weather mark. Not only were we last, we were still in a major fire fight with the spinnaker as the fleet sailed off into the horizon.

After a considerable struggle and lots of yelling we are finally off and running. But the boat went from noisy chaos to complete silence as the unbelievable sinking feeling settled in. The one thing we had to avoid we just did in spades. Boastful bragging at the yacht club would be replaced with humbled bowed heads.

During our debacle (we have other more "official" terms for it) all the focus was turned inward as it should be to fix our problems. Devastated I took my first look out over the fleet to see the damage. To my amazement, I realized we were in striking distance of multiple boats. I just blurted out, "we need to beat those boats and get ourselves back into it!" Someone else chimed in, "the heck with that let's go get them all." As others started to realize we still had a shot, the competitive juices quickly returned to the boat.

Blessed with owners who spend the money to keep the boat fast and confidence from the past, just maybe we could pull this off. We fought hard, raced well and managed to pass multiple boats putting ourselves back into the middle of the fleet. Then we received a blessing from above. During a crisis one tends to think bad things only happen to them. Not so. We ended up finishing right behind our nearest competitor. After all that, we were still in first place by one point with one race to go!

How often do we find ourselves on a critical project and everything goes wrong? Like the finish line in a race the delivery date is not changing. The whole team just implodes with a gut wrenching feeling as we see all the effort going out the window in defeat. But someone steps up and says, "Wait a minute, what if we try this?" A second person and then a third chimes in. Before you know it a new plan emerges. People start to get reenergized, confidence starts to build and the team is off and running again.

In a perfect world, we may think our leader is always the one to bring us back. But more often than not it comes from the team. Anyone on the team can step up and say, "Not on my watch. I have too much invested and we will find our way out of this." That is what real teams do!

I am not the leader of our boat, that is the role of the skipper. But at that low moment I saw something. It was not planned. In fact, I am not even sure where it came from. I just wasn't willing to give up. Was it what we needed and did it make the difference? I don't know, ask my crewmates. But it sure helped me get back in the game.

If you are part of the team there will be a time when we will need you to step up. It will not be planned it will just be there. No one but you will even know it is your turn. The question is will you seize the moment? I hope so because we are all counting on you.

Just to finish the story, we did go on to win the Championship. For me, the best race of the regatta was the one where we had to fight our way back. That is what Champions do! Postscript.

Besides being an outstanding sailor, Jeff is the founder of Waypoint Leadership, Inc. a firm that provides strategic project consulting services. Jeff's website is http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=try6kucab.0.0.f7gaircab.0&ts=S0374&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.waypointleadership.com%2F&id=preview and his email address is JBlanton@wpldrs.com .