COMMENT
WANT TO BUILD A WINNING TEAM? THEN IT’S TIME TO CAST YOUR EGO ASIDE AND GET REAL
The first thing I do when I meet a new crew is gather everyone together and get each member to introduce themselves. It’s a pretty common thing for team leaders to do whether on land or sea.
For the RORC Caribbean 600 race this year, 12 of us sat together sweltering under the boom tent and spent over an hour on this introduction. Alongside the usual, “How do you like to be called?” and “What’s your sailing experience?” I asked, “What are you hoping to get out of this experience?” and “What are you feeling nervous about?”
For many, this whole process can feel like a waste of time. Alife story about the challenges someone overcame to go sailing isn’t relevant, right? What we need to know is: can you trim a sail? We’re going racing. We’re not here to sail 600 miles for therapy.
But brushing off the importance of getting to know the individuals on the team is old fashioned and narrow minded. High performing teams are not made from high performance robots, and it would be naïve to think that a win over a multi-day race is simply the result of polishing up hard skills.
Giving each member of the team a dedicated time slot to talk about themselves has so many benefits. It plants the seed for an inclusive culture; everyone speaks, so this is a team in which every person is equally valued. It reinforces the value of listening, both up and down the chain of command. This is critical if you want your crew to catch your blind spots and speak up if they see a safety or performance related issue on the racecourse. And if you choose – as I did – to ask deeper questions than a resumé summary, it inspires openness and trust. A trusting team doesn’t waste time second guessing or micromanaging one another. Less time-wasting on these ‘soft’ issues means faster sailing.
Saying all that, I left the meeting second guessing how I should have answered my own questions.
“Do you think I should have ‘bigged’ myself up more?” I asked Alex, my co-skipper. So many skippers reel off all their achievements to instil confidence. I missed a few important ones. Was I foolish to admit that I was feeling the nag of imposter syndrome?
Alex made an astute observation: as a skipper, ground yourself on the purpose of these meetings. The aim of that meeting was to begin building the team. It wasn’t a meeting to polish my ego. And if I’d used that meeting to elevate my sense of self-importance, I’d have risked making everyone else feel smaller. He felt that honesty
