…from Running a Triathlon
In this month’s edition of last year’s newsletter I spoke of the leadership lessons I learned from training for and running a local sprint triathlon with my youngest son (his first). This year, his wife and my middle son joined us for this year’s race turning it into a family affair. While triathlons can be run as a team relay, they are traditionally not team events. Each individual runs the three events (swimming, biking and running in that order) against the clock. However, as a family we decided to run it as a group each of us competing in all three events. It gave us a chance to run it together as well as provided several valuable lessons in team leadership.
Our goal was to start and finish as a family. As we all four started the swimming event, we naturally spread out based on our individual swimming ability. One team member struggled more than the rest so the other three waited in the transition area until the fourth fully recovered and was able to begin the bike segment. As the thirteen-mile bike event unfolded, two of the team moved out ahead of the other two to the point they were out of sight of those behind them. At one point one of the two behind rode ahead to see how the two in front were doing and then wait for the fourth to meet up and finish the bike event together. This led to some confusion in the middle of the race but eventually all four regrouped to begin the 5K run. Once again, two of the four (different two than the bike event) moved ahead of the others at a faster pace. However, as the four of us approached the last quarter mile of the run, we formed into a two-by-two group, found a steady pace and finished the race as we started – together!
I could not help but reflect on the team leadership lessons from this experience. On any team there will be a mix of talent along with individuals who have their own personal goals. Leaders must understand these dynamics and re-enforce the team goals as the primary objective. While individual members of our team pursue personal goals independently, the more important team goal that day was to finish the race together.
Teams will also likely have those with individual talents and strengths that create opportunities for them to lead the team at various points in the process. During the race we had different combinations of the four of us lead each phase as each had strengths in that event. However, we never lost sight of the overall goal and used the event transitions to ensure we did not lose focus or a team member. Leading a team effectively requires the same thought process allowing those to lead who have the best ability during that phase of the team process. At the same time, transitions or checkpoints allow everyone on the team to step up and re-focus on the overall objective and ensure everyone is still engaged.
A final lesson on team leadership – celebrate success! As each runner crossed the finish line, the race announcer called out the runner’s name as having completed the race. When we crossed the finish line in our little two-by-two formation I heard the announcer say “…the Lochner family” as finishing the race. At that point we were not individual competitors, but a team whose stated goal was to start steady – together, and finish strong – together. How will you bring your team across the finish line?
Lead Well.