7 Leadership lessons I learnt from CrossFit!

Today, I want to talk about correlation between two passions of my life: work and workout (read CrossFit)! It wasn’t too long ago that I had been initiated into CrossFit, ‘accidentally’! But whenever I think about it, I am amazed by the fact that there is so much similarity between CrossFit and the ‘real’ business world. I never imagined that learning some unrelated skills like snatches, cleans, HSPU’s (hand stand push-ups) will also teach me so much about the leadership skills and mold me to be a better leader as well. Let me take you through my experience…

Prelude:

I have had an ‘on and off’ relationship with fitness since my childhood. I started playing tennis at an early age of 9 and progressed to a professional level by the age of 12. However, being born into a family of doctors comes with its own merits/de-merits. I was expected to give up a potential career in sports and chase academic dreams instead. The problem started when I got into sedentary lifestyle. As a result, I amassed (considerable) weight which remained there for most of my med-school life. And then, as everyone have a moment of realization, I also had one and promised myself to shed all the excess weight. It wasn’t an easy feat as I had to shed about 40% of my body weight. I achieved this through an optimal mix of running, swimming and weight training.

Tryst with CrossFit:

Circa 2017: Things were going fine (I was maintaining my target weight), when one fine day I accidentally bumped into CrossFit, courtesy my wife. I clearly remember my 1st encounter with CrossFit. It was a hot and humid morning of 2017. I was cursing my wife for waking me up from my slumber and dragging me to a muggy box in a basement (CrossFit community like to call their gym as boxes)! It was still a few minutes for the next class, and I was ridiculing CrossFit concept, thanks to the videos I had binged on a night before, casting aspersions on CrossFit.

As soon as previous session ended, participants started falling on the floor like a house of cards. Honestly, this sight made my heart race faster than a bullet train. But then there was no going back now. I had promised my wife to attend 1 trial class at least! Every minute of that class was like a torture as I realized that whatever I had done before (weight training/running) was of no use to this style of workout. However, I got hooked to CrossFit after my 1st class and there is no looking back since then. It’s an integral part of my life today! I have become fitter, leaner, active and most importantly learning so much about life and leadership skills through CrossFit training.

7 leadership lessons I learnt (and incidentally they all start from letter 'c'):

1.      Commitment- Commitment and consistency is the key in CrossFit. There is a famous mantra in here: ‘Every rep counts’. This is also true for the business environment where every day counts. With such high levels of competition and expectations in the work environment, it’s important to stay consistent and be committed to your organizational goals. There will be days of failure, but that shouldn’t stop you to lead from front.

2.      Courage- Nelson Mandela often used to say: ‘Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.’ According to me, ‘Courage’ is the most important quality of a great leader. It means venturing into unknown territories, taking risks and trying to do things differently. In CrossFit, there are so many workouts and skills that forces you to get out of your comfort zone to try and learn them. Even after 2 years of CrossFit training, I would have learned only 50% of the skills.

3.      Constant Learning- Before CrossFit entered the scene in 2000, there was virtually no real working definition for the word 'fitness'. According to the Oxford dictionary, fitness is 'the condition of being physically fit' which is very vague. After years of research and study, Greg Glassman, founder of CrossFit, defined fitness as 'increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains'. In the world of business, you have no control over what will happen in a given day, so you must be prepared for anything. And hence as a leader, it’s important to equip yourself, your team, and your business to increase the work capacity across broad time and modal domains. CrossFit and business environment are both challenging, unpredictable, and constantly varied. The goal is to never settle, always be changing, and never allow yourself to fall into trap of predictable pattern.

4.      Communication- Clear and transparent communication is important both in CrossFit and business environment. Many leaders fail when they think that teams act upon once the instructions are given. However, it requires multiple booster shots and follow through mechanisms to ensure that the message has been internalized. Over-communication never hurts, and this is what coaches at CrossFit ensure. They repeat the instructions several times during the workout to ensure that you have understood and internalized it completely.

5.      Competition- Since early childhood, we have been conditioned to compete with people around us. This comes as no surprise that we are trying to compete with everyone and anyone in whatever task we perform. This is where CrossFit differs. We are taught to compete with ourselves and ourselves only. There is a concept of PR’s (Personal Records), where athletes are supposed to record their progress/achievements in the score card. I always compare myself to where I was, probably a week or a month ago. In the last 2 years, I have never felt the need to compete with my fellow athletes, because I am on a journey to better myself. This is much more enjoyable and fulfilling experience. In the business environment too, we as leaders should inculcate the habit of bettering team members rather than making them compete amongst themselves. This paradigm shift in the mindset will give them an opportunity to think of ways to improve themselves rather than get into vicious cycle of peer competition.

6.      Compliance- We all know that it’s important to follow the rules, but what is required is to imbibe it in our behavior. In CrossFit if you cheat or perform a movement sub-optimally, coaches will give you a no-rep. Thanks to this strict no-rep culture, over the course of time, I have seen fellow athletes following rules to the T even when the coaches aren’t around. We as leaders should set the rules at the beginning and articulate it to our team members clearly. It’s important to achieve organizational goals but not at the cost of ethics and compliance. This is non-negotiable and team members should learn the value of organizational policies and rules. Acting ethically should be the way of life and we as leaders are responsible to instill this behavior in our team members.

7.      Community- Last but not least, community plays an important role in binding people and pushing them to achieve impossible feats in CrossFit. I have seen such high levels of camaraderie and support through my fellow athletes which has pushed me to give my 100% every single day. We also celebrate success together. I wonder if we could imbibe even 50% of this culture at our workplace, we will achieve better outcomes, more happiness, and foster team-spirits. I recently came across an interesting article by HBR about Henrik Bunje, CEO of Bjorn Borg who has transformed the company’s culture through CrossFit. Read here: https://hbr.org/2018/03/the-swedish-ceo-who-runs-his-company-like-a-crossfit-gym

Author is a CrossFit athlete and has competed in the CrossFit Open Games-2018 and 2019 and ranked 16th in India.

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