Diving & Leadership

So, here I am, at the end of another working day. As usual, before I go home, I spend a quiet moment with myself reflecting on the day. What went well, what could have gone better, and where have I, as they say, totally messed up. A couple of things happened to me today that got me thinking about the last time I was "co" (commanding officer) of a dive group. There are a couple of similarities between that dive trip and today, that gave me pause in my daily self-reflections, and compelled me to write this little note.

One of my instructors (I have three), likes to say, "it's the little things that count". That trip, by most accounts, was a good diving weekend. But, it was not perfect. The groups took a little too long to get into the water and that sort of makes the dives less than perfect. When I had a chat with my instructor on that, he pointed out that most of the things were fine, but I neglected to compensate for a couple who took a tad longer than the rest to gear up. That small thing, he shared, had a knock-on effect that while by itself is a very small thing, the result, was quite substantial. Andy Groove said in his biography, "the devil is in the details". I couldn't agree more. I think if you look around and think about what happened at work, more often than not, the things that trips you up are not the big things, but the insidious little detail that you overlooked. Same thing happened to me at work today, lesson learnt.

Character to Care, Competence to Act. Unless your calling is to be a hermit meditating in a cave, you'd be working with co-workers, and would probably have people who report directly to you. I have been a corporate warrior all my working life. On more than one occasion I have been called "brain on a stick" as well as a "heartless bastard". A very, very good buddy of mine used to say to me, "Danny, you can catch more flies with honey than with shit". Yes, somewhat colorful language, but he probably taught me the most valuable leadership lesson that I practice (thanks Simon!). If you lead a team, your team don't give two hoots to your competency if you're an unfeeling bastard. Of course, it's not enough to care. You do need the competence to be able to act on their concerns. Diving is the same. Modesty aside, I'm a fairly competent diver, and being that "sharing" (some say boastful) person that I am, I often offer advice freely. There was this one dive trip where I noticed this diver diving in a fairly unattractive "seahorse" posture. She had too much weight. Of course I had to tell her, repeatedly, once or twice per surface interval time of our 3-day dive trip, that she had too much weights and she should remove one piece of lead. Did she listen? Nope. On one of the dives, her integrated weights slipped off, and she starting shooting up to the surface. Ask any diver, and they'd tell you, most accidents happen on the surface. So, here she was, furiously finning to stay under. I was around, and to cut a long story short, managed to help her. Harrowing little incident, and we didn't talk much after that dive. Funny thing happened. On subsequent dives, she headed my advice, removed one piece of lead, and dived far, far better. She later confessed to me, she felt my original advice was "bossy", but when I assisted her, she intimated that she felt she could trust me and decided to try what I had earlier suggested. Yup, people don't care what you know, until they know that you care. If you are a people manager, that my friend, I think is the One Thing (yes Henry and Butt, I couldn't resist).

Oh, did I tell you about my instructors? I had two when I was learning to dive in the Philippines, and when I was based in Malaysia, I have three who mentored me on being a Divemaster; three quite interesting characters. "A" is a real salt-of-the-earth type. Earthy and dependable. "B" is the perfectionist. Immaculate techniques, and if you don't live up to his standards, he makes sure you know. "C" is the comforter. Handles details better than a spreadsheet, and is who we run to when we need reassurances. This lesson comes from "B". I remembered a trip and I wasn't paying enough attention to a novice diver. That diver ended up on the surface alone while I made my safety stop. That was bad, very bad; remember what I said earlier about most diving accidents happens on the surface? "B" took me to a quiet corner and gave me quite a bit of a dressing down. Fast forward another dive trip. This time I did good, and "B" complimented me in front of other folks. What's the leadership lesson here? When you deal with people, either who report to you, or you work side-by-side as colleagues, remember this "whisper criticisms, shout accolades". Try it, you'll be amazed at the results.

Well, three simple leadership lessons for me, that made a difference to my work day today, reinforced by diving. Now, wouldn't you like to dive?