The ego-less environment

Watching the Brother UK - Tifosi p/b OnForm elite women’s team celebrate overall victory in the 2019 Tour Series, I was struck by the similarities between their own ego-less culture and the one we have continued to build at Brother UK. On Sunday, at the Ryedale GP in North Yorkshire, the team looks set to wrap up overall victory in the HBSC National Road Series too. 

For all the euphoria of the moment, the underlying motivations of Simon Howes’ team were plain to see: riders keen to support each other, whatever the circumstance. The hugs and smiles and words of encouragement would doubtless have been present, even if the outcome on the road had been different. They certainly were for Team Breeze, the valiant squad that our team had deprived of victory.

My position as Managing Director of Brother UK offered me a privileged perspective, in every sense. From a position on the podium, handing out the coveted Tour Series trophies, and in the cordoned area behind, it was clear that each of the team’s riders held equal status, from British circuit race champion Anna Henderson, the individual winner on the night, to teenager Illi Gardner.

In organisational terms, we can say that a flat structure exists among the riders of Brother UK - Tifosi p/b OnForm. Naturally, they operate within a wider strategy defined by the team’s management, but the camaraderie that unites this team of equals clearly pays dividends on the road, as well as in the paddock.

Opinion from sports psychologists indicates that coaching a team to a position where competing becomes about something more than winning at all costs, and indeed about the wider entity of the sport and the team’s place within it, a whole new level of performance can be accessed by the athletes, who feel empowered by the freedom to operate.

Steven Sylvester, formerly a First Class cricketer and now a chartered psychologist, writes well on this topic in his book, Detox Your Ego, and many of his findings are very transferable to the workplace.

 At Brother UK, an Investors in People platinum award winner, we continually encourage a similar environment to achieve our strategic goals. Last year, we celebrated 50 years in business, and our internal messaging remains focused on sustainability; put simply, how we can all work together to secure another half-century of success. We have two Queens Awards for Sustainability and strive to win a third.

Naturally, we have structures and methods in place to assist in the delivery of this outcome, such as promoting interoperability among teams, rather than a ‘win or lose’ competition between them. More broadly, however, the culture we’ve fostered at Brother UK is one in which everyone understands that while the organisation is greater than any individual, each of us, by working together, can help to generate a legacy for the business.

A further parallel exists with the women of Brother UK - Tifosi p/b OnForm, who occupy a position at the sharp end of a rapidly developing sport. Women’s cycling is growing exponentially, and in the UK particularly, where the conveyor belt of talent that has carried British men to the biggest prizes in professional cycling is now filled with female riders too. Few would bet against Henderson rising to the very highest level, for example. The Brother UK- Fusion RT squad is a similar mine of ability.

Much as our people at Brother UK help to create a legacy for the business by their daily actions and interactions, so the riders of our women’s teams help to make the female sport more sustainable by their competitiveness on the bike and friendliness off it. I’d encourage anyone reading this article to attend a round of the Tour Series next year and witness for themselves the positivity that surrounds women’s teams.

Camaraderie might be an abstract quality, but it is easy to identify. Excellence is more tangible still. Results on the road provide compelling evidence for the values and culture inside the team. The dichotomy of team-mates competing for each other rather than for results, yet still becoming the most successful is another phenomenon explored by Sylvester.

Excellence is not confined to our women’s teams, however. Look across the paddock to Vitus Pro Cycling Team, powered by Brother UK and you will find the same commitment to the highest standards. Team manager and owner Cherie Pridham has been smart enough to build her team on values. Her insistence on excellence in every aspect of the team’s operations, from presentation to performance, is known throughout the domestic peloton. No member of her squad embodies that commitment more than triple Olympic champion Ed Clancy OBE.

I was fortunate enough to observe Ed at work with Cherie and his new team-mates in March, at a training camp in Calpe. At the end of each day’s training, Chez delivered a clinical debrief. While all riders were free to contribute, Ed’s professionalism and commitment to excellence were notable. His feedback was pragmatic and constructive.

One of the main purposes of a training camp is to test equipment and processes. When teething problems arose, Ed’s response was to solve them in a collaborative manner. He formed and led what in a business context would be described as a focus group among the riders to generate solutions. By sharing the challenge, he involved the team in its resolution.

As a leader in any organisation, you recognise the inevitability of problems. What matters most is how you solve them. At Brother UK, we welcome bad news, if it is flagged early and in a constructive manner; indeed, early identification of scenarios with potential to disrupt operations is rewarded. From the senior leadership team to our newest apprentice, we expect a no-blame, pragmatic response to challenges. The manner in which we overcome them promotes a culture of organisational learning.

I’ll close by returning to the theme of an ego-less team, but this time use Vitus Pro Cycling Team, powered by Brother UK and Ed Clancy to illustrate its value, rather than Brother UK-Tifosi p/b OnForm and Anna Henderson.

At the penultimate round of the Tour Series in Salisbury, Ed played the ultimate team role by encouraging his young team-mate Freddie Scheske to ride clear, while he covered attacks from behind. When Freddie celebrated an emphatic solo victory - the first of many he seems likely to achieve in the Tour Series - Ed swept past their rivals to seal a memorable one-two finish for our team.

Rewind twelve months, and it was Ed with his hands in the air as he crossed the finish line in Salisbury. He certainly had the form to repeat the victory this year. By empowering Freddie, however, he gave the clearest demonstration of his own ego-free approach to racing. Ed’s three Olympic gold medals have been won in the men’s team pursuit; surely no coincidence. As evidence for the advantages of an ego-less environment, his personal achievements take some beating.