Everything I really need to know I learned from running

I often joke that if I ever write a book, it will be called, “Everything I really needed to know I learned from running.” With great respect to all my former teachers, mentors, and leaders from whom I’ve learned a ton, I’ve found that running has given me some of life’s greatest lessons.??

In this especially tough couple years I started thinking about what my running practice means and how it helps me lead. After all, when the world locked down many people turned to running to help them keep sane and fit. I think it offers many useful perspectives and life lessons as you’re pounding pavement along the way.

As someone who casually started running in middle school with my sister every night, I’m now a lifelong fan of the sport. Here’s how it’s helped me become a better leader, too.

Running is my meditation

Running is a time to challenge my body and let my mind focus in the process. For some, running is a social thing that they always do with other people. While I do run with others sometimes, running is my alone time.? My time to focus and calm my mind. Combined with the physical exertion, it is stress relief for my mind and body.?

At Salesforce and Tableau, we talk a lot about meditation. We encourage healthy mind-body practices for our people in whatever shape or practice that is meaningful for them. For me running is this combination of factors, mental and physical, and it’s effective. Your body is consumed stride-after-stride, it’s busy doing a lot of things, and that gets your mind into a different place. That combination is very important and special to me, and it gives me balance–something everyone needs from the demands of the workplace.?

It’s also taught me important aspects of teamwork

While I do like the experience of running alone, running as part of a team is equally rewarding. I started running as part of my high school cross country team where all of our individual efforts contributed to a group result. My favorite race I’ve run is Hood to Coast, a relay from Portland to Seaside in Oregon, which I have been fortunate enough to run seven times. The race covers 200 miles with 12 runners, two vans of six people each who run for about 24 hours in relay fashion. There are other series that do this like Ragnar in the Northwest Passage, which my son ran with his high school cross country team in 2021. I was fortunate enough to drive the van for his team and be there with him for that experience.

Relays combine the individual efforts of running with the tight teamwork and support necessary to keep a team of 12 people running, eating, and sleeping while crammed together in a van for 24 hours. Finishing the race is not just about running your leg of the relay. Your success is inextricably linked to the success of others. Relays require lots of leadership skills. You must play a variety of roles–cheerleader, coach, and participant–and trust in your teammates to achieve the big goal.

It reminds me to seek perspective

When I travel for business, I don’t usually have a ton of time to sightsee, but I get out for a run and see different places. Take Paris, it’s great to visit, but it can be overwhelming and overrun by tourists by day. Go for a run in Paris at 6 a.m. It’s amazing, you have it yourself, there are shopkeepers washing down sidewalks, you are alone with monuments that are mobbed during the day—you just see a totally different city. I think about my “6 a.m. run” experience a lot as a leader, frequently asking myself if I’ve sought a variety of perspectives when making decisions.

It helps me cope with adversity

Injuries can be the lowest of lows for a runner. In summer of 2019 I tore my left meniscus in the middle of the pandemic. I had surgery to correct the issue and was restricted from running for about four weeks. I also couldn’t do any of my run substitutes, bike or anything. That was brutal. When I needed a mental and physical release from the world most, it was simply not an option. My kids remember that I was not a happy camper.?

Running injuries are an acute reminder of what your body is actually capable of, and when an injury happens, that’s a tough setback. But getting through recovery and back into the groove–that’s the important part. It takes perseverance and resilience to start running again, and that sort of mindset can be applied to many leadership scenarios. I know I’m not the first to say that nothing good comes easy. I’m glad to be well over my injury now and back to distance running, but it was not without hard work and a resilient mindset.

It’s taught me to be mindful of the long game

When I ran my first marathon, I thought, “26.2 miles, no way! The human body isn’t meant to do that—that’s crazy.” Lo and behold, I realized I could totally do it with the right discipline and will. There were plenty of times along the way, I thought, “Yeah, this is a bad idea,” but I powered through those moments with faith, ability, and trust in myself. The ability to block out short-term pain and discomfort to focus on the long-term goal is critical to accomplishing anything meaningful.

This scenario–the long game–is so relevant in leadership, and even applies to some aspects of this pandemic. For example, it’s hard to say exactly what the future of work looks like. I’ve returned to the office and it’s great, but it still raises as many questions as we have answered. How is this really going to work in the long run? But like training for a big race, taking it step by step, systematically, with focus, and listening when you’re pushing–this is the same thing we face all the time in big challenges we want to tackle at work.?

We are of course still fighting new challenges in this global Covid-19 battle, but there have also been many positive breakthroughs and moments of hope. Like any major marathon, we’ll see the finish line. Though, as we’re learning, the finish line may look different than what we thought.

Marathons are doable but brutal. My favorite races are half marathons and 15Ks, they are much more humane distances. Here’s hoping we can shift out of this “marathon” soon so we can concentrate on what’s next. And I hope I’ll see you out there running somewhere!