Extreme Sports and Leadership - Key Challenges for the Year Ahead

Acceleration of the ‘me to virtual we’ concept

In February 2020 I was in the process of moving from my last company to my present role. I recognised I needed to decompress and set my leadership goals for the year ahead. To reset and refocus I often use the outdoors, exercise, change of location and a combination of all the afore mentioned. I decided to take up the challenge of completing the Cresta Run in St Moritz. What does 60mph, headfirst on a sled with your chin 3 inches off the ice got to do with refocussing and setting leadership goals for the year ahead?

As in business, extreme sports and sports in general provide us the opportunity to seek improvement in performance, make changes that give us the marginal gains and, with some sports the opportunity to use data to build on the marginal gains. It also provides a ying to yang - the balance we seek between work and play.

What makes successful leaders (amongst many factors) is the focus for constant improvement. The compounding effect of improving by 1 percent each day stacks up to 3700 by year end.?

?I have transferred many critical lessons from extreme sports, ultras, and team sports to my daily job as a leader and coming out of Switzerland following an exhilarating week I reflected on my year ahead, the leadership learnings and my goals.

I then started my new role. Let’s cast our minds back to the end of the first quarter of 2020.

Covid19 what?

Very quickly we were all dusting off pandemic response plans (those that had them within their resilience planning) and having to adapt to the ‘new norm’ – at breakneck speed!

The goals I had set myself rapidly evaporated or were re-prioritised. However, the leadership learnings from sports served me well:

• All team members must be brought to the mission (articulate the new mission and ensure everyone understands their role. Top down. Bottom up)
• The plan must be simple. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy (reduced complexities enables greater adoption of the plan)
• Prioritise, then execute (set clear objectives and then ensure everyone’s got the tools to deliver)
• Discipline brings freedom (muscle memory)

As I draw breath from a busy ‘landing’ into 2022 and as we embark on another year; one where we can begin the process of putting the global pandemic in the rear-view mirror (but not the hard lessons learned), I wanted to consider three leadership challenges for 2022. Let’s anchor ourselves in the ‘marginal gains’ discussed above, lets ensure it’s based on the growth mindset and accumulated experience of the last 2 years.

New ways of leading

A return to the office for many will occur this year. However, there are many companies that have adapted to the pandemic, enabled remote working, and recognised the value it can bring. The work from home model brings new challenges for the leaders amongst us. The challenge is to be as impactful as you were in the face-to-face environment. Leaders must continue the evolution of their styles to support the long-term virtual office. They need to be attentive and mindful in their conversations with team members - it’s essential in a virtual work environment. Attentiveness means knowing the goals, motivations, needs, and experiences of team members and recognizing when changes occur. Effective virtual leaders work diligently to connect team members to the larger organization by actively facilitating collaboration, creating the team culture, and helping virtual workers unite to build community spirit. Also, be present – don’t multi-task in the virtual meeting environment.

It’s also worth noting that there are obvious benefits to enabling the remote working model, but leaders must be aware of ‘at what cost’? Some companies have voiced the concerns about transferring the culture from the office to the kitchen table. On a recent panel I presented on I heard the anxiety from leaders about new joiners to companies who are not getting the water cooler moments, the in-person mentoring, and the opportunity to embrace the office culture. And not everyone has the benefit of a separate home office with high-speed connectivity. The reality for some is a shared house, wresting for bandwidth from a desk in your bedroom.

Remote working remains. But it gets more intelligent

Many of us are still engaged in Zoom and Teams meetings, moving our physical meeting space to the virtual. This impacts on the ability to collaborate, there are the distractions of home, and the lack of real social engagement can have a detrimental impact on the mental health and wellbeing of our staff. Curating the next generation of virtual workspaces will be a focus for the year ahead; not only securing it from the myriad of cyber security threats * but to build trusting, collaborative teams that can work virtually together, be productive and innovate. From the kitchen table.

?* The cybersecurity threats of working from home have been discussed extensively since February 2020 but one worthy of revisiting as threats evolve.

Retention

The great resignaiton! It continues and the race for top talent continues. It’s never good to lose your top talent in what is already a challenging and competitive market for skills and labour. The challenge for the leaders out there is to have open and transparent conversations with your teams; what is frustrating and irritating your team – be that the systems, the workload, or the leadership – and then finding creative ways to take away that pain will pay dividends in retaining key people. Further to this, it is important to ensure you revisit the careers of those you lead; have a clear vision and road map as to how you will support their career and the important role that path will play in enabling the business to grow, as they grow.

This really is the year to move from transactional leadership to one of engaging empathetically with your office based and remote workforce.

There are most certainly many other challenges leadership face in 2022 and I could write infinitum about what these might be. ESG would be at the top of that list . As we look ahead into 2022 how many of you are working within or creating a best-in-class enterprise-wide ESG policy and framework that is integrating ESG policies across the organization?

One for another time

With the workforce going through unprecedented changes, new challenges are emerging for companies and leaders to ensure they navigate these dynamic times. As a leader, ensure you’re revisiting your vision for the year ahead (even in January); does the strategy and plan support the vision, is your team aware of the plan and their role and importantly, are your leadership goals enabling them and the business.

Best of luck for the year ahead to you all. I will most certainly be pursuing another sporting challenge to assist with focus and balance. Wishing you health and success, in whatever you your golas are.

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