How management is like biking
Jim Bohn, Ph.D
Author: "People Development: The best part of leading a team." "If your watercooler could talk" Founding Researcher: Organizational Engagement Scale. Author. Speaker.
One of the great joys of my life has been the bike. Ever since I was a kid, I loved biking, and as an adult in a high-pressure job, the bike was a great stress reliever (and helped keep the weight down - white collar jobs can take a toll on the waist line - LOL).
I don't ride as fast or as far as I used to, but I still ride, even with the physical limitations that come with aging.
On my last ride I thought, "You know, management is like biking." Farfetched? Well, bear with me as I explain what I mean.
The one thing a biker must manage is energy. Using too much at the beginning of a ride will lead to hard consequences on the way back! Especially if you're out about 20 miles. So considering how much energy you're going to use is paramount. And here the ways energy is used. Hills, Heft (weight - I used to weigh less, but ...), Humidity, Heat, Headwinds. On any given day you may fight one or more of those. Against all five, you really need to be alert to energy loss and make changes to correct the situation!
The five laws of energy loss
Hills - The laws of physics are simple. Climbing a hill requires dramatic amounts of energy. Climbing many hills in a row can be exhausting.
In management, we face hills from time to time. Loss of a key person on the team drains energy very quickly. If the person is sick, we can make up for it, but if the person leaves and we have to replace them, that's a whole different story.
领英推荐
Heft A manager faces heft - weight - when they are carrying excessive (and often unnecessary) projects, increasing energy loss. What stuff could you jettison today!? What stuff are you holding on to? What dinosaur projects are weighing you down?
Humidity - Humidity happens in management when the working environment becomes unpleasant, whether physically unpleasant (renovations in a building) or when toxic leadership abounds, offering no relief from flawed decision making and excessive workload demands. All add up to energy loss. In this situation, you need to find relief outside the environment.
Heat Anytime a person has a leader who is emotionally unpredictable and unsupportive during a crisis, the heat increases, adding up to energy loss. Enough said!
Headwinds When product flaws impact organizational reputation or when market forces cause loss of profitability, you're facing a headwind, again, adding up to energy loss.
QUESTION - How many of those elements are you facing right now?
I look forward to your thoughtful insights!
Dr. Jim
Senior Organisational Capability Consultant
4 个月Nice metaphor. To add to your list I have a carbon road bike which weighs less than 8kg (16Ibs). You have a commuter bike weighs twice as much. Fair competition on who goes furthest and fastest? Analogy into practice - we all need good equipment to compete and shouldn’t be penalised because someone is better equipped than me. See F1 as an example. Using my bike do I keep up with my colleague above or go at my own speed? Analogy into practice - individual reward and contribution or the team? Or even better, do I head the front, shielding the other rider from the headwind ( thereby saving then 20% effort)? Analogy into practice - how can I help improve team performance? On those hills, do we go high cadence or grind? Analogy into practice - thus is a coaching moment where I can share top tips with others on how to ascend with less effort. I could go on. My point here is we can find lovely stories in sports. Sadly it’s business we are dealing with not sport and those analogies quickly break down when they come into contact with business realities.
Breaking Open The Boxes: 100 Quadrants for Wisdom and Success in Life; Personality Testing in Employee Selection, Practical Succession Management
4 个月And why management is like swimming, climbing, rowing, karate, judo, boxing or any other sports metaphors we can think of. Table tennis is my favourite. And why management is also a path, journey, a voyage, a discovery. Or even a story, a poem, a photograph, a film. Metaphors are good. But let's start with the basics. Managers - first remove the barriers that block your team's performance - and then we can plan our next team building event to go mountain biking.
Leadership and Organizational Development
4 个月Great parallels between leadership and work Jim Bohn, Ph.D The five restraining forces are real and they are with us on most days. If we're not conscious of them we will find ourselves "off the bike and walking it up the hill." This is not where we want to be as leaders or followers
Managing Partner at Curphy Leadership Solutions
4 个月We try to do 100-150 miles a week. It's great therapy.
Strategy and Leadership. DistFHRNZ, FNZPsS
4 个月As a fellow peddler, I love this John. Truth