Leadership Lessons From Running Marathons

Useful Imperatives for Executives and Aspiring Leaders

The Race Starts Well Before The D-Day

It’s a Mind game.

Can I run? Am I over-estimating? If someone can do it at 50, why can’t I? I am already doing well, why worry! I already have a demanding schedule, I just don’t get time. Between choosing family time, and running for 2 hours every weekend, which is more important?  And then you have friends, who flood you with warnings of people that ran into health hazards, including fatal incidents. So, the race and the clutter has begun even before you did your first 2km run! And the peer pressure often does the trick.

But some are wired tough. 

From my school days I was extremely unathletic. However, I was good at cycling and I still enjoy. In my college days, I used to cycle 80 km a day on several occasions. I loved the high and that kept me going. I had found a motivation.

I also realized my strength - I am cut out for long hauls.

I have been into different forms of fitness over the last decade or longer, and it's a welcome habit. The habit has possessed me in multiple ways, and I am glad to have achieved a few extraordinary feats - for instance doing more than 100 floor climbs in a day. My Fitbit has been a great companion, to support with data. Over the years, my tenacity has gotten better and I keep pushing the limits albeit gradually. The natural next frontier was the marathon. I consciously opted for half-marathon over the adrenalin rush of a full-marathon. These runs, or even the practice sessions, often spill over an hour or often longer, allowing me an opportunity to introspect or find solutions to some problems. On several occasions, I have found a correlation of running marathons and running businesses. While the thought has matured over the weeks, I decided to keep this at bay until I finish one more race. Having completed my 3rd Half marathon, over the last weekend, I decided to do pen the thoughts.

Running Marathons Vs Running Businesses:

To me, running marathon is all about stretching your limits. I do it for meeting my goal and hence do it at my pace. While some people do it for medals, many more for the timings - I do it for the moment of redemption of going past the finish line. If you delved into the details, there is a striking similarity between running marathons and running organizations. If running marathons are about long term games and planning, then running businesses are about building the right DNA for long term success.

Here are some of the traits that are critical to running marathons - both on track, as well as off track.

1. Tenacity

Marathon is all about stretching your limits. There is a wonderful line I came across somewhere — Until you are broken, you don’t know what you’re made of. It gives you the ability to build yourself all over again, but stronger than ever. When I resumed my practice after a hiatus of almost 18 months (yes you read right!!!) I wasn’t able to run for even 500 meters. My weight had become my worst enemy. I changed my diet, to salads, and doing exercises in an empty stomach. It wasn’t easy, to say the least — be it munching the salads, or even forcing myself to 8–10 km walk without food. Through this, I trained my system to become flexible and tenacious. It was then that I sensed my body had turned into an on-demand system.

Building organizations demand similar if not higher levels of tenacity and agility. It’s about several forces trying to pull apart, on the face of which the leader needs to demonstrate high levels of determination and tenacity.

2. Practice

When I returned to the tracks, I would invariably practice at least 4–5 days a week. If travel was an inhibitor, I try to make up for the missed days by doing an extra bit. In that process, my muscles would get toned a bit more than earlier. Invariably there was a tear of muscles, and they need time to heal. It was easy to follow an alternate day for practice. In some cases, like mine, weekends provide the rest days. What’s important to understand is Practice must also budget rest days for the muscles to recoup. Very often, you need protein or protein supplements to make rebuild the worn muscle tissues. It’s important to be conscious and sensitive to the environment — for instance, avoid workouts if I was sleep deprived. On the contrary, I started tuning myself reasonably to adapt to the workout regime.

Similarly, it takes a deep sense of rigour and commitment to practice to build a successful organization. There is a natural resistance to governance, to systems, processes and cadences. However, it’s important for leaders to leaders to prioritise practice. For instance, if the organization promises to be compliant with a certain regulatory standard, it mandates that every project or product must comply. It requires practitioners to practice the standards and conventions without fail. It would mean sometimes that the skills are missing, in which case there is a need to build or leverage external training. It is important to have checks and balances, to decide when to let the guards down, and equip decision makers adequately.

3. Cheat Days

Whether it’s the austerity with food or the ruthless discipline of practice, you must plan for cheat days — where you can binge — junk food, for instance. It is fine. Sometimes, it’s fine to miss a practice day — provided only that this doesn’t happen every now and then, every week. As a corollary, many people actually who adopt extreme diet, often tend to give up the same within days, or at best weeks. Cheat days often help in breaking the monotony, and in that sense often help to reboot of our faculties — as physical as cognitive. Even if it means taking a few more days at a stretch, it’s worth the salt. It means an extra effort to hit back but the energy and enthusiasm with which you hit back is enough to pump that escape velocity.

Organizations need to encourage breaks. In fact, it is important to instill the practice of forced breaks. This practice doesn’t just allows people to return rejuvenated but also provides opportunity and a platform for raising next crop of leaders.

4. Focus

While you are on the track, it requires a single-minded focus. Set sight on the goal and keep progressing towards it. Very often, enthusiasm and excitement come at the expense of focus. It’s an art to stay focused. Once the goal is set, and focusing on achieving helps in ensuring all the energies available are spent exclusively on that. Staying focused can be a unique asset that can be executed internally — as opposed to extraneous factors. Consequently, irrespective of the changing situations one can be determined to stay unaffected, agnostic and focussed.

In organizations, it means everyone every employee, or decision maker needs to constantly ask the question if what they are doing is in line with the goal they have signed up for. Of course, there are outlier situations which are outside the ambit of this point — a percentage of which is insignificant to merit a mention here.

5. Be Alert. Ignore The Noise. Move On

While staying alert is important, very often people tend to get drawn to distractions. Before or during the practice sessions, there are often distractions like an unplanned client call. That has the potential to unsettle your calm or play on your mind, so much so that the session could be washed out. It takes practice, some coaching and self-realization to recognize the noise. One of the ways to deal with the noise is to avoid the path. There could something else you may lose in the process, but for the larger goal — you’d be pleasantly surprised that this approach can be a boon.

In enterprises, we often deal with such situations — internal or otherwise. It’s important as an executive to recognise that noise inhibits growth and progress. Hence if confronted with such situations, tactfully avoid the noise and move on.

There are plenty of articles you’d find that explain ways to deal with distractions. This HBR Ascend article on 4 Strategies for Overcoming Distraction is a good read.

6. Identify Your Promoters

Over the years I have been running, I have come by 3 kinds of people: those that have been open-minded and encouraging, supportive and have been well-meaning advisors: let’s call them ‘promoters’. There is another group of people that are critical, disapproving and negative: let’s call them ‘detractors’. There is a third group of people that haven’t formed an opinion, or may hold back even if they have one: let’s call them ‘passives’. To consciously move towards your goal, it helps to surround people who are willing to help, take pride in you and are genuinely interested in your well-being. These are the people who offer you advice and guidance, that are genuine, objective and in line to achieve or even exceed your aspirations.

Enterprises globally have understood the importance and criticality of the role of Promoters to their businesses. They have systems and processes to assess the Net Promoter Score (NPS) of their organizations and use them as actionable insights.

7. Know Your Sweet Spot

Marathons, like a lot of other games, are extremely competitive. That often propels people to react in a knee-jerk manner. However, it is important to recognize that every individual is unique — for instance — driven by different motivations, has different physical attributes, and falls into a different age bracket. This makes you superior to others in a few areas, while relatively weaker on others. Rather than be tempted into matching their pace or rhythm, it is important to discover your own unique strengths. The sooner you discover them, the better you can work on getting them even better. The greater the difference on a specific count, the higher the chances of your edging over the competition. Or, minimize the gap.

Across start-ups and global giants, every organization has a unique character which makes them strong in the eyes of customers, shareholders and employees. Each organization must try to find its sweet spot, harness them and in due course leverage them for competitive advantage. It’s the job of every executive, especially the CEO be a strong sponsor of this ideology. Accordingly, hence the respective execs, especially in Sales, Services and Partner organizations, need to engage clients and prospects to ensure higher conversion. It helps them to have a consistent strategy cascaded across functions, channels, and stakeholders.

8. Execute Your Strategy Right

Many athletes with weeks and months of practice often falter on the D-day. Quite often, it’s about the lack of strategy or poor execution, if there was one. It’s extremely important to know that a strategy poorly executed points to the integrity of the strategy itself. Very often runners do have tenacity, age, practice, focus etc but their experience or the lack of it accounts for poor strategy or flawed execution. That’s where the importance of a coach becomes extremely crucial. The coach often is a good bouncing board or themselves come up with a strategy, builds on the athlete’s strengths and gets the athletes to work through all possible scenarios. Most importantly, they raise the judgment level of the athlete in order that they can take these decisions on the fly.

Executives make it to the high table because of their strengths and accomplishments either within or outside their organizations. What differentiates successful organizations from others with similar capacity or capability — is the difference in execution. However there are situations, where their experience could be limiting, or the environment itself may be disruptive. It is both crucial and urgent for executives to seek the help of coaches/ consultants. The latter does not just help in tweaking the strategy but also can work jointly in enabling a long-term vision and help simplification of structures to achieve the vision.

9. Measure

What can’t be measured can’t be improved. With the development of technology, multiple gadgets are available in the market that helps in tracking different metrics of an individual. With a reasonable degree of accuracy, these wearable gadgets are playing a significant role in helping athletes track on their speed, and other vital parameters — thereby enabling them tune their workout patterns. These gadgets are extremely important on practice days in capturing the performance levels, and then simulate them to model the data. The data captured and massaged by these gadgets can provide actionable insights — that suggest what needs to be changed for the athletes to improve their performance. This has become a boon for budding runners, and the possibilities are clearly enormous.

Likewise, many organizations need highly sophisticated platforms and complicated algorithms that can capture and hence simulate demand planning, for instance, which can help in reducing waste, minimize inventory holding costs — operating costs or revenue forecasts. Where the processes are not mature, executives will need to focus on getting them right, and support them with able systems that can provide actionable insights to executives and decision makers.

10. Run Your Pace

You are living your life, and are entitled to access your strengths, weaknesses and resources. While running, very often you’d notice fellow runners trying to be in lockstep, or even better try to overtake a fellow runner. This prompts the former to hasten their speeds or commit an unplanned move. This often leads to burn-out for one of them after a while. On the contrary, people who know their pace, and stick to it irrespective, end up being consistent and end up sometimes eventually beating their adversary. It’s very important hence to know your pace and stick to it.

Organizations, likewise also need to know their unique strengths and execute their plans accordingly. In the light of competitive client situations, I have noticed many organizations walk into a trap. It’s important hence for executives to hence keep reiterating the message, develop robust governance and enforce ruthless compliance to avoid such scenarios.

11. Goal Setting

Before I started running, I would do significant research — which I continue to even today. I would also pay an intent audience to tips and tricks from people who’ve been-there-done-that. One such tip — was to increment the goals by just 500 m every week, that would help going from 2 km to 4 km over a month. That would mean you are practising for 21 km by the end of a year, rather comfortably. I also tried a few things by myself. For instance, I would set a rather moderate target — tactfully at a level, already achieved. My actual race would begin after that. In the process, my mind gets on a high having breached that target and helps me push myself way farther effortlessly. Both ways are equally effective. It’s all about which one you are more comfortable.

In running organizations, there are expectations from shareholders to deliver not just growth, but a higher rate than the corresponding quarter, previous financial year. It’s important for leaders to recognize the human aspect, and hence goal-setting must be done in a methodical, keeping sight of long-term aspirations.

12. Feedback

While I was practising one day, I was short of my goal by a paltry 200 meters when I had excruciating pain in my knees. I could see my finish line ahead but I stopped then, and gently took steps I could to complete the rest of the distance. It is important to take feedback, and your body is your best coach.

It’s equally important for CEOs or executives to take feedback from different constituents, and tweak plans as and when required. This has to be a continual process and helps in ensuring engaged employees, delighted customers and partners, and eventually to deliver better shareholder value.

13. Conserve Energy

Everywhere in life, there is a need to conserve energy. More so, in the case of marathoners as there is a finite supply of energy, and that must be stretched until the home run. This is extremely critical to bear this in mind — both on the track, and off it.

CEOs have the similar compulsions to deal with. There is a limited pool of resources, and that must be available until they achieve what said they would — to the Board and shareholders. Building businesses is like a tightrope walk. A CEO needs to be constantly managing the balance, and still moving the needle ahead. It’s hence crucial to conserve the energy always.

14. Celebrate

When you reach the finish line, it’s not just end of a grueling run which you started a couple of hours back, but culmination of a whole lot other sacrifices you’ve made along the way, commitments you’ve made to yourself, the relentless practice and the unyielding belief in yourself — which has come to be rewarded. It is extremely important to celebrate success and give it back to yourself for the wonderful way you pulled it off. One must always make it a point to celebrate success.

One thing striking about marathons in specific, and games at large is the athletes celebrating each other’s success. See the number of people pepping up fellow runners, irrespective of who’s ahead. Isn’t that so infectious? Doesn’t that renew the enthusiasm and commitment? This unleashes so much of energy for the recipient and gives a sense of joy for the giver.

Every executive, however, focused and driven must make time out to celebrate milestones that are important to them, or to the organization. It is a moment of redemption. It’s a moment to give back to yourself and to everyone else who has committed to your goals unconditionally, worked at the expense of competing priorities and helped pull off the success they did together. The celebration is a critical milestone in building organizations for a long haul.

For organizations, it is as important, if not more, to build a culture of celebrating each other’s success. This has such powers to pull together the team as a unit, move towards a shared goal, and be there to cheer and pep up fellow colleagues — at individual successes or as much as collective goals. In my experience dealing with my executive friends around the globe, and with many successful companies, this is an extremely powerful tool that sets up organizations for long-term success, and individuals to be future leaders.

15. Be Grateful

I read somewhere, “Leaders need to be prudent to know which part of success is due to the hard work, and which is because of luck.” Those that get away with success may not always have been the most competent and deserving but were sheer fortunate to be presented opportunities that were not available for others. Be it running marathons, or running businesses, one needs to be grateful for what they had as resources. Some part of their success is just being there the right time!

The Déjà Vu Moment

Every time I set out on a run, I get a déjà vu moment. I am sure that the article helps leaders to build successful organizations of the next decades. If you have been into running marathons, or have additional analogies to share, I’d be excited to read them. I am certain, my readers and leader colleagues would be enriched as well.

Disclaimer: The author is a seasoned executive having worn multiple hats in executive positions, with diverse experience across multiple industries, cultures, and geographies. He currently serves as General Manager — India with Acquia. The views expressed in this article are his own and don’t represent those of his company, any individual or group of individuals he may be associated with.