Dealing with Pressure

Finally the America's Cup is making the news! An incredible action shot of Alinghi made the front page of the Sports section in the Ottawa Citizen this week. In the article, the Alinghi principal stated the "team stayed together" and it "showed it could deal with pressure".

Sailing and business create situations where team members are forced to deal with pressure. How you deal with pressure can make or break a team.

I'm humbly aware of how I could have better dealt with some stressful situations on the water in the past week. In one situation, I was trying out a potential new crewmate, with just the 2 of us on the boat, in heavy air. The engine died as we were getting out of the harbour! This kind of thing has happened to me before, and I'm confident getting in and out of the harbour under sail instead of power, if need be. However, this was a new boat to us, we didn't know each other or our capabilities, and the wind was blowing like stink!

At first I was calm, cool and collected, and asked her to raise the mainsail, while I tried to keep us on course. While she was raising the sail, the boat was drifting beyond the safe water marks in the harbour. Finally I could feel the boat start to gain way-on as the sail filled with air. Then I looked up and realized she didn't raise the sail correctly! Only the slide was in the slot at the top of the mast, and the boltrope wasn't fed through the slot! I yelled "Get it down! Get it down!", reacting under pressure. Then I explained the problem, and she carefully raised the sail with the whole luff in the slot. It isn't my nature to yell and scream, although sometimes while sailing, that's what comes out!

Fortunately our tiny team of two was able to safely navigate the harbour mouth, cruise for awhile, and sail back to harbour safely. We docked at the first dock temporarily and yelled at a powerboat nearby to ask for a tow. Yelling in this situation was necessary so they could hear us! Different communication styles apply for different situations.

I'm aware that my communication style during racing this week wasn't all that effective. When things weren't running as smoothly or as fast as I wanted, I fed information to my crew, like "we're half a boat length from the mark", when we should have had a lot more put away so I could round the mark by that time. The way that I said it, impatient and judging, couldn't have helped the team. It isn't what you say that conveys the message sometimes; it's how you say it. I'm sure that the message I sent was more one of "you're not good enough or fast enough". This doesn't help build effective teams! Gulp.

Awareness is the precursor to choice. Next week, I'll be more aware of how I'm reacting to pressure, and use a communication style that's more effective.

The Bullet!

We got the bullet! My newly formed chick’s racing team won the race! This is an enormous improvement from being DFL and 11th place in the first race, and 9th place in the second race. We got the bullet in our third race!

OK, for you non-sailors, the bullet has a lot of significance in racing. “The bullet” is when the gun is fired from the Race Committee (RC) boat. The gun is fired at significant times during racing:

• when the RC boat leaves the harbour (which scared the bejeebers out of me on Monday, because they were right us when they fired the gun!)
• during the start sequence, to count down the time to the start of the race (5-4-1-Go!)
• when there are any course changes during the race
• when the first boat crosses the finish line!
  

The time I most like to hear the bullet is when my boat crosses the finish line first! OK, OK -- enough gloating. Why did we win the race this week? Here are our keys to success:

1. Start ahead and stay ahead. Especially in light wind conditions, it’s important to be at the start line on time. One of our strengths is our starts, and we had it going on! Three of us had our countdown timers on our watches set, and we communicated frequently about what we were doing, when. We had an excellent start, along with only 1 other boat! The rest of the fleet started with a handicap. They had to make up time right from the beginning.

2. Play well together. It takes some time for each team member to learn their role and how to interact with others. On a sailboat, interacting with others includes knowing where to be physically, communicating quickly, letting others know what you need and what you’ve done, all the while keeping it competitive and light at the same time.

3. Keep everything running smoothly. Keeping everything running smoothly is a constant challenge on a sailboat. We headed out of the harbour 45 minutes before the start of the race and took the time to practice both upwind and downwind. A few things went wonky on the downwind trial that we sorted out before the race. If they had happened during the race, we would have lost our place for sure. Preparing in advance and checking all the lines throughout the race is critical.

What does it all boil down to? Teamwork. Working well together.

Coaching Challenge: How does this translate to your business teams?

Sail Envy

Last week on race night, I noticed how many other boats had crispy, new white sails. They looked beautiful and I could almost hear how crunchy they sounded. Our sails, on the other hand, are old, blown out, mildewy, pitiful and pathetically limp. Man, was I envious!

I remember a time when we got new sails every season. To stay competitive in a competitive fleet, it's necessary! At the time, it sometimes felt a bit excessive, but now I fondly remember the days when other boats had sail envy of us. I remember comments from our competition of how crisp and crunchy they sounded when we tacked. Our tacks were fast too, so they really whipped about!

Now, I have a sad suit of sails and results to match. Even worse, a sailing colleague reminded me that we have a lot more to work on in our crewwork. New sails will only help our performance so much! I have to humbly acknowledge how much this rings true.

Still, I can't wait for the new #2 sail to come in! It will feel great to fly it. It won't be embarrasing to flake it when we come back to dock -- it won't be mildewy and stinky and feel all grungy -- for this season, at least. And we will be a bit more competitive, even if only in appearance. Looks count, y'know! It psychs out the competition.

In the meantime, there certainly is a lot our team has to work towards. We need to work on basic boathandling. We need to have everyone know their roles cold, and know where to put themselves physically. We need to work on getting our tacks much faster -- down to 10 seconds. We need to get our spinnaker work working like clockwork. I could go on & on & on...but that's a good start for now. At least our starts are still happenin'!

Tough Calls

I recently coached a senior manager who needed to address an issue directly with a team member, since it was affecting the performance of the entire team. I’m happy to report that after taking action, his team has shifted 180 degrees! He received positive feedback that the team is really “gelling” now.

This coaching engagement reminded me of a similar instance where I personally experienced this issue in the sailing team I formed last summer. I learned how it’s so much better to take action ashore to ensure the team performs well on the water.

After being away from racing for 2 years, I needed to form a team again, this time for a new, larger sailboat. My original Ladies Racing team had taken the same 2 year sabbatical from racing, and were all eager to get together again and have fun racing. With a larger boat, we needed at least one more crew. A woman was recommended to me, who was known on the racing circuit, with many years of experience. After a brief conversation, I invited her to join the team.

On the race course, my new team had a learning curve to climb with a larger boat and integrating a new crew member. Mid way through the season, I clued into the fact that we weren’t performing as well as we could and nobody seems to be having fun! Checking in with each of my crew individually, they confirmed my suspicions. Nobody was having fun; they weren’t even looking forward to race nights anymore. The new team member wasn’t fitting in and it was affecting the whole team.

My gut instinct told me early on that the new crew wasn’t a fit. However I was focused on my business and turned a blind eye to the issues in my racing team. I wasn’t doing anybody justice by delaying dealing with the issue through the summer.

I knew I needed to kick her off the boat for the betterment of the team. I had the direct conversation, recruited another team member, and set up a trial period. After the first race with the new crew, my gut instinct was telling me that we were having more fun, and starting to gel again as a team. This time, I checked in with the rest of the crew after a few races, and made sure it really was working out for the whole team.


I see many parallels in this experience with building business teams. Recruiting effectively is an important first step. I worked for a company where recruitment decisions were made almost exclusively based on fit. Rather than wait it out to the point where retention of good team members becomes an issue, it is important to nip issues in the bud, and exercise a probation period when necessary. Being the skipper is an enjoyable job, except when the really tough calls have to be made!