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.