Losing Focus Means Losing Speed
Years ago, the guy wearing the helmet in the photo (that would be me) used to drive cars around racetracks in endurance races of 4, 8 or 12 hours, or for as many as 500 kilometers. Perhaps that is why I see any competitive environment – whether on the track or in business – as an endurance race. In short races, relatively minor problems can be ignored. Over the course of a long race, however, small problems have a way of becoming big ones as every lost moment accumulates. Here, then, are two racing and leadership lessons I have learned that may help you compete.
Focus
Every racetrack has an optimum lap time. In my case, in our cars, and on my home-track, that optimum time was 2 minutes, 11 seconds. If you were able to make it around in 2:11 or 2:12, you were driving In front of the pack. At 2:14 or 2:15, however, you would be in the middle or even back of the pack.
Many times I would be racing against other drivers (the competition), watching everything that was going on at high speeds. One of the things you have to pay attention to is your lap times. I would think I was doing well, but I would discover I’d somehow lost two seconds and was in the middle of the pack. How did this happen? I thought I was doing everything right: braking, apex, curves, all of it, yet my chances of winning were disappearing. It drives you mad! It must be something technical; others have better prepared cars, or we didn’t do enough in the practice/ training session. Blame the team! Blame the car!
Then the soul searching starts. You realize that you lost focus; it wasn’t you driving the car, it was your “auto-pilot”. Maybe you were thinking of a busy week ahead, or the problem from yesterday. Your mind wandered, there were other things to worry about – and you just lost 2-3 seconds lap-time, leaving you somewhere in the middle, delivering mediocre results.
Do you see the parallel? In real life, always be focused on “driving your car”, nothing else (and certainly don’t send texts while driving – it could kill you). It’s the same with winning in business. Be focused, be in the moment, and don’t allow distractions or the competition will steal your lunch.
Trust
When you drive a car on the racetrack you are completely reliant on your team. They have to prepare, they have to quickly fix things, change tires, add fuel, all of that. As a driver (read: leader), you have to rely on your team, and never ever blame your team for your own mistakes, such as losing focus. Also, don’t even blame them for their own mistakes. It is part of the game, and you’re not the only one entitled to make mistakes. Always celebrate the wins, and debrief the losses. There’s another race next week; how will we do better? As the great Formula One racer, Jackie Stewart, said: “It is not always possible to be the best, but it is always possible to improve your own performance.”
I have been privileged to work with an incredibly good, “high performance” team for many years and it pays off!