Month: November 2016

I took up crew rowing in an 8-oared shell at age 50 with a local community club here in my hometown. One thing I learned quickly is that we must each trust one another to do our jobs — and with perfect timing — or the boat simply won’t go fast, or worse, won’t go at all.

This has become the perfect team metaphor for me. Rowing relies more on the perfect cohesion of a team than any other sport. In a game like football or basketball, one star player can carry an otherwise mediocre team to victory, but that’s not so in rowing. No single rower can make the boat go faster by himself, but it only takes one rower being just the tiniest bit off to slow it down a lot. The same thing goes for your company’s leadership team.

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“I really want the promotion. I’d love to take on that manager position,” Fred says enthusiastically. Fred has been on your team for several years now and he knows your business well. He’s proven himself to be reliable and professional.

But why does he want the position? His enthusiasm reminds you of a kid in a candy store repeating I want it, I want it! But just like that kid in the candy store, does he actually want it? Is he about to bite off more than he can chew?

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