Here’s a passion of mine: triathlons.
It started for me in 1995 as an agreement to do a short race with a friend, but has since turned into a focused and intentional training process to successfully compete in these athletic races that combine swimming, biking and running.

Leadership is another passion of mine, and I have found many parallels between the physical skills and endurance needed to compete in a multi-sport competition, and the emotional and behavioral competence needed to succeed as a leader. Neither leadership nor athletic success comes overnight. Neither can be rushed or accomplished by reading a book or attending a seminar.

As an executive coach, I help professionals refine their approach to goal setting, planning, commitment, experience and support, just as my triathlon coach encourages me to focus on the same. The rewards are similar as well: a gradual yet measurable improvement, and the ongoing development of new skills and areas of excellence.

Here are some of the specific areas where I have found that my passions converge:

Goal Setting
After a few seasons of relatively haphazard training and racing, I decided to become more focused and intentional in my training and racing and began setting goals for each season. These goals varied, focusing on number of races, types of races, competition times and, more recently, recovering from injuries.

But my goals were always specific in nature, a strategy I often recommend to clients who want to become more successful leaders. Goals have the power to mobilize and focus efforts. Instead of a general goal to communicate more successfully with co-workers, you are more likely to achieve the desired outcome if you set out “to build more effective working relationships with John and Mary by the end of the third quarter.”

Planning
I could never achieve my triathlon goals without planning. My work with a triathlon coach involves setting detailed training plans that outline each workout in terms of discipline, duration, and intensity. They are goal-focused as well: when I was working on improving my running time, I spent more time running sprints and hills; when I was getting back into racing after having my son, I did more long, slow distance work to rebuild my endurance.

Planning your development as a leader means determining where you will focus your energy, how you will prioritize time, and what activities you will engage in. Planning shows you’re serious about achieving goals, such as resolving to “schedule regular Monday meetings with John and Mary to discuss both professional and personal topics.”

Commitment
Making a commitment involves maintaining a big picture perspective. I am willing to make everyday compromises—getting into a cold pool at 5:00 a.m., or biking before my kids wake up—in order to achieve my goals and participate in a sport I love. My big picture commitment helps me say no to other things, like sleep!

Leadership development requires sticking to important planned activities, sometimes at the expense of other things. If you recognize that visiting 1:1 with a co-worker is a high priority, then you won’t let phone calls interrupt that time. If a meeting gets in the way of important planned work, it might require rescheduling or having someone attend on your behalf.

Experience
Sometimes there’s no way to replace experience. When biking through the Flatiron Mountains in Colorado earlier this year, I experienced for the first time the challenge of DESCENDING a mountain. Taking hairpin turns at 45-50 m.p.h. was one scary experience, where error would have resulted in serious injury. Simply put, there was no way to plan for how my body would experience the constant braking, fear of failure, and chilling wind in my face. I simply had to do it.

In many work scenarios, there is no sufficient training for the experience itself, such as delivering a tough performance appraisal, or admitting failure about a major project. Experience can teach more than classrooms or books. The coach in me recognizes that the key to maximizing these experiences is to take time to reflect after they happen: what went well; what would you change next time? In my biking experience, I realized that my ascent of Flatiron was successful, but that a more stable bike would better equip me for the descending stage of my next mountain ride.

Support
Although triathlon is an individual sport, I could not be successful without the support of many people: my husband who takes care of our kids while I’m training and racing, my best friend and training partner who keeps me motivated and accountable, and my coach who keeps me on track. I recall completing one particularly rigorous mountain ascent (again in the Flatirons) only because my coach and his brother literally pushed me up the mountain so that I could regain momentum.

Leaders don’t develop in a vacuum. They share their goals and plans with others who can help them stay focused and motivated. Having a support system helps you maintain perspective while keeping sight of your goals, providing encouragement during difficult times and helping to celebrate successes as well.


Just as there is no single way to improve as a triathlete, growth as a leader requires a number of strategies that require time and energy. At the Bailey Group, we specialize in helping leaders address all of the areas discussed here. If you want to know more about how we work, feel free to contact us—we’d be pleased to talk with you.

-Martha Carlson
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Leaders We Know

One of the best ways for leaders to gauge their own effectiveness is to get input and ideas from other leaders they know. In the spirit of sharing some leadership best practices, we checked in with three leaders we work with to get their response to the following question:

Tell us about a time at work when you made the choice to "tell the unpopular truth" to your staff or your boss, and how it impacted your self-confidence and your career.

Here is how they responded.

On a general basis, there are often times when you have to share information with your staff and/or boss that is unpleasant. My personal philosophy is that it is best to address these types of situations as quickly as possible. While it may not be easy in the short-term, your personal self-confidence will benefit because you didn't avoid a challenging situation. In addition, others will perceive you as someone with a high level of integrity because you were honest and decisive.
-Brian Burke, President, Distribution Services, Navarre Corporation
 

I'll never forget when I was responsible for regulatory compliance with a past employer. The president of the company thought some new federal regulations were unnecessary, onerous, and exorbitantly expensive for the company. I disagreed, and we had many open arguments about the issue. But it wasn't until I went to the extreme that I got his attention: I created a picture of a person in stripes wearing a ball and chain, with the head of the president superimposed on it.

Compliance with regulatory requirements can sometime be an albatross in the eyes of many, but unless you have managerial courage to point out the consequences of a flawed decision, the organization, and in this case the resident, could have suffered harm. For the rest of my career there, he trusted that I was always working toward his personal best interests, and that confidence created a bond that opened many doors for me.
-Zachary Meyer, Senior Vice President, Ceridian
 

I've had several opportunities to tell the unpopular truth to staff or boss. Too many: firings, layoffs, lost accounts, or more commonly just bad news about performance. What I've learned over the years is that the actual conversation generally goes easier than I had imagined. The anticipation was much worse that the event itself. So I've learned not to belabor it as much, and do it sooner rather than later. That said, I never go in unprepared. I try to be direct, factual and objective. But I've got my antenna up for any possible signal or reaction that might come.

In hindsight, when I've done poorly at delivering the right message with the right tone, it was because I buried or understated the bad news. I have over time developed more confidence about doing it, and hopefully more speed and grace. Truth is, for leaders, it's unavoidable.
-Fred Senn, Founding Partner, Fallon Minneapolis