What did I learn about running an A/E/P firm from a 62-year old former British equestrian Olympian? Quite a lot, as it turns out.
I recently had the opportunity to ride in a two-day clinic with Lucinda Green, a British equestrian and journalist who competes in eventing. She is most well-known for winning the Badminton Horse Trials a record six times, on six different horses, and she also took home team silver at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Just as in business, in horseback riding you are never done learning. I try to keep myself educated through reading, watching others ride, and occasional visits to my coach. When I heard that Lucinda Green, the star of one of my favorite computer games from my youth, an Olympian, and one of the best jumping instructors in the world, was coming to a friend’s farm in Starkville, Mississippi, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ride with her.
Lucinda Green did not disappoint. Like any good coach she was tough and clear about areas that needed improvement, but also encouraging of each rider’s individual strengths. Her unique and clearly defined philosophies about riding left me with a lot to think about in my riding, and had some clear parallels to running a successful business.
Cross country is one phase in the equestrian sport of eventing. For this phase, a horse and rider gallop at speed over 20 or more solid obstacles. Penalties are incurred for stops or fly-bys, for circling, and for going over an optimum time. You need to quick, brave, agile, and most importantly accurate, in order to succeed in this sport. Due to the high speed of travel and solid nature of the jumps, mistakes can have disastrous consequences in this sport.
So what does this have to do with the A/E Industry? An A/E Firm is a lot like a horse – it weighs a lot more than you do, it has a mind of its own, and it’s responsible for carrying you through a variety of situations. You can hold the reins and try to dictate every single step, but sooner or later you will encounter some unexpected terrain and your horse may falter. No matter how strong your arms are, you will never be able to control every movement of your horse. In fact, the act of trying will only set you up for trouble. The last thing you want is a power struggle with a 1,000-pound animal on your way into a solid four-foot fence. Do you want a power struggle with your firm in the face of disaster? Absolutely not. Every person in your firm has an important job to do, but they also have free will. You can harness this free will by empowering your people to use their own creativity and energy, or you can try to micromanage every aspect of every person’s job.
As a rider you can use your body to get your horse pointed in the right direction, then the rest is up to them. As a firm leader, you have to get your firm headed in the right direction, but you certainly can’t work on every part of every project. You definitely can't run the company, sell more work, answer the phones, and do all the accounting!
Lucinda stressed the importance of the rider's "aids" or parts of their body that they can use to influence their horse. These same parts directly relate to managing your firm.
A rider's eyes are for intention. You always have to focus on where you are going next or your horse won’t know where to go. Without intention and focus, the rest of your body can’t do its job properly. As a firm leader, you have to have a clear and established vision. Your number one job is not to put your stamp on every project, but rather to set the trajectory for where you are going next.
A rider’s legs move a horse forward and also help with steering. As a firm leader it’s your job to create energy in your firm that will move it forward. A positive culture, enthusiasm, creativity, all these things will create new opportunities for your firm and be extremely valuable to surviving hardships.
A rider’s hands are for steering and putting the brakes on when necessary. Lucinda stressed that it’s OK to slow your horse down when faced with a complex or narrow obstacle that demands a lot of accuracy, but you can never stop the forward motion of your horse’s legs. Stopping the forward energy of your horse usually results in crashing a fence. As a firm leader you can never let your firm come to a standstill. It always has to grow and move in a focused direction.
Some other lessons I learned from Lucinda Green:
- Prepare for the worst. Many A/E/P firm leaders think playing it safe means moving very slowly, taking a long time to make decisions, and never pursuing growth. In situations such as a bad project, a rough economy, or policy changes – all of which are inevitable, by the way, no matter how safe you play it – you need to giddy up and get the heck out of there, not lollygag.
- Take small risks every day. Lucinda stressed how important it is to create tiny challenges for your horse to overcome, building on each achievement. Firm leaders need to take risks to grow.
- Embrace the ugliness. Your horse has to learn from its own mistakes sometimes. You can point your horse at the fence and encourage it to go over, but where it puts its feet has to be its own choice. If you give your horse enough opportunities to position itself, it will learn and start jumping better and more accurately. As a firm leader, you have to let people make some choices for themselves and learn from the results. They will get quicker, smarter, and better able to do their jobs as a result.
This article is from issue 1161 of The Zweig Letter. Interested in more management advice every week from Mark Zweig, the Zweig Group team, and a talented list of other guest writers? Click here to subscribe or get a free trial of The Zweig Letter.