Last year, Jessica Watson lost the love of her life to a fatal stroke. Here, she discusses for the first time how she fought her way back into life.
In a new article from Deloitte Insights the authors explore the changing nature of teams in today’s business environment, examining how the analogy of a cycling peloton can help us to better understand how teams function in a modern organization. The article posits five conditions necessary for team effectiveness in a modern business peloton.
During my 2009-2010 solo, non-stop voyage around the world, I sighted land, other boats and aircraft only a handful of times – never coming close enough to make out another person’s face for 210 consecutive days.
There were a number of times when it’s quite likely that I was the most isolated person on earth, but despite this physical isolation I never felt lonely.
Here are the key things that stopped me feeling alone:
Here’s what it’s all about;
Indigo Blue is my debut novel. It’s a middle grade (so 9+) fictional story.
Books have had a huge impact on me. They gave me a reason to push through my early struggles with dyslexia, and it was a book that inspired me to sail around the world.
For a girl who essentially ran away from school for a few years, I’ve really come to enjoy study. During the rather tumultuous few years after my voyage around the world, I did go back and finish school in my own way, but I’ll admit a few shortcuts were taken. So to patch a few educational holes, I signed myself up for university...
As in the business world, it is apparent that on the water there is no single universally successful approach to leadership, with many of the most effective sailing leaders able to change their style to suit the situation at hand. Clipper Race skipper Wendy Tuck describes different crew members responding differently to different styles and explorer Tim Jarvis suggests that leadership really should be situational.
The isolation and sometimes extreme conditions on boats create a unique environment for teams. The many different roles, short bursts of action, long periods of inaction and the challenge of communicating over the noise of the wind require a skilled leader to keep a team on course. Historically, and to this day, skippers and captains are often held in great admiration at the yacht club bar or on a national scale. But, of course, no two captains are alike so I took a look at the different leadership styles you’re likely to see used by those behind the helm.
Like trust, good communication is well credited for the success of countless teams. However, communication is also an unhelpfully broad and vague concept, so this blog will drill down into a more directly applicable style of communication that’s been used to great effect by successful sailing skippers.
When it comes to the formation of a team, there’s firstly a consensus among top sailing leaders that each potential team member must be assessed on both their skills and expertise and the compatibility of their values. ‘It doesn’t matter how talented you are,’ says America’s Cup winning skipper Jimmy Spithill. ‘If you have an ego or bad attitude, you have no place in a successful team.’
Sailing, whether for survival or competition, is an unforgiving business. Confined in close quarters, crew members are utterly reliant on each other, and a heavy weight of responsibility falls on the skipper’s shoulders. The teams that excel in such environments provide a multitude of learnings for leaders back on dry land. So through this blog series, I’ve set out to explore some of the most important and universally applicable leadership lessons from the oceans.
