Leadership Lessons from The Boys in the Boat

The Boys in the Boat, a movie released on Christmas day 2023, depicts the true story of the rowing team at University of Washington who overcame insurmountable obstacles and gained improbable success at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin during the years of the rise of Hitler prior to World War 2.

Against all odds, during the height of the great depression, The Boys in the Boat recalls how a group of working-class boys and their contrarian boatbuilder, George Pocock, made history as they bested East Coast rivals and went on to compete for Gold in Nazi Germany.

A leadership take away from the story is the level of precision and focus expected of each member of the team. From the moment they step into the boat until they cross the finish line, each oarsman must eliminate any distraction and remain fixated exclusively on what they need to do to create the perfect symphony of the moving oars. This sounds so simple, but is so difficult to do. Anyone who has rowed a boat understands this very well.
Any shift in focus and the fluidity of the rowing performance becomes interrupted to the detriment of the boat. A distraction, no matter how seemingly small or insignificant, throws the oarsman off balance and destroys the boat’s rhythm. If any team member so much as makes a darting glance at the crew next to them to see which boat is ahead, they destroy the perfect rhythm necessary to win.
A very interesting fact is the leader of the rowing team is called the Coxswain (pronounced cox’n.) The coxswain is the athlete that steers the boat, calls the race plan, and motivates the rowers. They sit at the back of the boat and do not row. They are there to lead the team and set the pace for how many strokes the team takes per minute. If they go out too fast, the team may tire before the race is over, if they start out too slowly, they may not have enough time to catch up to other teams.
A great rowing team offers a beautiful picture of the unwavering focus, disciplined attention and teamwork required for performance excellence in many other things in life be it business or personal. Giving attention to anything besides the matter at hand usually serves to undermine extraordinary performance. This is especially true when leaders and teams turn their attention outward toward competitors, instead of inward toward execution and performance.

The Boys in the Boat has a lot to offer leaders and teams who like a great story and want a ringside seat to visualize what it takes to achieve greatness. Focusing exclusively on the task at hand is what sets great teams and performers apart. Once again, we learn that the most exceptional team performance is often about average players with a laser-like focus. You see this time and time again in the best performing sports teams and in well run businesses

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Small and medium-sized businesses may not have the time or expertise to implement the necessary people strategies for business success. The ideas above can be easily implemented by you to help improve the performance of your employees which leads to increased employee engagement and increasing the bottom line.

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