- Mouli Cohen, October 2004

Lesson #1

The greatest business team leaders come from the strongest individual competitors. That is not to say that every strong individual will make a great team leader. Instill confidence and clarity of purpose among your strongest employees and with the right timing, they'll spread their ethic of success to the rest of their team.

The moment Michael Phelps gave up his spot to swim in the 400M medley finals to his long-time idol and teammate Ian Crocker, Phelps did more to promote the team effort and the sport of competitive swimming than any other swimmer in the history of the sport.

A similar display of teamwork and team leadership was seen on the track in the men's 4x100M relay run for the gold. Individual gold medal winner Jeremy Wariner had the choice of running the anchor leg of the final race. If the Americans were to win, as expected, the anchor runner would be the one in all the finish line photographs, assuring his place in the sports photo books. Mr. Wariner chose to run the third leg for reasons that showed not only teamsmanship, but leadership as well. In any relay race the primary focus is on moving the baton safely from one racer to the next. This is a critical move that is well rehearsed and based on timing, trust and familiarity with the handoff partner.

Wariner chose the third leg, putting his long time friend and teammate Darrold Williamson on the anchor leg and into the expected limelight. Wariner chose the order because he and Williamson were teammates at Baylor University who ran the third and fourth legs of that University's leading track team. It was second nature for Wariner to hand off the baton to Williamson. This was a decision motivated with a winning attitude.

Jack Welch had the same attitude too, starting his career at GE as a super-competitive individual contributor and ultimately becoming the greatest business team leader of all time.

Track cycling is another event with a clean and simple lesson for business. Track cycling is more specialised and more complex than other Cycling disciplines where speed, endurance and tactics are important factors in gaining the victory.

Lesson #2

The pace of your industry is maintained by the momentum and effort of many industry competitors. Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses will help you decide when it is most advantageous to draft and when it's time to take the lead.

To watch the track cycling competition is to see a dynamic example of how market position, industry timing and individual business timing all interact to produce opportunity or failure on the track. In the pack, cyclists are able to save energy and draft off one another. The same can be said of business where the activities of the pack can save effort and money on marketing and market growth. This is especially true of companies in immature markets with bleeding edge products. However, stay with the pack too long and you risk being unable to separate yourself and your unique offering. A company that is undifferentiated is forced to spend far more energy and money differentiating itself, or risk losing the race all together.

Equestrian events offer another unique opportunity to study the rewards of business acumen. Take, for example the Jumping competition, where the riders must use intuition and familiarity to steer their massive animals through the course. Make no mistake, for the most part, the riders are their not to manhandle the horses, but to provide subtle and well recognized cues to their horses.

Of course a master at timing and balance between market creation, market leadership and market dominance is Bill Gates. Microsoft historically has spent significant effort in determining product timing. One trait of that acumen that has been so successful is the fact that for years now, once Microsoft has entered a market, everyone in the market expects that the company will draft for a period of time, but will surely emerge as the market leader in whatever product it produces. If you were a startup with a product or piece of software, you'd be hard pressed to raise venture money once Microsoft simply announces its intent to enter the market.

Lesson #3

A winning CEO must maintain awareness of the course, industry and their competition all the while making subtle changes of direction. No company of any momentum can stop on a dime and change course (without throwing its rider!). Years of systematic efforts are required for the team to be able to perform adequately various exercises of skill, speed, endurance, and jumping of obstacles. So it is in business as well.

Take a cue from a man who is certainly the most visible of entrepreneurs and big business man, Donald Trump. Here's a man whose real estate empire is admittedly faltering, but he's adjusted by capitalizing brilliantly on his own awareness of his personal brand. The Trump brand is singularly afforded the loyalty and band permission to extend to a hit reality TV show, and soon will debut executive clothing and cologne. Shifts that could only come from a long history of Mr. Trump staying keenly aware of his industry and making slight shifts based on the rise and fall of his personal brand permission.

Whether an Olympic year or not, summer or winter sport, success in individual and team sports rely on many of the personal ethics and performance of the participants. These athletes at the top of their games represent more than what appears on the surface. As entrepreneurs, we can enjoy the competitions, learn from many of the events and admit to ourselves more than once, "that's the kind of effort I'd like to have on my business team."