Greg Power is president of Weber Shandwick Canada
Greg Power
When I was a kid, I used to call the Canadian Press office in Halifax every Sunday and beg the sports editors to tell me who won the European Formula 1 races. To follow the story, I had to chase the story. Now, the F1 news finds me instead, showing up on my feeds, on TSN and all over YouTube.
I have been a lifelong fan of F1 racing. My childhood heroes were Grand Prix drivers and over the years, like the way the news reaches me, my passion has evolved and grown. I still love racing but today F1 now also represents a source of ideas about running an agency and counselling clients.
There is a lot to be learned from observing the fine line between winning and losing, whether that means how to play the game or how to build a team. And those lessons also translate into success at life and at work.
The Oct. 6 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek has a cover story on how the McLaren F1 team is trying to become a management consultancy, the new McKinsey, if you will. It’s not so farfetched, but for me the learning from F1 arrives packaged more as common sense.
Lighter is faster, especially when it comes to meetings
The fastest racing cars are the lightest. Every ounce of weight matters, so if it is on the car, it must contribute to the win or it is gone. I feel the same way about internal meetings at work. They are a weight—though often a necessary one—so it is wise to reduce this weight on your business. Keep them short and direct so your organization is faster and more responsive to clients.
Never let the tools become a barrier to the work
The great French racing driver Alain Prost, who won four world championships, is a role model for simplicity. He worked hard in practice to set up his car so it would be easy to drive during the race—when it mattered—so he could clear his mind of distractions to focus on strategy.
Have one goal, not competing agendas
The virtue of collaboration is another success factor in F1. Some F1 managers get it wrong by believing that having two great drivers on the same team fight it out for the top spot is the best route to a championship. This is almost never the right choice.
The take away for an agency? Alignment around clear goals is crucial, and unhealthy competition within an organization damages morale and winning big for clients. If your leadership team is not on the same page, everyone knows it. A strong agency has one goal that everyone works to achieve: successful clients.
Drivers and communicators need to be strong mentally to compete and win. To stay that way, more than just shifting gears, they need to shift perception at times. World championships are won by finishing 6th when you could have been 7th and having a couple of extra points at the end of the year to put you on top. Awards are won by getting the most out of yourself on your worst day. That’s true everywhere.
A few years ago, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone was mugged outside his office, and had his £200,000 watch stolen. Weeks later he appeared in ads with a very black eye and busted lip – sporting a new watch – above the tagline, “See what people will do for a Hublot?” Defiant.
Talk about taking back the story.
