Leadership and Ownership

Behind every effective organization is an effective leader. Your race team is an organization. It’s comprised of multiple individuals working together as a team for a common goal. Or at least that’s the plan. It’s hard to do everything yourself – although some of you really try.

I remember a “team” years ago that raced at a local track. Never very competitively, partly due to lack of funding, but also due to lack of leadership. The team owner was the driver, crew chief and mechanic. He had some helpers, but he done everything himself. Even exiting the car during pit stops to make repairs or adjustments – himself.

Everyone saw how hard he worked, which made him a track favorite. Other teams would run over to help when allowed, but he was fiercely independent. I believe he took pride in working so hard and doing it all himself. I also watched as he had a heart attack during a red flag while parked on the track. The ambulance had to leave the wreck to come to him and haul him to the hospital. (He was ok.)

Being consistently successful in racing – or business – doesn’t require doing it all yourself. It doesn’t even have that much to do with money. Be consistently successful requires leadership. Your team needs a leader that can rally the troops, keep everyone focused on the goal and leverage the time and talents you have available.

There are 4 Keys to Effective Leadership:

1. Communication

2. Planning

3. Honesty

4. Consistency

Someone on your team has to be the leader. And the leader doesn’t have to be the owner. In the most successful businesses, the owner is often not the day to day leader. The owner hires the leader, equips them with the tools they need to succeed, defines what success is and gets out of the way. They provide encouragement and accountability as needed.

The leader gives clarity, assigns ownership of responsibilities, formulates the plan and ensures it’s proper execution. The leader owns the performance of the team.

If your team doesn’t have an effective leader, fixing that maybe the next step in improving its performance.