“If you can’t feel the wind, it’s behind you.” – Part 1 of 3

I gave myself the afternoon off on Friday and was able to get a bike ride in.  It was a sunny day – warm but not too hot.  The only trouble was there was a consistent 30mph wind coming out of the south.  If you ride a road bike, you know what it’s like.  It’s bad 3 out of 4 directions.  Even when I turned and was riding east/west, the effort it takes to ride in a strong crosswind is significant.  Cycling is about energy and efficiency and on Friday, I bonked about 15 miles into the ride.  Not good!

I had only really bonked a couple of times before, from either the heat or simply not managing my calorie intake very well.  But not for the wind.  Most of the ride on Friday, I had the words of my friend Brock Erdman in my head… “If you can’t feel the wind, it’s behind you.”

Cycling also provides a great opportunity to simply think and I thought a lot about this truth about the wind and its application to work.  Whether at the organizational, unit, or individual leader level, we all face wind.  Everything can be set up just as we’d like it and yet a strong, persistent headwind can make things extraordinarily difficult – spending extra energy and losing efficiency when we think things shouldn’t have to be this hard.

Whatever we’ve been trying to establish as a “post-pandemic” reality, the wind clearly hasn’t stopped blowing for many of us:

·      Supply chain struggles persist

·      Inflation is on the rise

·      It’s difficult to attract the talent we need

·      It’s increasingly difficult to retain the talent we have

·      Global and social unrest remind us of how fragile peace can be

And all of that is just at the macro-level. 

The question for us as leaders is not whether the wind will blow.  It will – and at times, it will blow hard for a long time.  The question really gets to our ability to “ride” into it.  In cycling there are things we’ll do to mitigate the impact of the wind:

·      Ride in a tuck position to become as small as possible

·      Take turns “pulling” with our fellow riders, alternating who feels the direct force of the wind (on Friday, I was riding alone)

·      Serious cyclists even optimize their bike geometry and components to reduce drag

For your organization and your role as a leader, what wind tactics are you employing? 

·      Are you adjusting your position on things within your control to best combat the forces acting on your organization?

·      Are you riding alone or are you sharing the leadership load?  Are you talking openly and candidly about your reality?

·      Are you tooling your processes and infrastructure?

We all know that at some point, the wind will change.  The question is really about how well we’ll endure it while it lasts.  Will we bonk, fight to survive, or figure out a way to compete at our highest potential even in this season?