Leadership lessons in the Tour de France

This year’s Tour De France has begun and already we find some valuable insights for those of us in the business world.

What’s particularly interesting from a business perspective is the team dynamics in this event. Competitive cycling is a team sport; an individual cannot be successful without the support of the other riders in their team. Each rider in a team of eight has a clearly defined role and the team is lead by the ‘director sportive’ who doesn’t ride a bike but follows around in a car, in radio contact with the riders. More than that, the riders are supported by a back room staff of mechanics, masseurs, and coaches and, in the case of the British ‘Sky’ team, a psychologist. Each element of the team has to be at the very peak of their profession; the best at what they do. They may not all be riding the bike, but they do have to operate in a completely cohesive way and with a total focus on ensuring the success of the team both on and off the bike.

Each team will have riders with specialist capabilities (sprinters, climbers, etc) and it will down to the director sportive to deploy these resources on a daily basis, depending on the terrain, the team strategy for the day and how the race unfolds with the tactics of other teams. So it’s a very dynamic and fast changing situation which will be impacted by external factors such as the weather, mechanical failures and crashes!

The story so far
Day one saw an individual time trial, where riders set out over a set course, this time through the streets of Rotterdam (not all TDF stages are in France). The riders with more power tend to do better in these stages, but it rained and cautious strategies prevailed. Reacting to the conditions of the day is a valuable lesson for us in business who can sometimes find ourselves operating in a bubble.

Day two showed just how powerful a group can be. It was another day of rain and a crash involving the peleton (the main group of riders) enabled one rider to get away from the group, gaining three minutes on the other riders. There was then a group protest (refusal to compete) in protest about the conditions and all the riders rolled over the line together. The collective will power of the group vs the organisation being very much in evidence and something that should not be overlooked by leaders in business.

Day three gave us the opportunity to value the whole team in the event. Riding over cobbles and very narrow roads meant the race split up, with punctures, crashes and bike failures. With this stage more suited to the powerful riders who can ride hard and fast over the cobbles, it’s the role of the team to get the ‘climbers’ through the stage. On day two, one of the most powerful riders found himself with a dilemma; he had broken away from the main peleton, but his team captain and potential overall winner was back in that group, so did he ride for himself and the glory of winning the stage or hold back to minimise the losses of his team mate? Team objectives rather than individual glory won the day. Once again the business learnings are clear, performing for the longer term good of the team rather than pursuing individual objectives and agendas will see long term business benefit.

More to follow as the stages and race unfold …

Phil Braybrooke, CHPD