Summer Reflection: Waves

A few years ago I had the holiday of a lifetime, sailing around lesser-known Greek islands with a friend on his yacht.

Each day we set sail in the tranquility of dawn to pootle to the next island. We’d reach it mid-afternoon, spend a few hours lazing on deck and swimming in the bay, before dinner in a local taverna.

It was idyllic.

Except for one night.

We’d decided to do a longer trip, sailing on through the night.

We took three-hour shifts, alternating between a brief sleep below deck and helming up top.

All was quiet, with no land or other craft for as far as the eye could see in every direction.

But, suddenly, multiple un-forecast storm systems erupted all around us on the horizon.

It was beautiful to watch, with lightning forking down everywhere you looked, but soon the sea was churning — and the swell became huge.

Even my friend, who’s ex-Navy, was tense.

He called me up to deck. We quickly switched to motor and de-rigged the sails, having to clip on to make sure we didn’t slip overboard from the wet deck in the bucking and rolling.

The key now, he said, was less about heading for the precise location we’d planned, and all about making sure we kept the bow pointed directly at the waves.

Although it was scary to deliberately head towards the looming walls of water, taking it head on meant we used the shape of the boat to cut through the water, rather than risk getting flipped by a big wave catching us side on.

At times, the boat was lifted on the crest of a wave with the propellor spinning in the air for a moment. But then we’d be back down in the water and making progress again.

It was just a question of staying calm, clipping on, pointing our nose at the waves, and keeping going.

The dawn came, the storms gave way to beautiful sunshine, and we were again able to navigate directly to our destination.

I’ve never forgotten that night, or its lessons about facing down scary problems.

In truth, it was exhilarating — and I look back on it as a great experience that I wouldn’t change for the world.

As a leader we keep our agency safer, and more stable, if we actively make sure the whole organisation is facing towards the big waves.

Economic turmoil, political changes, technological developments, sales pipeline blockages, client or project problems, competitors — these waves can be many things.

We need point to them, talk about them, keep the agency’s nose pointed at them even though it may naturally want to turn the other way, and we spur everyone on through cresting them.

When you get back from this break, what waves do you want to get everyone focused towards?