Large companies can learn a lot from racing teams about how to get the most and the best out of people. For racing teams, it is existential. If you mess up, you lose. Put the wrong person in the wrong role, you lose. Put a sub-par driver in the car, you lose. Build a bad car, you lose. Push the engine too hard, it blows up and you lose. Push the tires too hard, they wear out and you lose. Take too much credit for the team's success, people leave and...you lose. If you lose enough, sponsors leave, the team falls apart, and eventually you stop racing, go back home and cry yourself to sleep over your failure.
Large companies, on the other hand, are buffered by their size. You can make a mistake and not realize the consequences until months or years later, at which point it may be too late to recover. So in that sense, it's harder to know if/when you're doing something wrong and, therefore, you have to be even more in-tune with what's going on around you. Zak Brown was very self-aware in saying that, although he manages the team, the team doesn't work for him. He works for them, always asking, "what do you need?" He puts the right people in the right roles, resources them, and doesn't micromanage. He lets them push back and they all push each other, because the goal is the same - go faster and win. Very similar to any other successful racing team, from Penske to Ganassi to Hendrick. A wise team leader is selfless and is more than willing to let his team beat him up if it makes the car a tenth of a second faster on the track.
So a reminder to anyone out there who thinks they're a hotshot manager/leader at their company: check your ego at the door.
https://lnkd.in/e4vJZ4Bu
CONGRATS, TONY! So deserving 👏