When I was a young boy, my dad used to take our family to a small reservoir in California, called Lake Woollomes, to go sailing. We had an old 17 foot home-made (not by us) sailboat made of steel. Definitely not the lightest hull on the water…
I learned an important lesson from my dad out on that lake; how to avoid steering like a drunken sailor.
When my dad first handed me the tiller and let me steer the boat, I was focused on the wind, the sails and the water right in front of, and around me. As a result, we progressed somewhat erratically and haphazardly from the dock to the other end of the lake. I clearly remember my dad – who had spent years in the Dutch Merchant Marines – smile and shake his head and tell me that I was steering like a drunken sailor.
He told me that the trick was to pick a recognizable point on the distant shore and stay focused on that target as I steered the boat. When I did that, not only did we end up somewhere that we wanted to get to, we got there more efficiently. I still had to keep an eye on the wind and the sails (and the other boats) – but I was able to quickly make adjustments and maintain our progress toward the target. Sometimes, as we got closer to our original ‘target,’ we would decide that there was a better spot off to the right or left. That was ok – we just made a course correction and made our way to the new target.
I have always considered this lesson a good metaphor for running a business (and for life in general). It is easy to get caught up in the wind and the water swirling right around us and lose focus on the target and the important activities needed to get there. In many ways I see the purpose of my consulting practice as that of a ‘first mate’ or ‘navigator’; in the boat with my clients, helping them focus on their objectives, identify and deal with the truly important issues, and make more rapid progress toward their “targets on the distant shore.” And sometimes I help them find a better spot to set a course to…
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