I've been retired from elite competitive Dragon Boat for almost 2 years now. I knew the time had come so I wasn't upset to leave that world. I was happy to see other women (in my case mostly for the Canadian Senior Women's National Team) and men and women create their own experiences, memories and friendships (based on my experiences with the Outer Harbour DB Club Warriors.) When I was ruminating back over certain experiences for both teams, it struck me that I had been working with my own executive team. Not ever having worked in a corporate framework, I passed these thoughts onto two executive friends of mine, one of whom I paddled with on the Warriors, the other who is in high level sales. My fellow paddler was struck by how accurate a description it was, and my other friend was surprised,knowing I don't work in the corporate world, and wondering how that team connection could be replaced. (I'm not sure it can, other than by finding other teams with the same vision, guidelines and goals). If you look at the process, to join a team you need to go through hiring/testing process, commit to development and growth, both for yourself and the good of the team. The directives are given, staff go off, and work on their projects to better the outcome for the team; results are measured. It is beyond the scope of one person to achieve the results that can be measured when the collective efforts of 19 fellow paddlers, a coach and/or steersperson and a drummer all join forces. As we Yoga types like to say, 'attention follows energy'. This type of attention brings collective, measurable results, and I can say that for recreational teams, elite competitive and National teams. You may have read "The Boys in The Boat" about the 1939 Gold Medalists at the Berlin Olympics. Paddlers don't row (that has to be said) but we all work better together when we have collective 'swing'. Please see my colleague Beth Gitlin's article for further thoughts on this subject: http://www.floridatoday.com/story/money/small-business/ask-business-expert/2014/05/01/ask-biz-expert-dragon-boating-lot-like-business/8576281/ Or, read 'The Boys In The Boat'. I'm still looking for the paddling version of that 🙂
