As the previous column pointed out, a career is like a marathon. It isn’t a 100-metre dash, where someone can put on a sudden spurt of speed and hope to win. One needs stamina and a plan to manage it successfully.
The first important aspect — stamina — had been detailed in the earlier article. The second aspect is how to manage this stamina properly, by pacing it. To pace out your career, you must have a plan.
This lesson can be best learnt by observing runners and riders. It is imperative for cross-country or marathon riders or runners to have a proper plan to pace themselves, and know when to put in that extra effort.
On similar lines, let me share an interesting fact about geese. These winged creatures manage to fly thousands of kilometres twice every year during their seasonal migration! How? Mainly through team work.
The V formation
If you’ve ever seen flocks of flying birds, you might have noticed they fly in a ‘V’ formation.
They do this for a reason. Air has resistance, which these birds use as a counter-force for flying. Simply put, birds flap their wings to push against the air, and this helps them fly. Aircrafts too have a curved wing, and the air pushes against it, helping lift up the aircraft. But the same resistance that helps these birds fly also has a counter-effect — it tires out the bird over a period of time.
So when a flock of birds fly in a ‘V’ shape, the bird at the front faces the maximum resistance, while the other birds on either side face relatively less resistance and pressure from the air.
Slipstream advantage
Basically, the birds take advantage of the ‘slipstream’ of the lead bird, which makes flying easier. Without going into too much technicality, slipstream refers to the stream of air behind any moving object.
Interestingly, geese rotate their positions in the ‘V’ so that every bird contributes towards facing the increased air resistance in front. The bird in the lead moves into a position that allows it to expend lesser effort, as it flies in the flock’s slipstream.
Cross-country bicycle riders too learn to ride in the slipstream of other cyclists. If you have watched any such long distance race, you would notice groups of runners or cyclists bunched together in the initial phase of the race. They are simply following the geese in pacing themselves out.
In organisations…
Similarly, young professionals too need to learn how to ride in the slipstream of their team-mates. More importantly, they must rotate their load among one another to ensure that it is equally shared. This calls for a sense of collective identity and group effort.
But this is easier said than done because of two factors, as well as the fact that corporate roles by themselves, are intensely competitive. However, I will discuss this in the next article.