In 2001, bestselling author Jim Collins explained well how companies move from being good to being great in his book, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t.” For many of the companies he highlights, leadership at some point felt being good was good enough. At one time, in the 1980s and much of the 1990s, being good was enough to be successful in sports and in business. But as technology began to change everything in the mid- to late 1990s, you had to move from good to great in sports and business to be successful. The dawn of the new century further accelerated that, and around 2010, because of ongoing technological advances and tightening regulations, being great even came under pressure. Great was even being questioned. It became evident to the great leaders that the great toolbox needed even more tools; great was no longer sufficient to be competitive. Winners had to then make the leap from great to extraordinary.
New technology flooded the market, and our businesses had access to data at an unprecedented rate. Increased regulations greatly restricted our business and sports freedoms, and we suddenly were faced with a need to out-think the competition. We were forced to get faster and better. We were forced to think differently. We were forced to adopt a new culture. Not necessarily a culture of success, or a culture of winning, but a culture of extraordinary. Companies that transitioned from going faster to being faster also moved from being great to being extraordinary.
What if you and your team could progress beyond great? Motor racing at the highest levels provides real examples of such teams of people. In the early 2000s, the hammer of regulation change restricted the on-track development process of racecars. What once took place in public view was forced indoors to the simulation boardroom. The window to be competitive became narrower than ever. This led to a smaller number of teams being able to visit the victory podium to celebrate on a more regular basis. Those teams had to expand to unfamiliar reaches and had to become extraordinary to win. This book explores where extraordinary lives.
The Culture of Extraordinary
Exceptional teams have deliberate disciplines that are fundamental to their success. These disciplines create the culture fabric that then is woven throughout the organization.
Exceptional teams willingly live between the turbulent edges of outstanding success and embarrassing failures. Their culture becomes the glue for the turbulence. They develop a sustained ability to be successful because of this deliberate culture. It’s not just a culture of success—it’s a culture of extraordinary.
The Advent of Extraordinary
You may have never thought of this before, but it is an amazing fact that in the National Football League (American football, for my international readers), on any given Sunday, 50 percent of the teams win.
In my business at the end of the day, the pressure by default is always greater because there is one winning team. Usually it’s an extraordinary team, whose members are aligned with one another and who communicate effectively. They have a vision, they take intelligent risks, they create trust, and they use change as fuel. They have a plan and execute the plan under pressure on racetracks across the globe.
In an American football or soccer game, you can make a significant mistake and you probably will get a second chance. In motorsports, in general, there is no second chance after a significant mistake. In the National Football League (NFL), if a quarterback, through poor preparation, makes a mistake, he might lose a down. At the very worst, he might lose a game. Poor preparation and mistakes in my business, at 225 miles per hour, might cost a driver his life.
Motor racing, at the highest levels, is a sport that challenges people physically, mentally, intellectually, and emotionally. The speed, danger, rewards, and cost push team members to those outer edges and boundaries of what might be possible. What if we could learn to push ourselves to those outer edges on a daily basis? What if the outer edges could become our new normal? What if we could learn to go beyond our best? If we had the desire to move into an exceptional neighborhood, what road map might we use to get there?
Victory Celebrations
During a 25-year television broadcasting career, I traveled the world commentating on Formula One and Indy car races. At the end of those great races, the winning teams would enjoy the privilege of celebrating on the victory podium. The victory podium in motor racing can be regarded as a visual report card. The report card shows exactly how well you did as a team. The coveted trip to the podium is where the mechanics, engineers, and managers all go with their driver to celebrate their collective success. On that day, against the competition, no matter what the pressure was, no matter what immediate decisions had to be taken, they were the very best. The results of how they operated their business model on that day were transparent for all to see. The winning teams make a visual statement when celebrating on the victory podium that measures their risk-reward outcomes at extraordinary levels.
While conducting research during my broadcasting career, I was amazed that the number of teams that ever made it to the victory podium in Formula One or at the Indy 500 was so small. I asked a really simple question: Why?
Why was the number so small? What was so special about these teams? What did they do that was a little different? Did they communicate differently? Did they plan differently?
Did they execute differently? Did they have a vision that was unusual? What was it about these people? Were they better under pressure? Did they separate emotional decision-making from intellectual decision-making at a higher level? I wanted to know the answers, and I had access to the biggest stars in our sport, such as Mario Andretti, Roger Penske, A. J. Foyt, Danny Sullivan, and Michael Schumacher, and the great teams such as Ferrari, Mercedes, and McLaren. I didn’t know it at the time, but the answers would provide the foundation for how extraordinary teams of people behaved.
The answers were fascinating, and they allowed me to see completely under the skin of my sport and to understand more clearly why only a small number of teams were successful—a small number of extraordinary teams. Teams that had a deliberate behavior—an unusual culture . . . a culture of extraordinary. I finally had the address of where extraordinary lived.
Excerpt from “A Champion’s Path” by Derek Daly (Octane Press, May 2017). Published in hardcover, “A Champion’s Path” is available for purchase at Octanepress.com, Amazon.com, or wherever books are sold. Volume discounts are available on bulk orders, direct from octanepress.com.
Irish driving legend Derek Daly is the epitome of the complete champion. From victory circle to the announcer’s desk, race driver, and network television color analyst, Daly spent nearly three decades as the face of the motorsport world. Born in Dublin, Ireland, to a middle-class working family, Daly’s professional racing career spanned 17 years. After winning Irish, British and European championship events, he made his Formula One debut in 1978. Two years later, Daly was ranked 10th in the world. In 1983, he made his first of six starts at the Indianapolis 500. In 1985, Daly started a 10-year association with ESPN as a motor sport color analyst. Moet & Chandon champagne awarded him the Joules Goux Award for his outstanding contributions to motor sports television. He received the 2000 Hall of Fame Award from Motor Sport Ireland for his leadership of Irish Motorsport. Today, Daly is a dynamic keynote speaker, whose presentations have influenced companies such as PepsiCo, Goldman Sachs, Xerox, Bayer, Deloitte, Growmark, Pioneer, Roche, Abbott Labs, U.S. Government Department of Defense, USDA, and Gallo wines. To find out more, watch the video here and visit: derekdaly.com
