The Porche Paradox

I had the opportunity to drive a quarter of a million dollar Porsche 911 on a series of practice tracks in LA.  After signing away my life on a piece of paper indicating my total liability for any damage to the car, there was a quick tutorial and then I found myself alone in an incredible driving machine.

My Porche experience taught me a great deal about leadership.  I want to share what I call, the Porche Paradox™.

My Driving coach asked me why I thought Porsche consistently had the world's best race cars in the world.  Was it that Porsche hired the world's best drivers? My coach said that although that was true that wasn't the reason why Porche was the best race car in the world. Then I indicated that Porsche’s German engineering had created an incredibly fast and efficient engine and that was probably the reason why they consistently were the number one race are in the world. Again he admitted that was absolutely accurate and it wasn't the reason why Porche has the number one race car in the world.

The reason why Porsche has the best race car in the world is because they have created the world's best braking system.

The world's best braking system.

Just like the most effective and successful leaders in the world have developed their own way of slowing down, the best race car in the world has the world's best braking system.

One of the most consistent challenges I see with leaders is that they operate at a pace that is unsustainable.  There's so much pressure and so much to do that both leaders and teams look at slowing down like losing.

History is replete with examples of historical and political leaders who took the time in the middle of a crisis to walk the Rose garden in the White House, take a quiet swim in the pool or carve out solitary time to slow down and think.

As a fire officer coming on scene first in an emergency where the chaos is palpable, the pressure was extremely high and the stakes were life and death, I learned how slowing down (the exact opposite of what I thought) held the key to effective rapid decision making and execution.

The ability to slow down in the heat of a crisis or challenge is one way a world class braking system will support you but slowing down isn’t just important during a crisis.  Your ability to slow down supports your ability to connect with your team, your clients.  Slowing down allows for effective listening. Constantly feeling time pressure destroys our ability to show empathy and compassion which are key ingredients for a successful leader.

Do you have a world class braking system?  How do you slow down?  How do you encourage your team to slow down?  What are you modeling to your kids, your team?