Summer Challenge for Leaders: Learn to Water Ski

"Keep your knees bent, your arms straight, lean back, and let the boat do the work," Derek shouted at me through tented hands from the back of the boat. My teeth chattered in the early morning lake water, as I repeated those words over and over in my mind.

"Ready?" I gave a thumbs up and listened to the ski boat engine roar to life. Just a few seconds later, I was lifting out of the water. I looked around me, the trees hanging heavily over the shores of the lake, the loons drifting in the cattails, the small waves bobbing gently in front of me. I could feel the water gliding beneath my skis. It was like nothing I'd ever felt before. But no sooner was I up and out of the water than I started to second-guess it. I wanted to hold on this feeling, to make sure I stayed up. So I pulled my arms in. And promptly fell over.

"What did I say about keeping your arms straight? Don't overthink it. Trust the boat."

Now, thirty years later, I think about those early mornings on Saranac Lake learning to water ski. I think about how often as leaders we spend our time building strong teams, designing and implementing efficient processes, growing our organization and our customer base. We gather everything we need to run a successful business or team.

But how many times do we doubt our team? Second guess the processes we've built together? Even when things are going well, we wonder if we could just get a bit more involved in the detail, that we could solve the latest crisis or challenge?

We need more control. So we insert ourselves, doubt, overthink. We manage instead of lead. We pull our arms in. We fall. We fail.

So here's my challenge to you as a leader: learn to water ski in your business. Learn when you need to dive in to help and when you need to sit back. Know that more often than not, if we've got a great team, built and implemented the process the right way, have open lines of communication, then we just need to sit back on our skis, keep our arms straight, and let the boat do the work.