None of us is as smart as all of us. -Ken Blanchard
Tough Mudder - what is it?
- - 10-12 miles
- - 500,000 gallons grade-A mud
- - 40 tons of ice
- - 2.5 MM participants in 6 countries
- - 200+ events since 2010
- - Combination physical and mental challenge of endurance
- - Recently added Tough Mudder Half challenges, Fruit Shoot Mini Mudder challenges (partnered with charity Right to Play), and World’s Toughest Mudder challenges
All specifics from the official Tough Mudder website.
Tough Mudder - it’s a challenge not many take on. Part mud-filled obstacle course, part team challenge, Tough Mudder events are not timed races where anyone wins; instead, they’re about bringing people together and pushing them out of their comfort zones to achieve much more together than any one individual. But what can an event that’s focused 100% on teamwork teach us about being, or becoming, a good leader?
Well, as it turns out, these challenges can teach us quite a bit. Some of the most important lessons about being or becoming a great leader have more to do with valuing the input and collaboration of others, rather than focusing on your own brilliance. Especially in a workplace or job-type setting, being a good leader is less about demanding work from others so you finish the race first and more about inspiring (and thus leading) an effective, efficient, innovative team to finish better than any other teams (read: companies). Knowing the difference between poor leadership and effective leadership can help you stand out in your office; examining lessons learned in Tough Mudder challenges can help you get there.
Leadership Lessons Learned from Tough Mudder
Collaboration is just as, or more, important than individual achievement. When you’re leading a team you have to be a part of that team. This might sound obvious, but hear us out - most leaders treat leadership like running a marathon instead of a Tough Mudder: personal achievements as the result of individual work is used as the marker of success. Yet it’s when team members collaborate that innovation happens, and innovation drives business success, even if only in problem solving or creative ways to communicate with clients. Each individual has strengths and weaknesses (even leaders), and learning to value and rely on the contribution of others can change the way you lead, for the better.
Celebrate individuals, individual improvement, and the team. While collaboration is incredibly important, individual achievements are not to be overlooked. Each member of the team is important and brings value in some way, shape, or form; what would your team be without them? And as such, individual achievements are worth celebrating as well, but should not be used as markers of success. In a Tough Mudder challenge, a team member facing their fear and getting through one obstacle is reason to celebrate, but does that determine that the entire team has made it through the entire course? No, of course not. It’s important, but it’s not the only thing that’s important.
And of course, the team itself should be celebrated. It’s only by working together, in a Tough Mudder challenge or in the office, that success markers are met, and great leaders know that building camaraderie and a sense of team identity proves much more successful than singling out any one performance.
Hard work still pays off. Finally, probably the easiest lesson to learn from any Tough Mudder challenge is that hard work does indeed pay off, even when you’re in a position of power. Leaders in particular are apt to forget, and yet they’re the ones that set an example for the rest of the crew. Just like in a Tough Mudder challenge, anyone and everyone’s hard work does pay off no matter what, in personal achievement but, more importantly, team accomplishments and accolades.
