Leadership Insights for Initiatives: Balancing Preparation, Fuel, Pacing, and Completion

Several years ago, my daughter was a high school freestyle swimmer. For the first three years of high school, she worked to perfect the 50-meter freestyle event. She learned how to dive into the water with minimal resistance, pace her strokes, breathe with precision, and approach the wall for a strong finish. Each technique was specifically learned for the 50-meter sprint, and her times were measured in hundredths of a second.

In her senior year, her team needed a 500-meter event swimmer, and she was chosen. To be clear, she needed to swim both the 50 and the 500. You might think that the 500 meters is just the 50 with a few more laps, but to a swimmer, going from a 50 sprint to a 500 long-distance event is like learning a whole new sport. She had to recalibrate her pacing, breathing, event preparation, cooldown, and how she paced with the swimmers in the lanes next to her. Same water, same pool, very different event execution.

I often think about this when leaders need to lead organizations through various initiatives or strategic projects.

Sometimes, leaders need to pace changes like a sprint. They need to move fast and push through with very few breaks. They know it might take some extra energy and that we need to execute with precision. They know the project will be short in tenure, but it will require 200% effort until we hit the finish line.

They also have projects that are more structured like a 500-meter event. Organizations need to move more methodically because there are more people involved or more elements to consider. The preparation, execution, and teamwork will look different. They will need to have more tolerance with each other because longer projects have more time for problems to arise. They also need to make sure that our teammates are in sight. They need to pace together, keeping our eyes on each other so that we don't get too far ahead or behind those around us.