I had a unique and special opportunity to attend the Grand Prix in Malaysia in 2016. I like fast cars but I have never been compelled to go to a Formula 1 event until we had this incredible chance. My friend who works for McClaren said ‘and to get to the Paddock you need to go through this entrance.’ I was wondering what is the Paddock! But here is the thing, what I learned from that experience is incredible and worth reflecting on from a leadership perspective – when it comes to leading yourself, leading others and leading change. This is lifestyle strategy in action.

Teamwork

Watch these incredible videos of the pit stops (to be added shortly!). I was able to get such good footage as we were able to walk along the actual race course during the pit stop tyre changes.

They are all pretty incredible right? The Williams team is known as the best when it comes to pit stop changes.  All tyre changes in the race require speed, teamwork and incredible precision. The pit stop changes are only one part of the engineers’ jobs but if a mistake is made there, then it could cost the race. And during the race it was incredible because Valtteri Bottas, WIlliams’s driver, had a pit stop tyre change in what seemed like the first few laps of the race, and then he had another. Still, even after 3 pit stops he managed to come 5th in the race.

Back to team work. Formula 1 is a tough competition full of danger for the drivers, investment of serious amounts of cash (I hear countries have to pay at least $50 million each, just to host Formula 1) and a lot of detail in terms of design. Teams start working together months in advance of the start of the season, sometimes even years before due to engine design, technological updates, etc. When I saw the way that the teams bonded, cared for each other and were really tight it reminded me of how a family should be. And yet when the work needed to get done within a split second (for example the pit stops) it was like watching art. They each knew the role they played and did it with ease. I can watch the videos above again and again!  

The team culture is something that anyone can adopt and it applies from all situations to high performing teams like the F1 teams all the way through to families and how the different members of a family work together to support each other. There is an understanding of speed, safety requirements, what needs to get done, what the roles are, who does what best, and how they work together closely. Think about how where you can make a slight adjustment or modification in your life so that you can be part of a world class team in your situation.

Motivation

The next thing that struck me was motivation. Being in the Paddock you’d see the drivers walking around looking really relaxed. I wondered how they feel before the race; how the teams are and what is going through their minds. To me as a first time attendee at a Grand Prix anywhere I loved it – I could see the drive (literally!), the passion, the commitment, the competition! I could also see the hunger to win the race. Yet, some drivers didn’t have as much pressure and I wondered how that would reflect on their race.

Thinking about why Lewis Hamilton was so livid when his car crashed before the end of the race helps to deconstruct Formula 1 motivation. Lewis was on target to win the Championships, right? Dropping out of the race meant not only did he not win (he won the Malaysian race the last 2 times) he also may have missed out on his chance of winning the Championship. We can see how this reflects on his mood the following week as in Japan at the press conference Lewis was caught playing on Snapchat and embarrassed fellow drivers as well as the F1 committee. Perhaps he lost some of his motivation and was behaving like a naughty school kid.

Let’s now look at drivers who had no chance of getting a podium spot. They were more relaxed, hanging out with sponsors and guests and just seemed so much more chilled out. I saw a couple of the F1 drivers just chilling. It was inspirational. They were there to do a job and knew that they had the training, the team and the support to get on with it. I was told that drivers get itchy feet when they are not in the car, in the race, doing their job. And it all made so much sense. Think about it like this, when you have a particular role and you are not performing it then of course you will be a little off, right? The question then is how do you stay motivated? I think it’s the same for running to (and I’m in training for my first half marathon in 20 years!). When I am training, I feel as if I am in the race and it’s awesome. When I am not, then I’m busy doing other stuff, not really focusing on that goal so it can seem easy to lose motivation. However, as soon as I remember the rush of the half marathon I’m good to go.

Having an understanding of what your motivation is forms a key part of leading yourself and gaining the strategies so that you have the lifestyle you want. Knowing what motivates you creates team spirit, enables you to get the job done under difficult circumstances and keeps pushing you to be better. But more important than motivation is fulfillment – you need to know why you are doing it and how it is serving you, then you can use that to broaden your service to include others and lead change.

Think of it like this, those engineers working at the pit stop changes all have a day job where they have another role, but in that moment when they are changing the tyres they think of nothing else except the tyre change. That is when motivation and fulfillment are in alignment, and you can see from the videos above THAT is where they crush it every single time.

Of course, motivation includes financial rewards, recognition, prestige, etc. so I can’t end this section without mentioning them. But note, that they are not the prime reasons why the F1 teams and drivers are successful – it’s much deeper than that, it’s personal!

Innovation

This was my favorite insight from watching the race.  Jenson Button had his 300th race at the Malaysian Grand Prix in 2016 and how it must have changed since he started! The tech is so much greater, the precision is more refined. The key thing in this is the question of what is the 0.01 that can be done to bring about significant improvements in results? What else can be refined? This is down not to technological advances but I think today it’s all down to human intervention. In F1 all the teams use Pirelli tyres, most of the teams have Mercedes engines, so innovation comes in subtle things right? And it starts with an individual looking at the system and asking questions – where are the improvements, what could be done better to increase performance? These discussions happen out of season, on the track and in the factory.

Imagine if you applied the 0.01 theory to your life…

What subtle small changes could you make in order to make significant improvements in your life? Here’s one that I realised when I looked at my own personal habits. Sleeping! Sleep deprivation is one of the biggest killers of productivity, marriage and life in the world at the moment. It increases depression, high blood pressure and if you are sleep deprived your propensity to type 2 diabetes increases. Everyone says don’t take your phone to bed, including me… but sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes it’s impossible! So here is what I adopted. I set an alarm on my phone that tells me when i need to turn my wifi off on the phone, so no more notifications, no more email, no more nothing. That small action now results in me still having an alarm to wake me up but it also enables me to sleep better, undisturbed by my phone! That is innovation!

In order to achieve super human results, something that I am now championing we need to be pushing constantly at the edges of innovation – both technological and human.

Conclusion.

There is so much more I could share with you about the Malaysian Grand Prix but I’ll stop at this – if you ever get an invite for something that you wouldn’t normally do, accept it. Push the boundaries, do something different, be daring. You never know what you might learn!