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- 8 leadership lessons I learned from running
You are going too fast
Your strides are too long
Sometimes you have to sprint
Consistency > intensity
Gains are made during recovery
Run outside if you can
Run first thing in the morning
It never always gets worse
It’s hard to believe, but I was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps almost 10 years ago. I vowed 2 things on that day, I wasn’t going to shave for at least 6 months and I would never go for a run again.
Fast forward a decade and I am clean shaven, run 2-4 times a week, and am slated to run my 2nd ultramarathon in August.
While I certainly logged my fair share of miles as a Marine, it was falling in love with running over the last few years that I realized running was teaching me a lot about leadership.
Here are 8 things I learned about leadership from becoming a better runner.
You are going too fast
I’m convinced the reason most people hate running is because they are going way too fast. As I started running longer and longer distances I was introduced to the concept of Zone 2 training.
While Zone 2 training has entered the cultural zeitgeist lately, put simply it just means running slower. There’s a lot of great science which is far beyond the purview of a newsletter about leadership, but if you get a heart rate monitor subtract your age from 180 and make sure your heart rate doesn’t exceed that number on your next run. Boom, Zone 2.
What you’ll realize if you do this is that you’re likely running pretty slow. Jogging is probably a more apt description (it is for me at least).
Most serious runners spend 80-90% (!) of their training in Zones 1-2.
That’s a lot of slow running.
Yet when I see leaders (and I’m guilty of this myself) it often feels like they’re sprinting from priority to priority but at the end of the quarter if you ask them what they accomplished they’ll have a hard time telling you.
If that description sounds like you as a leader you need to slow down and simplify. Just jog.
Your strides are too long
This is a strange one, but it turns out running at a high cadence (more steps per minute) is much easier on your body than the long strides you’re likely accustomed to.
Counterintuitive that more steps is less damaging to the body than fewer longer ones.
The leadership parallel is that if you’re waiting to make big launches infrequently your “strides are too long”. Designing big, complicated, initiatives which launch infrequently is a mistake.
There’s a common principle the Marine Corps teaches in marksmanship, “Aim small, miss small” that applies here. Don’t sit in your ivory tower designing the perfect mousetrap that you’ll launch once at the start of the quarter with minimal feedback from your team.
Test your hypotheses often and get feedback from your team quickly. Keep what works, throw out what doesn’t.
Sometimes you have to sprint
The mark of genius is said to be a person who can hold two conflicting ideals in their mind at the same time. I’m testing your genius by asserting lesson #1 and lesson #3 which on the surface seem to be opposites.
The truth is that when you’re running ~80% of training should be slow, but there’s still 20% of work that needs to get done outside of that slow pace. This training is done as sprint intervals with a high intensity. The same is true of leadership.
Sometimes it’s crunch time and you just need to do the work.
The key here is that you sprint with intention. That is to say, you are smart about when you choose to sprint to push things across the finish line and that your default isn’t all nighters and 12 cups of coffee. In spurts, it’s fine. Over the long run you’ll make bad decisions and you won’t progress.
Consistency > intensity
I’ve been working on my Zone 2 running pace for more than a year now. It still feels slow BUT it’s getting better.
Why? Because when I’m supposed to run I do it. I’m committed to being a better runner over the next 10 years.
It’s really hard to beat people with a mindset like this.
As a leader, how can you make consistency a priority and simply do what you say you are going to do more often than anyone else. The gains of a single great day of work aren’t enough.
When was the last time you committed to learning a new skill and then did it for 90 days without missing? A year without missing? A decade without missing? A lifetime without missing?
How can you ensure you show up for your team in the same way? Especially on the days when you don’t want to.
Gains are made during recovery
Any physical exertion is the process of breaking down your body. In the most counterintuitive, but beautiful, metaphor for leadership and life you don’t actually get stronger on your run. You get stronger when you sleep, stretch, eat healthy, and recover after your run is over.
It’s true you can’t get faster if you don’t run. It’s also true you can’t get faster if you don’t recover.
The same is true in leadership. You have to do the work, but you also need to be mature enough to set boundaries, know that the work will be there tomorrow, and step away.
Go have dinner with your kids, take a walk with your partner, read a book. You’ll be a better leader for it.
Run outside if you can
This one assumes you’ll be competing in a race at some point. The point of races, for me, isn’t to win. It’s to have a goal to work toward.
Most races are run outside not on a treadmill watching TV in an air conditioned gym with towel service and a smoothie bar.
If you want to be successful most of your running should be done in conditions that are similar to where you will race.
The same is true of being a leader. Taking a bunch of LinkedIn courses and reading high quality newsletters about leadership (like this one 😀) is great, but to get better at leadership you need to do the thing.
Just as You Can't Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar, you can’t learn to lead a team unless you’re out there leading. Being intentional with your development is great, but it falls well short of practicing what you preach.
If you want to be a better leader, go lead (hint - even if you aren’t in a position of authority you can still be a leader).
Run first thing in the morning
Obviously this is a personal preference. But a mile run before 7am has a much higher likelihood of being run than one after 7pm.
While Mark Twain almost surely did not say, “If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning” the advice is as true of leadership as it is running.
What’s that item on your to do list that is most important to get done, but you’re avoiding? You’ll know which one it is if every time you think about starting you pick up your phone.
That’s the one to do first.
Put a block that says, “Eat the frog” on your calendar for the first 90 minutes of your day. Don’t let anyone schedule over it and do the work that you need to do.
If someone asks you what your “Eat the frog” block means send them this link 😎
It never always gets worse
It’s okay, re-read it.
I know I had to when I first saw it.
While it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, this is a popular saying in the ultra-running community. Sometimes you’re thundering along at mile 24 feeling like you absolutely cannot take another step.
But then maybe the sun pokes out from behind that cloud. Maybe you see a hawk riding some thermals. Maybe someone runs by you and gives an encouraging word. Or maybe that Snickers you ate 15 minutes ago hits your system.
Whatever it might be, suddenly mile 25 falls away before you notice.
Sometimes things do get worse, but not always.
What’s true in running is true in leadership.
Keep going.