Ocean adventurer Peter Blake taught lessons every leader should know —Full Steam AheadRock

Ocean adventurer Peter Blake taught lessons every leader should know

—Full Steam Ahead

Rocketing through sunlit seas in mid-Atlantic, Peter Blake had been radioing daily race re ports to listeners all over New Zealand. Blake heard a terrific crash and felt the boat slow. Racing on deck, he found a mass of wreckage—the lofty mast had collapsed.

But Blake sat down with his shattered crew and had a cup of tea. "This is what we're going to do," he said and explained his plan. He added: "If anyone wants to get demoralized(削弱士气), come and see me and we'll do it together." There were no takers.

Making a temporary rig(桅杆)out of the wreckage, the crew sailed over 6000 kilometers, following a different route to find better winds, and drove themselves so hard they reached Cape Town ahead of more than a third of the fleet. Just over six weeks later, with a new mast, Blake sailed into Auckland and won the next leg(旅程的一段)of the Whitbread Around the World Race.

Blake turned disaster into triumph. It was an amazing feat of leadership.

Over the next two decades there would be many more such inspiring deeds. Blake would win the world's toughest ocean races, as well as the desirable America's Cup, becoming a national hero and the world's greatest sailor. "Peter brought out the best in us," says Don Robertson, a close friend and shipmate. "We were astonished by what we could achieve."

With his laid-back manner and big smile, Blake(who died in tragic circumstances three years ago)built up teams that dared to reach for the stars and win. He was a great leader, and the lessons of his career can be used by leaders in all walks of life.

It's the Team That Counts

When Mark Orams grew up, he wanted to sail with his hero. But his job interview was not what he expected.

"Blake and I talked for half an hour about ordinary things, like the food we hated," Orams says. "I said it was onions; he said macaroni(通心粉)cheese."

Orams felt he'd failed, because Blake hadn't asked a single question about his sailing. Two days later Blake called him in again, shook his hand and said. "Welcome aboard!"

Orams was proud and puzzled. "It wasn't until I was at sea with him that I realized fitting into the team was more important than know-how.'

As Blake put it, "You can learn as you go, but getting on with people is something you're born with."

When Blake put together a team for New Zealand's America's Cup challenge in 1995, he began with an inner circle of himself and three friends. They chose the fifth team member and then all five chose the sixth, and so on, up to nearly 100.

Every member was an equal partner. At one meeting, Blake introduced the receptionist. "This is Michelle, who runs the front desk, and she's just as important as any of you in the boat," he said. "There are no number ones in this team, no small jobs."

Learn to Delegate

Peter Blake never had to say he was a boss or a skipper(船长). He'd walk into a room or step on the deck, and everybody knew. But he didn't try to do or control everything himself. "There's no point in having a dog and doing your own barking," he'd say. During a two-handed race around Australia, Mike Quilter was alone at the helm(驾驶舱)when a massive weather front(气象峰)appeared. Blake was down below, asleep, but a long piece of string had been tied to his toe so Quilter could wake him if he needed help. "I was relying on Blake to be Mr. Cool," Quilter says, "so, I pulled the string. 'Here's the front,' I told him."

"Blake said, 'Yep, that's it!' Then he closed the hatch(舱口)and went back to bed, leaving m

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