Surprising gold medal rowing team teaches valuable leadership lesson

Orlando-area entrepreneur and leadership coach John King started a recent presentation in Sarasota with an unexpected tale: the story of the 2000 Sydney Olympics British rowing team. 

It had been 88 years since the Brits won gold when those Olympics were held down under. But, King says, the team’s leaders wanted to change that pattern. “The only problem,” King says, “is the team wasn’t very good.”  

The team soon landed on a leadership epiphany, with one integral formula. When making a decision, from uniform materials to practice times to who makes the squad, the team, King says, put every question through a singular prism: Will it make the boat faster?