What rowing competitively taught me about teamwork

My hometown of Killorglin is located on the river Laune and one of the towns you drive through to explore the McGillycuddy Reeks district and the famous Ring of Kerry route.

I was very fortunate to belong to its rowing club growing up and rowed competitively on the coastal waters around Ireland. At training practice, you help each other to stay motivated, especially on cold morning; to be stronger and better as you need a combination of their strength and skills as well as yours to win regattas.

The pinnacle of our achievement was winning 2nd place in the All Ireland Senior Costal Rowing Championships.

During our All Ireland championship race, we became one with each other and the boat. We entered a pure flow state of performance. Great teams find this flow and this rhythm to their work and develop an intuitive understanding of their role and how to make small adjustments to deliver exceptional results. In essence, we work as one unit in sync with each other to accomplish and win the regattas, and we generally came in 1st place with our determined endeavours out in the water!

On the podium, I never really need to be the one holding the trophy but I loved contributing to winning it. This, along with numerous other lessons transformed my outlook on what true teamwork looks like.

What is teamwork?

Teamwork is the collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal. This ultimately creates fulfillment whilst working within a team.

I’ve always been someone, who loves to support others in the team to achieve success. My passion is uplifting and encouraging other members to succeed. This in turn increases the chances of achieving the goal. I’m solution-focused and strive on working more efficiently to achieve results in quicker time periods without compromising performance. In rowing we strived to find ways to gain speed, utilising better strategies to do so.

The miracles, I’ve learnt, created by teamwork only occur by leveraging each individual‘s strengths. This can come in the form of personality, mindset, experience, interests, and background

Rowing was and always will be my number one passion. As soon as the starting pistol sounds, we row in unison and with strength, courage, speed and determination to the finish line.

Rowing is the ultimate teamwork sport, all team members have to work together and be both physically & technically exact.

That excitement and physicality is undoubtedly part of any rower’s experience.

Everyone must work together to balance the boat and have exact timing. Your hands must be at exactly the right height as you slide up to the catch. Every oar has to drop into the water at the exact same time. Everyone needs to pull at equal pressure. All the blades need to come out of the water and release in unison. Any deviation disrupts the boat and will unbalance and slow the boat down.

Uniquely, a cox has the strength of the command. Their primary job is to keep us on course and steer the straightest line possible. None of the roles, alone, has the power of thrusting the boat 2000 m across the finish line. However, by previously communicating the end goal, the team can trust that fulfilling their pre-determined job may lead to victory. 

High-performance teams always keep the end in sight and know the ultimate objectives of their work

Successful teams know that performance is a function of collaboration and coordination, not a sum of individual effort. Knowing how your contribution is affecting the final outcome and staying highly aware of what others are doing while staying in sync is critical to delivering results.

I’m very grateful to be part of a great team at Oxford Policy Management!