Keep Your Hand On The Throttle

Just before Christmas I bought a jet ski. An impulsive buy? Well, I like to think of it more as opportunistic.

You see, my good friends here on the Gold Coast bought the jet ski about a year ago and then announced that they were moving to Perth. Taking the jet ski? No. So, you see it was right there waiting for me to buy. How could I refuse? 

Before I took my new toy out on the water, of course I had to get my jet ski license. I’d been a passenger many times before but never been the one in control. Wow - what an eye-opening experience. These things have a whole lot more power than I anticipated. 

During my license training, the most important lesson I learned about riding a jet ski is the connection between acceleration and direction.

There is a trigger on the handlebars of the jet ski that controls the throttle and this allows you to accelerate. The throttle is as important to steering as it is to acceleration. You see, without water from the steering nozzle, the jet ski just can’t change direction.

Now, this is really important to understand if you have an obstacle up ahead, whether that be a boat or a beacon or a pylon. When you see such an obstacle, you might instinctively want to slow down to avoid the collision and accordingly, take your hand off the throttle. Big mistake! If you do this, it can result in a complete loss of steering power and the jet ski will continue on its same course in a straight line and BOOM! You hit the one thing you were trying to avoid. 

This is a lesson for leaders as well. Sometimes just like on the jet ski, in leadership you see something up ahead; an obstacle that you want to avoid. It might be a situation with a particular client around a pricing issue, a competitor who is gaining market share or a personal conflict within your team between two valued employees. 

When you see such an obstacle, you can instinctively take your hand off the throttle, stop moving, put your head in the sand and do nothing. However, just like the jet ski, when you do nothing to avoid the collision, you can end up directly running into it. 

When things aren't going your way, when there is an obstacle at work, when there's something that needs to be dealt with, keep your hand firmly on the throttle. Continue to take action. Keep accelerating forward, so that you can keep control and manoeuvre safely.

Be agile. Change direction and steer your team and organisation around the obstacle. 

”When in doubt, throttle out!”

- Matt Russell

Champagne & Sunshine

Midja