Oct 14, 2020
Rachael Robertson is the author of the best-selling book
Leading on the
Edge, an account of
leading a year-long expedition to Antarctica. She is a keynote
speaker on the topics of leadership and teamwork and her latest
book, Respect Trumps
Harmony, is out now.
When you’re sharing close quarters with a team of diverse people,
small issues can boil over and turn into massive problems that can
halt a multi-million dollar project. Rachael shares her leadership
strategy to develop the self-awareness, the priorities, and the
communication skills needed to have an open and transparent culture
so that everyone can focus on doing their best work and not on the
interpersonal conflicts.
Key Takeaways
[3:55] Looking through a
newspaper one day, a photo of a penguin in the job section caught
Rachael’s eye. It was a call to lead an Antarctic expedition and
they were looking for people with certain characteristics, not
skillsets. Rachael already had a job, but she was
curious.
[7:10] The recruitment process
was so different than anything Rachael had ever experienced. It
wasn’t a job interview, it was a boot camp. She was the only woman
who applied and when she was selected, she was the youngest leader
in the group.
[10:25] There is absolutely no
sunlight during winter. In summer, it’s 0 degrees
celsius.
[12:00] The experience taught
Rachael that she can overcome anything. Whenever she has a tough
challenge in her life, she refers back to this
expedition.
[14:25] Rachael has applied for
jobs before and not gotten them, and nothing bad happened to her!
These mini “failures” gave her the resilience to at least try and
see what happens.
[16:10] Rachael shares a
challenging experience she had as a leader that she affectionately
calls the “great bacon war.” Her team was split: Should bacon be
crispy or soft and chewy? Upon further inspection, the problem was
actually much deeper than that.
[21:10] Rachael faced a crisis
when a part of her team was stranded with less than 10 days worth
of food. An important leadership lesson there was, be visible to
the rest of your team and be transparent about the crisis and how
it’s unfolding.
[24:05] Part of being a leader,
you have to also take out the politics. You do that by putting
systems and processes in place so that everybody feels like they
got a fair shot.
[26:50] Rachael had to work with
a lot of different dynamics when it comes to how people get along.
You’re in darkness for half a year and sharing quarters with your
workmates 24/7, things can get bitter quite quickly if you don’t
address the different personality types and styles in the
room.
[35:00] When you’re living so
closely and you have no privacy, the smallest things can manifest
into big issues. The biggest source of conflict was leaving things
around and disrespected common areas.
[38:40] After Rachael came back
over a year, the biggest feeling she experienced was overwhelm.
There was so much to process and take in, in such a busy
world.
[40:55] Listener challenge:
Practice optimism.
Quotable Quotes
- “A
really basic rule for me is, resilience is thinking about thinking.
It’s resting your thoughts before they continue [down a negative
path].”
- “As a
leader, if you have self-awareness, you can learn everything
else.”
- “I
don’t expect you all to love each other, but I do expect you to
treat each other with respect.”
- “The
aim, going in, was to create a culture where people will speak up
and deal with things because I was worried about someone spiraling
with depression or exploding with anger.”
- “We
created a thing called ‘no triangles.’ If somebody has something to
say, you go directly to the person, don’t take it to a third
party.”
- “We
don’t know what’s around the corner. Just be optimistic. Just keep
hope alive.”
Resources Mentioned
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