Navigating the Impossible

LEAD BY EMOTION

Everyone wants to be a part of something greater than themselves.

Every leader on some level knows this, but that knowledge is usually pretty shallow. Most of us lead from strategy first, then analytics, and then maybe emotion if there’s time before lunch. But not Mark.

Mark would become my first-ever rowing coach at Sonoma State University in Northern California. He taught me the first and most important lesson of building high-performance teams. That lesson is this: The worst thing in the world is not losing. It’s having no purpose.

Mark introduced me to the concept that would go on to become the foundation of my world-record-setting ocean rowing team and every other team I’ve put together since. It’s called “emotion-first leadership,” ...