Leadership and Management in the 21st Century: No, after you
Leadership and Management in the 21st Century: No, after you
By David Tiplady: Head of Commercial, Vodaphone Automotive
In the third of six monthly articles I make light hearted comment on diversity in today's workplace.
Last month, while considering compassionate management in today’s world, I wrote that there are two teams from Vodafone attempting to row across the Atlantic.
In December 2023 both teams, BlueTusk and WaveBreakers, will cast off from moorings in La Gomera, in rowing boats. We will have no physical support from then until we make landfall in Antigua. Everything we anticipate needing will be on board when we leave. It is 3,000 miles across the Atlantic and that’s if everyone rows in a straight line. We aim for a crossing of 40 days or less and it could easily take twice that. The boat is 8m by 1.5m and has no plumbing other than the machine to make fresh water. Any secrets anyone starts with will not survive the crossing.
Did I not mention that one team is all-male and the other all-female? And it’s a race?
The competitive nature of the challenge creates excitement. Fewer people have rowed across the Atlantic than reached the summit of Everest and none have climbed Everest in a race. Is understanding gender, race and sexual identification important? For us we face, an Ocean. Given the opportunity, an Ocean will capsize a boat and drown a person of any identity, race and orientation with total equanimity. So, is knowing that one team is male and one female relevant in today’s world?
Sadly, there are too few examples where equality has been achieved. Must the situation become less equal as we become increasingly aware of our diversity and, unfortunately, the prejudice that so quickly follows? What will it take and how long will it be before we truly celebrate our differences?
Fifty years ago this month, Bobbi Gibb was the first woman to complete the Boston Marathon. The cultural norm of the day reflected the thinking of the marathon organisers when they rejected her application saying, “Women are not physiologically able to run a marathon and we can’t take the liability”. Gibb started the race covertly. Once discovered other runners protected her, the crowd erupted with support and the Governor shook her hand at the finish line. Perhaps we should surprise ourselves more often?
Of course, if WaveBreakers do happen to make landfall in Antigua before BlueTusk it will, naturally, be because we have done the gentlemanly thing.
David runs the Commercial Department in Vodafone Automotive. He gained his MBA from Henley in 2002. Since then he has enjoyed several management positions in organisations creating technology solutions and competing in amateur endurance sport. He is a qualified Triathlon coach. Before this year, he had never rowed.
