It might at first sound an absurd paradox, a sporting oxymoron, a human impossibility: the notion and reality of a caring high-performance culture. But I've seen up close how the Cambridge women's team have been investing in it and, though it can never only be measured and justified in race outcomes, it certainly paid off on Saturday.
Culture can seem vague, difficult to control and slow to develop. Yet it remains a huge performance factor that many teams are only at the beginning of working out how to optimise. It's so tempting to set goals to increase watts per stroke, weights lifted in the gym and rowing machine scores. But this season the Cambridge women's chief coach, Paddy Ryan, set a goal to have "care as a guiding principle of everything we do" and embarked on exploring what a caring culture could mean for the students, coaches and support staff.
The race on Saturday demonstrated that a caring environment does not damage performance. Nobody watching the women's Boat Race could describe the Cambridge crew as "soft", unable to dig in when it mattered or weak under pressure - quite the opposite.
Psychological safety is a term used across sport and business with research emphasising its connection to team performance. Yet many leaders and sports coaches hold on to a deeply ingrained belief that performance environments must be difficult, even miserable, and that challenge is beneficial with less support, rather than more.
Denne historien er fra April 04, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian.
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Denne historien er fra April 04, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian.
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