Bike racing is a great sport but it’s a lousy metaphor for management. I know because I had the unfortunate experience of seeing such management in action.
I once worked for a boss who had a bike racing poster in his office. The poster was a gift from the Lehigh Valley PA-based Velodrome cycling track to its corporate sponsors. Over time I came to view this poster’s image as a symbol of my boss’s wheel-spinning management style. He would give direction for a project and then shift gears once the project was well underway. My staff and I were continually frustrated as a result. Despite the pressure to complete our work with limited time and budget resources, we had to stop the project in progress, regroup, and somehow find the time to do things over – all on budget and deadline, of course.
So forget about this type of fast track management. You can’t win with disengaged employees drained of energy and enthusiasm.