Coaches and mentors fostering resilience in clients will soon benefit from wisdom gleaned from a record-breaking rowing team.
Henley Business School has partnered with British team Heads Together and Row, who in December 2018 will take on the 3,000-mile Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, a world famous rowing race from the Canary Islands to Antigua.
As well as supporting the crew of three men and one woman, Henley will work with the team on a research project focusing on developing individual and team resilience over time, with Henley researchers following their training, tracking performance and resilience markers and documenting performance
during the race itself.
Dr Caroline Rook is leading the project. Lecturer in leadership at Henley Business School and researcher in how to enable sustainable high-performance leadership and healthy organisations, Dr Rook said that working with the crew will help Henley’s research “shed more light on a resilience model where cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, metabolic, cognitive and emotional health are clearly linked in their contribution to sustained
high performance.”
Lessons learnt will inform those supporting clients to be more resilient. Rook said, “Coaching can build up resilience in managers. As coaching helps to increase understanding of personal and job pressures or deal with particular problems, clients tend to feel more confident, productive and less stressed as a result. Through increasing self-awareness and self-efficacy [general goals of coaching] appraisal of and coping with stress is positively influenced.”
However, she said, “Executives [and others] often do not necessarily actively seek out coaching on stress or to build up resilience. Executives often want coaching to help them become more effective or successful at work. Thus, I believe that particularly in executive coaching, attention should be paid on how to start a conversation around stress and resilience.”
The crew set off in December and will compete in the unsupported rowing race, a journey they expect will take 40-60 days, including Christmas at sea. The physical and mental challenges could range from 40ft waves and hurricane strength winds to 40 degree heat, all while facing blisters, sea sickness, saltwater sores and the
risk of capsize.
Their race will also be a world record attempt to become the fastest mixed four to row the Atlantic east to west.