Dream Big and Anything is Possible: Piastri for the Win!

Another rocking weekend for team McLaren Racing – this time in Budapest, this time seeing #81 Oscar Piastri taking his first F1 win and #4 Lando Norris coming in second. There has been a lot of chatter in the social media verse about the decisions made by team McLaren over the course of the weekend and I have scrolled through my fair amount of TikToks and articles listening to the various points of view, but I also feel like I look at it through a different lens because I’ve had the privilege of getting to learn a little bit more about team McLaren from team McLaren themselves. You can decide where you land for yourself, dear reader, but here are some of the things I took away after listening to the various reports and also taking the McLaren course on Udemy called Accelerating Excellence: Unleashing High-Performance Culture with McLaren Racing (yep, that is a shameless plug, you can decide whether you take action or not).

1. Dream Big: The quote in McLaren’s official race report quotes Oscar as saying “A very, very special day. This is the day I dreamed of as a kid, and to be standing on the top step of an F1 podium, with McLaren, is just incredible”. Sometimes, in the world of work and life, we get bogged down with the day-to-day, and we forget to take a moment to dream big. Sometimes it feels like there is no point in dreaming big because there are too many forces against you, or the obstacles are too much. Oscar apparently had to move to Europe from Australia at the age of 14 to pursue his racing career in England. I’m sure that wasn’t easy, and I’m sure it felt like too outlandish a step to take, but he did it, and now, look, his dreams have become a reality. So, what’s the lesson for us – remember, in work and life, to keep dreaming, take the time to think big, and don’t let innovation and creativity be knocked down by the fear of taking a few risks here and there.

2. Make Tough Decisions: One of the “controversial” moments, some might say, in the weekend racing was when Lando Norris was asked to “do the right thing” or, in other words, allow Piastri to retake the lead. I’m sure this was a hard moment for all involved, but it speaks to a few things; for me, it speaks to the hard decisions we all have to make as operators in the business world, whether that be motorsport (I know that’s a select few) or the many other areas of business. Sometimes, we have to put our interests aside and make decisions through the lens of the team or through the lens of a fellow teammate, and we have to put the team first. We can only do that, though, if we take the time to build a trusting and supportive team culture. McLaren has the concept of a no-blame culture; creating that type of safe space is key if we want to build diverse, inclusive, and high-performance teams.  

3. Have a Clear Strategy: The last takeaway is the emphasis on a clear focus and the importance of a well-communicated and understood strategy. We don’t know what was discussed in the “Sunday morning” meeting – but from the sound of things the team had discussed plenty of what-if scenarios and agreed upon a plan. Like this, there is the old adage in business around disagree and commit. Well, that adage has been around for more than 40 years and has been used by the likes of Sun Microsystems to Amazon to Netflix and more – and that’s for a reason because in times of pressure having a clear focus and an agreed upon strategy can be the difference between taking the win or playing the long game and winning a championship. So, take heed, the next time you are in a situation where you know the strategy, you know the right thing to do; remember, no one is saying ignore logic and be stubborn, but remember the strategy is the strategy for a reason.

If you want to learn more about McLaren's lessons in leadership take the course HERE

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