Chris Fuller has written a “lessons learned” leadership book based on his Alaskan adventure training as a dog sled musher. The structure of Iditarod Leadership is both interesting and quite useful for review. Fuller speaks of “taking notes in a small notebook” while learning the ins and outs of mushing. Those “notes” appear at the end of chapters summarizing the lessons learned.
Also, words of leadership wisdom come from the training instructors as well as from Fuller. He does this by writing about how the instructors remind him of lessons from past mentors and Fuller’s interaction with his dog team. Unleashing the power of the team is a very apt subtitle.
"Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can’t get it wrong."
Many of the lessons learned support the concepts espoused by the Conscious Capitalism and Emotionally Intelligent Leader camps, and so will be familiar to some readers. It is interesting to see how Fuller draws analogies to leadership principles from his experience. I found the metaphors a bit strained on occasion, but
still, they were interesting and practical visions for modern leadership.
"Our organizations should be like Lizzie’s kennel — building the next generation of leaders from the ground up."
The lessons on team building are engaging in that each dog has a place and a job to do. Their personalities are influential, and the musher has to learn which dogs to pair, which ones are lead dogs, which ones are swing dogs, which ones are team dogs, and which ones are the wheel dogs (closest to the sled). You can see how the analogy can be made to our teams and how the leader’s awareness of personalities will help make sure the right folks are on the team and in the correct position.
All in all, this short, fun, and useful leadership book (126 pages) is well worth the time spent to read it.