Why leadership is often learnt offshore

Is the best business school cold, wet, and moving? Offshore coach Stuart Greenfield considers a management course with no lecture theater and no dry seats:

I went because, at the time, racing boats was a family thing, and seemed a perfectly sensible and exciting way to spend a weekend. The idea that it might turn into a form of education, let alone one with any relevance beyond sailing, did not feature in the plan.

But somewhere in the accumulation of night watches and bad weather, the way you think changes. Not dramatically. Not overnight. But steadily, and with a persistence that is only really noticeable in retrospect. You find yourself less interested in being right in theory and more concerned with getting the decision right in the moment. Less drawn to perfect answers, and more attuned to workable ones. Less comfortable waiting for clarity, and more inclined to act in order to create it.

I should also admit that the sea suits a particular kind of brain: one that craves action, input and attention, all the time. A boat never stops and never stops asking, and for the hyperactive mind that is a gift; the adrenaline does no harm either. Ashore, that restlessness has to be channeled differently. Offshore, it is employed. – Full report