Not Everyone Is Rowing: The Leadership Problem Hiding in Plain Sight

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

I’ve sat in enough boardrooms, church meetings, management meetings, project reviews, strategy sessions, and team interventions to know that most organisations don’t have a strategy or planning problem.

When performance starts slipping, most organisations instinctively look in the same place. They go back to the strategy. They pull out the plans, revisit the targets, question earlier decisions, and scrutinise the numbers, convinced that the answer must be hidden somewhere in the documents.

Sometimes it is but often it isn’t. I’ve seen organisations spend months refining strategies that were never the problem in the first place. They adjust goals, redesign plans, and hold meeting after meeting, yet very little changes.

Why? Because a strategy, no matter how brilliant, is only an idea until people bring it to life.

Most organisations do not struggle because they lack plans. In fact, many have excellent plans. The challenge begins when those plans move from paper to people. Execution exposes things that strategy documents cannot fix, a lack of ownership, weak accountability, poor communication, disengagement, competing agendas, or people who simply are not committed to the journey.

The longer I work with leaders and teams, the more convinced I have become that success rarely hinges on the quality of the plan alone. It hinges on the quality of the people expected and entrusted to execute it.

The real issue is not always sitting in the document, but around the table.A few years ago, I was watching a leadership team wrestle with declining performance. The discussion went on for hours,new systems were proposed reporting structures reviewed and targets were adjusted.

As I listened, I kept thinking the same thing: none of this is the real issue.Half the people in this room are the ones carrying the organisation.A few are watching,one or two are making life harder for everyone else.That’s it! Different organisation same story.My mind kept coming back to the image of a boat.Maybe because the image of the boat trips away all the corporate language. In a boat you’re trying to get somewhere.There’s water beneath you,somebody has to row otherwise we all sink.

When confronted with what I am sharing,it’s not complicated.All you have to do is look around the boat and you’ll usually find three kinds of people.

The people rowing who we will call the paddlers, the people being carried who we will call the sightseers, and the people making holes in the boat who we will call the sinkers.

The first group are easy to recognise. You know who they are and either you have them on your team or you wish they were.These are the people you call when something important has gone wrong. They can always be counted on. Its not because they possess all the talent but they are always willing to do something. Whenever there is a problem most people stand around discussing a problem but this special group of people start moving.

I remember years ago there was a young employee in a company I was working with, nothing special about her title. Nobody was talking about her future leadership potential. Nobody was mentoring her and she never really stood out.The business had inventory problems that seemed permanent and guess what?Most people complained about them.She got curious .While everyone else was explaining why the problem existed, she was trying to understand it without anybody asking her to.There was no promise of promotion nor an incentive to stay late othetr than getting the job done.

She simply cared enough to look and invest the time and energy to solving the problem.Eventually her work saved the business a substantial amount of money. When people tell that story now, they focus on the result,while I focus on the decision she made long before anyone noticed.She treated the business like it mattered.This may sound the obvious thing to do at work.It isn’t! A surprising number of people don’t show up the way she did.

Then there are the passengers, the sightseers who are along for the ride. They are harder to deal with not because they are terrible people. They may actually be nice, kind, well meaning members of your team.

They arrive at work, do only whats required and then leave.They complete enough work to avoid uncomfortable conversations. They’re rarely the reason something succeeds or the reason why something fails. They are often overhead saying , “I am only hear to do my job. They exist in the middle and that can be expensive, not because of what they do but because of what they never attempt. In a boat they are leaving the work to the paddlers and are enjoying the ride. Sightseers are expensive because they dongt pull their weight. They never share their ideas, and hardly follow up on customers.The word initiative does not exist in their vocabulary. These ones will see a problem, notice it and walk past beacause “its not my job!”.

I’ve seen organisations spend years trying to grow while carrying dozens of people who have quietly settled into maintenance mode.Nothing is broken enough to fix or alive enough to build. They put in the bare minimum effort to stay in the boat.

Then there are the boat sinkers.We dont need to explain much here because someone’s face already came into your mind.I’ve watched incredibly talented people damage teams. Very skilled yet they carry poison into every conversation. The sinkers question everything, dismiss ideas and criticise everything. Have you ever sat in a meeting with someone who always sees 101 reasons why something will not work? I have. Over time people stop bringing ideas around them.Why bother when the esponse predictable.

The interesting thing is that boat sinkers rarely think they’re the problem. In their minds they’re usually the smartest person in the room.They are the ones who see clearly and tell the truth.They “get it” when you all don’t. Meanwhile you are all getting tired of this person who cant see the damage they are doing to the team.

You see the same thing in football. As I watch the World Cup I notice that every team has talent, but this isnt what seperates them.The difference is whether the players decided that the team matters more than they do.

Look at Morocco.You don’t watch them and think about individuals first.You think about commitment,discipline,people working for each other.Nobody looks bigger than the jersey. None of the players look like they’re preserving energy for personal glory.Everybody appears to understand the assignment.

Business family, church or any other common interest group isn’t that different.

What fascinates me is how often leaders know exactly who the paddlers, sight seers, and boat sinkers are. They know! The issue is rarely awareness but courage. They know that the paddlers need to be preserved but protecting the paddlers means difficult conversations.Developing the passengers takes effort but how willing are you as a leaders to invest in growing their capacity.

The truth about sinkers is that most of them are intentionally sinking the boat. They are a few that can still be salvaged because they are probably new hires, may not be awrae of what they are doing.Dealing with the sinkers usually comes with a cost so leaders delay then wonder why the culture isn’t improving.

Here’s the uncomfortable part.Before looking around the boat, look at yourself and reflect on whether you are a paddler, sightseer or a sinker. Some leaders have become sightseers in their own organisations.They stopped growing years ago. Others are accidentally sinking the boat through indecision. They suffer from procrastination,avoidance.People pleasing and fear are holding them captive.

The boat usually reflects the captain more than the captain wants to admit.That’s why this isn’t really an article about teams but responsibility.

When the boat isn’t moving, stop blaming the river.Look at who’s holding an oar and who’s sitting back.Find the guy who’s drilling holes in the boat then decide what you’re going to do about it.Because every boat either reaches its destination or sinks.

It doesnt matter how goo your mission statement is. You may have enjoyed good annual reports or enjoyable strategy sessions in the past. Its what happens on the water that matters. On the water. When it’s time to row, row, row, row your boat.

Fitzgerald Mujuru is a multiple award-winning leadership transformation consultant, executive coach, speaker, author. With over 20 years of experience in leadership, coaching, sales, marketing, and business development, he helps leaders, entrepreneurs, and organisations bridge the gap between vision and execution.

He is passionate about developing leaders who think differently, lead with clarity, and create lasting impact through purposeful action.