| Have you heard of the BT Global Challenge? | | | | Emotional Intelligence but also intellectual and |
| It’s known as the world’s toughest | | | | management competencies which underpin managerial |
| yacht race because it’s sailed the wrong | | | | performance. |
| way round the worldagainst prevailing | | | | This project, they wrote, provides an |
| winds and currents. All kinds of waves and weather | | | | exciting opportunity to see if our findings are borne |
| conditions are likely to be encountered. The | | | | out in a very different and challenging setting
[It] |
| originators have designed it crewed by amateurs: | | | | provides an excellent opportunity to explore team |
| The identical fleet ensures that only the | | | | working in extreme conditions and the impact of |
| seamanship, skill and determination of the people | | | | Emotional Intelligence and other personality |
| taking part make the difference between winning | | | | factors. |
| and losing. | | | | After the race, one of the participants, Norwich |
| What’s the race like? According to the | | | | Union’s Annabel Pearson said, Someone |
| originators of the race, the sailors will encounter the | | | | asked me this morning whether they thought that |
| extreme conditions of the world’s oceans. | | | | there would ever be a day go by when I |
| From the unpredictable calm of the doldrums to | | | | didn’t think about something on this race. |
| the huge seas, icebergs and gale force winds of the | | | | Possibly not. |
| Southern Ocean, they say, the race is an | | | | It lasts for 10 months, by the way. |
| extraordinary test of personality and human | | | | I have learnt so much. I have circumnavigated the |
| endeavour - pushing everyone to the limit. You | | | | world — something I only ever dreamed |
| can read more about it here: | | | | about, added Pearson. Emails have made life |
| What do you think it would take to win such a race? | | | | bearable in these conditions and is a vital ingredient in |
| Did you think of emotional intelligence qualities? | | | | keeping morale high on the boat. |
| Professors Malcom Higgs and Victor Duleqicz did. | | | | Spirit of Hong Kong’s Paul Lynch concurred. |
| They’re emotional intelligence experts at | | | | A lot of energy comes from outside the boat |
| Henley Management College, located in Greenlands, | | | | from emails like [his nephew] Will’s. |
| Henley-on-Thomas, Oxfordshire. | | | | What did the researchers find? I’m still trying |
| Before the BT Global Challenge 2000, they collected | | | | to find out myself. But isn’t it interesting that |
| from the individual skippers and crews data on | | | | the soft skills were considered important to |
| personality, personal competencies, emotional | | | | investigate in such a presumably physical endurance |
| intelligence, motivation and team dynamics. Our | | | | test? And that the participants mentioned — |
| current research on managers confirms, they said | | | | of all things — emails from home? |
| in an interview, that it is a combination of not only | | | | |