08/19/2024

Four Ways to Build an Olympic-level Team

Business and leadership lessons from an Olympic-level rower

While the similarities between rowing and sales may not be readily apparent to most people, they are abundant. Although I never competed in the Olympics, I participated in three World Championships between 2009 and 2011 and lived at the Olympics Training Center in Chula Vista, California.

After hanging up my oar, I migrated to San Francisco and worked at companies such as Square and PayPal under the tutelage of visionaries such as Jack Dorsey. I am currently serving as the senior vice president of global sales at Gupshup, a conversational cloud platform.

I thought I was in for a huge culture shock going from the water to Silicon Valley, but the learning curve was not that steep. The same things that make for a winning team make for a successful company. Both arenas demand synergistic teamwork, steady focus and the ability to persevere above adversity. 

Please select this link to read the complete article from SmartBrief.