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OK, so maybe instead of surfing a wave to shore, you lose your nerve and end up battered in the “washing machine,” surfacing covered in scrapes and bruises, wondering what the heck just happened.

Get used to it. It happens to the best surfers.

Every person or team with ambition will experience failure. Just as every wipeout teaches you lessons as an individual, disappointments can also lend your team experience and perspective.

Make no mistake, you will wipe out. The only way to avoid it is never to challenge the surf and never to leave your comfort zone. That’s worse than failure. Apply the S.U.R.F. Strategy to accept feedback and correct course any and every time your team has a setback or wipeout.

Do an after-action report and work with your team to learn and apply in the future.

Demonstrate and Expect Loyalty

A team of great surfers cannot exist without trust and loyalty.

We have hundreds of opportunities to demonstrate loyalty to those we serve above, below and beside us on the organization chart. From being courteous to just holding your tongue when you have the urge to gossip, trust and loyalty grow one interaction at a time. They are eroded and destroyed the same way.

In big wave surfing, trust and loyalty come in the form of those jet ski riders who tow surfers out of the way of killer waves. A surfer must trust the rider to bail him out when things go bad.

In your business life, it may not be life and death, but no person can achieve without the help of others.

The bank account of trust and loyalty always shrinks or grows. Every transaction you have with those around you either grows your wealth of trust and loyalty or makes a withdrawal. Loyalty is easy when things are good. But when difficulties come, if your balance is zero, who will still be standing beside you?

Loyalty is a choice. Loyalty is being honest even when it is uncomfortable. Loyalty is pushing people out of their comfort zone with a vision of the greatness they may not see in themselves. Loyalty is appreciating others. It is adding value to others. Loyalty comes from your everyday actions and interactions. You don’t have to speak a single word to be communicating. Actions don’t speak, they scream.

All Alone…Together!

Before you can lead or motivate others, you must learn to lead and motivate yourself.

Every surfer is an individual. You are alone, and yet you are part of one or more teams. In truth, we are all alone…together. Developing surfing greatness in others is about the leadership of self.

Every interaction with someone either brings them up or takes them down.

Learn to make every opportunity count and find ways to always build others. This is the essence of attracting, developing and keeping great surfers. Achieve your victories by adding value to others, and you will see the tide lift all surfboards.

Surfing is individual, but certainly more fun and fulfilling when you can share it with others!

This post is an excerpt from the book Carpe Aqualis! written by Kahuna Business Group’s Founder/ CEO Frank F. Lunn.


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