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In This
Issue...
 Living Impossible
Dreams
Ouch! Is it Time to Redesign
Your Systems?
Searching Ourselves: Avoiding
Office Boxing Rings
Believe It or Not—
Workplace Bias Still Exists
Bedtime Stories for Your
Organization
Economy Breeds
Short-Sightedness
Features...
Peter Block
Column
Views for a
Change
Pageturners
Heard on the
Street
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Living Impossible Dreams
Whether at Work
or Atop the Andes, We Set Our Own Limits
--
Imagine racing for days
through the Southern Hemisphere by foot, kayak, horseback
and inflatable canoes as a team. Your team must finish
together regardless of your physical condition. Even the
strongest of men might have second thoughts, but for
Rebecca Rusch what seems impossible is merely a challenge
to face head-on, regardless of your gender.
Rusch was a team captain for the 1999
EcoChallenge in Patagonia. Her fourth place finish was
all the more remarkable since her team was one of the few
teams with three women and one man.
Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Chicago,
she received a degree in business and marketing. She quit
her job in 1997, moved into her Jeep and took up racing
fulltime.
Rusch is an invited speaker at AQP's
Spring Conference, "Maximizing Performance and Leadership
Potential of Everyone," March 19-21 in Chicago, Ill.
Other speakers include, Peter Block and Michael
Singletary, pro-football Hall of Famer. For more
information, visit www.aqp.org.
She recently spoke with AQP’s
Executive Director Kevin McManus about leading teams,
celebrating the human spirit and making impossible dreams
happen in our lives. NFC: Of all the teams you’ve
been on, which worked the best?
Rusch: The Patagonia one was pretty incredible. I
can’t look at anything in that race that I would
change, which is unusual. I also just came back from a
race in Tibet and Nepal, that was with a bunch of new
people, but surprisingly worked great.
NFC: Why do you think it went so well?
Rusch: I think that both times the people had
competed a lot before. They had personalities that were
similar to mine and were there for the same reasons.
Luckily, we got together.
NFC: Many times in business we say that we have
effective teams, but we’re looking for some type of
process that’s repeatable so that we can keep this
alive. But if it all just happens by chance, what does
that mean for us?
Rusch: No, I don’t think that. Some of
it’s by chance, just as you happen to work with
somebody by chance, but what do you do with the
situation?
When I said they had all had race experience
before, it’s not only that they are good at all the
sports and know what to wear and eat, but they also know
how to communicate with their other teammates. They know
how to say, “Look, I’m hurting. I need you to
tow me on the mountain bike right now because I’m
too tired.”
It’s hard for a lot of people to accept or
give help, or to know when help is needed and not be an
egomaniac about it. For example, by saying, “Well,
I carried your pack yesterday. You need to carry mine
today.” It’s all very selfless. It’s
one goal. You want the team to get to the finish
line—not just you getting to the finish line.
NFC: What is the toughest team situation
you’ve been in?
Rusch: I think Morocco. Three out of four of us
finished that race. That was the first time I was a team
captain and being in that leadership role was new for me.
I really didn’t know anybody on that team. It was
like a giant blind date. We ended up getting lost for
quite a long time and tried to not come down on our
navigator. There were so many things that another team
could have gotten really upset about. And I was upset,
but realized that it’s not going to help anybody to
scream, yell or be negative. All that’s going to do
is slow everyone down and waste energy.
NFC: Regarding the ‘98 EcoChallenge, at one
point you said it was important to have “a strong
female finish.” Why was that so important?
Rusch: It's important to me personally for a
couple of reasons. It's been ingrained in us since we
were little tiny babies that "I'm a woman and that men
are stronger." As much as I've been successful in
athletics every time I go for a workout, every single
time I do a race, there's always, “OK, well, I'm
racing with these 6 feet tall, 200-pound guys. They're
stronger.” There's always an insecurity for me of
will I be able to keep up? Will I be fast enough? I don't
want to slow the team down. I'm the girl on the team, and
those own voices in my head are getting quieter with each
race I do, but it's still there though, it's years and
years of hard work.
NFC: What do you think is the best way to motivate
somebody?
Rusch: I think it’s different all the time.
Negative reinforcement never works, especially with
women. It’s just really a sensitivity, like being a
parent. Or if you think of somebody that as a kid was
your mentor, maybe an aunt or an uncle or your
grandparents. It’s not the people that scolded you,
which were your parents saying, “You can’t do
this.” It was some aunt or uncle that you’d
see every once in a while that you emulated. You wanted
to be like them and didn’t want to disappoint
them.
A lot of it is to be respected as a leader by
being good at the sport or being good at your job, but
also not being afraid of cleaning the toilets and just
being a normal person. I wouldn’t ask anyone to do
anything that I wouldn’t do myself.
NFC: What are the key differences between
motivating a team of women verses motivating a team of
men?
Rusch: For me, motivating a team of women is
easier because I am a woman. I can identify more with
just a little bit of the innuendos, what they’re
thinking or feeling or if they start crying. Guys are
just a little bit more closed, especially in a physical
situation where you put the woman and the man against
each other. If the girl’s doing better than the
guy, it’s sort of a blow to the guy’s ego
because physically they’re supposed to be stronger.
If people open their eyes and think, “OK, well,
this person was better than me today at this thing, but
that doesn’t mean I’m not a good athlete. It
doesn’t mean that I’m a bad person. Tomorrow,
I may be able to help her kayaking.” If people can
let go of their ego and accept that, that’s when
the team’s going to do well.
NFC: Have you been in a situation where you were
the team leader and you had a team member that was really
dominant or aggressive and you had to deal with that? Or
have you been fortunate to stay away from that kind of
thing?
Rusch: I haven’t been in a situation where I
was leader and that was happening. But, I’ve
definitely been on teams where there were some dominant
personalities. I just stepped back and thought,
“OK, there’s enough personality going on
here. I’m just going to sort of cruise along in my
own little world.”
That happened in the Australia race and I regret
that I didn’t speak my mind a couple times when I
thought we were going the wrong way. These people were so
dominant that I let them be dominant. Instead of standing
up and saying what I believed, I let it pass over. They
made me feel that my ideas were wrong and I definitely
learned that wasn’t the situation. I didn’t
need to be as aggressive as they were, but speaking up is
definitely the way to do it. And say, “Hey, what do
you guys think about this?” And maybe it’s
not right, maybe it is, but I don’t think that
holding your tongue in a team situation helps anyone,
because the more brains involved the better.
NFC: Why are you able to realize true team
effectiveness while we struggle so much with it in the
work world?
Rusch: The one luxury is that we do have a choice
of teammates. It’s not to say that we always get it
right. I think the number one reason teams do not finish
a race is that the teams don’t get along and they
just can’t work it out. That’s why
there’s a 50 percent finishing rate.
Everyone hopefully chooses a job that they love,
but in essence it’s still a job, and you
don’t choose to go every single day. Whereas with
these races, I’ve chosen to be there, and to me
that’s kind of the big difference. But I also think
that it’s not nearly as extreme a situation to be
at work. You can eat whatever you want. You can go home
at the end of the day and let go of it.
The skills that anyone learns when they’re
physically depleted, and can still work as a team, can
easily be applied when somebody’s not physically
depleted. A lot of times it takes getting to that point
before you realize, “OK, I can let go of my ego. I
can let go of all these barriers I put up.” Once
someone is physically tired they can’t put up
anymore barriers. They’re who they are.
NFC: You said that picking teammates is a lot like
hiring someone. What’s the most important question
you would ask when hiring a teammate?
Rusch: Obviously, they need to be skilled. In
addition, the motivation of why they’re there is
really important to me. If they’re just there to
win and that’s all that matters, then those
aren’t the kind of teammates I want to race with. I
want to race with people who are passionate and who love
being outside and who are nice people.
NFC: So you’re there as much for the
experience as for the glory?
Rusch: Right. I think if you put the experience
and getting along with your teammates and really enjoying
the whole thing ahead of the glory—if that’s
what you want to call it—then the good results fall
into place.
NFC: Your web site uses the phrase, “The
sheer power of the human spirit.” what does that
mean to you?
Rusch: I’m still learning it. It’s the
essence of what people are, why we’re in this
world. We’re not in this world to work and make a
bunch of money or to win an EcoChallenge. I think
we’re here to share time with other people and
passions with other people and to do things that are
important to us, that make us feel good and happy. When
people really go for that and they follow what their
dream is, I just don’t think that anything can stop
them. It’s very cliché, but it really is the
truth.
Three and a half years ago, I had never done an
adventure race. I never in my life thought I would be
doing stuff like this. If I sat and looked at it, I still
can’t believe that I do it. If I look at these
races and at the course map, and I go through the race in
my head, and the times we slept, it’s impossible.
What you ask yourself to do, physically, it’s
impossible if you think about it. But if you just let
your spirit, heart and team carry you, it’s
easy.
NFC: What are the goals of the girls’ camps
you work at?
Rusch: There are a lot of different people that
sign up. Moms from L.A. who have just been doing the
stair machines inside. They've never camped in their
whole life, and they come out to really enjoy the
outdoors for the first time in their life. Drinking out
of a tube and sleeping on the ground, are really big
things for them. The weekend is really life-changing. A
lot of people go home and they make some big change in
their life. I think it's because people get away. They're
with a bunch of strangers, and they form a team with
these strangers. They see what they can do. It shows
people that their limits are irrelevant. They set them
and they're the only ones who set them.There’s so
much they can do if they just want to.
NFC: If you could somehow make the folks in the
world learn one thing from your experiences, what would
it be?
Rusch: That there are no limits. You set your own
limits. Anyone can do anything they want, they just have
to want to. And it was something I said, when I watched
the telecast from Morocco, Lisa, the girl who ended up
dropping out, who was the really difficult one to deal
with, we were having this fire side chat where she was
saying to us, “I don’t think I want to go
on.” It was the first time in the race she said
that she wanted to quit. And I looked at her, and I
don’t really remember this, but after watching it I
do, and I said, “Lisa, I know you can do this, you
just have to want to.” She didn’t respond and
I knew she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to
finish. She knew from the beginning that she wasn’t
going to finish, and she had been saying it to me from
the beginning.
I’ve said that out loud before too, but in
your heart you think, “Wow, maybe I can.”
Those are the people that finish the projects or that do
well at work. Maybe they say they can’t do it, but
inside they say, “Well, maybe...”
NFC: Who has inspired you more in your life than
anyone else?
Rusch: You know, the answer five years ago would
have been different, but right now I’d have to say
it’s my Mom. We went through some hard times. It
was just me, my Mom and my sister growing up. It was a
house full of girls. Mom was working for Sears as a
computer programmer and working her way up to a top-level
executive in the computer industry. She’s a very
aggressive woman, and she knows what she wants.
It wasn’t until I started racing that I
realized she’s made it in a man’s world the
same way that I am. I see now, as an adult, all the
similarities we have and how much she’s really
supported me in what I’ve done. She’s
supported me in quitting my job and moving into my car,
so I could do this. Mom shows up at every single race and
at every single finish line. Sometimes it’s like,
“Leave me alone, Mom.” It’s just like
the normal parent stuff, but when I step back and go,
“Gosh, she really supports me in what I do.”
If she were not that independent and strong at breaking
the mold in her generation in a man’s world, I
don’t think I would be doing what I’m doing
now.
A few years ago I didn’t recognize that and
we had the typical parent-child relationship. But now
it’s great. She’s my agent. I asked her to do
that about six months ago, and I was nervous about
working together. But now I’m realizing we’re
the same. We’re so similar, just in different
fields.
September 2000 NFC
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