When I bought my first motorbike, I had no idea how to ride it. Or start the engine for that matter. Once I had it in my garage, I went to buy some books to teach myself, as I had no money to spend on courses. A month after self-teaching I successfully took the exam and got my license.

Most of the written knowledge was easy to transfer to real life, but there was one skill that took some time to master. It was curving and leaning inside a curve. It requires the proper application of all the knowledge you have about the dynamics of your bike and is also one of the riskiest. You have to keep a fairly constant speed, adjust leaning constantly and try not to apply brakes. And most importantly, keep your eyes on the target, not the obstacles. This is the same you should do in personal and business life.

Let’s dissect curving

I always like to dissect things to better understand them. This way they will seem easier and manageable. Like running a marathon sounds difficult, taking a few steps does not. Well, the marathon is just a sequence of steps.

When it comes to curving in motorsports, most of us imagine the professional riders on TV leaning down on the asphalt. Looks extremely dangerous and impossible to replicate. Although I’ve never been on a track, taking the curvy roads of Tuscany follows the same logic, only the speed is different. When you come near to a curve, you have to plan, when you are in the curve execute, exiting it you can celebrate. Let’s have a look at the details now.

When you get close to a curve, you have to apply the brake(s) at the right moment and to the right extent. This way your entering speed will be perfect for the curve you are about to take. You have to be in the right gear too as it’s dangerous to shift when in a curve, as a sudden change in speed might make you lose balance. How fast you can go also depends on weather conditions, road conditions, the type of bike you have, and your knowledge of that specific section of the road.

Your position inside the curve is important too. If you turn left and position yourself on the left side, it is dangerous as you might lean over the line and hit a car with your head. The right side is better but slower. Sticking to the middle is the best but often ignored choice.

Motorbikes turn by leaning in, not by turning the wheel, like cars. When you enter a curve, you have to lean into the curve, nearing the asphalt with your body. This requires courage, especially at higher speeds. The equation is simple, the faster you want to go the more you have to lean in.

The single most important thing is the following though. You always have to look at the path you intend to take and follow it through the curve. This sounds like magic, but your bike will follow this path. If you get distracted and look away, your bike will follow. If you get scared and divert focus to the dangerous elements (wall, railing), you will fall and get hurt. You have to be aware of those but not let them take away too much of your precious attention. If your eyes are on the right path, your instincts will drive you there.

So to sum this up, when entering into a curve, choose the right speed, position, don’t be afraid to lean in, and keep your eyes on the chosen path constantly, without distraction.

Practical application

I’ve had some beautiful memories coming back, as it’s been some time I haven’t been riding in Tuscany. Riding a bike is beautiful if conditions are good and give you a wonderful flow of adrenaline and a bunch of other hormones which make you feel good. And when you are feeling good, you perform well too.

You might be thinking about what this has to do with anything in business or finance, but the principles of curving with a bike and running projects are pretty much the same. Before entering into a project, you have to prepare for it. Choose the right speed of implementation, which also helps managing expectations and secures a successful outcome. You have to do this by knowing the factors influencing your project. It is not weather and road conditions this time, but more generally the environment in which you are running your projects, the people you are running it with, the technical conditions, funding availability. The technical preparedness of the team is similar to the technical features of a bike. If you have a fully junior team, you have to choose a slow speed otherwise you will fly away mid-curve. Whereas if you have a very strong team, like a Ducati of motorsports, you can push the limits and go high speed, high performance. But make sure you are able to handle them too.

When it comes to position on the road or positioning of the project, you have several choices. You can stay in the mid-section, which is the safest, or experiment with one of the sides. The inner side would be like choosing a new project management tool for an implementation that you don’t have experience with. You might get hit halfway into the curve. The external side is like over-securing and going with very small steps, resulting in you drifting out of time and money. Stick to the middle, the safest, best-known location.

Leaning in requires courage on a bike, being 100% involved needs dedication in finance. If you invest in building a new company headquarter, you have to go and do it once it’s decided. If you lack dedication and drive, that’s a negative sign to your employees and the market as well. On the bike, if you don’t lean enough, you fly away. A similar thing happens when you are not dedicated enough to a matter or a project.

As with riding a bike, in a project you also have to keep your eyes on the right path constantly. Your instincts will drag you towards that automatically. You have to be aware of the dangerous elements, but your eyes should be on the goal, the final outcome, the place you imagined yourself to be. During the life of a project, it is important to keep constantly reminding your team and yourself what the end goal is. The thing that initially dragged attention and fuelled motivation. A good example was when I started working on a PowerBI project and imagined what the final outcome will be. By constantly keeping the team’s eyes on this target I didn’t let the project steer in the wrong direction and it was a constant motivator too. There were dangers and loads of obstacles on the way, but the chosen path is always meant to be followed.

Conclusion

I drew here an analogy between curving with a motorbike to project management as it has a number of similarities. Choose the right speed knowing your limitations and circumstances. Once the choice was made and it’s inevitable that you will have to take that curve/project, lean in with 100% dedication, and keep focusing on the target all along the way. No distractions, no second thinking, just keep focusing and your brain will do the magic.

Photo credit goes to: Ride Thru Media