Formula 1 strategy lessons that you can apply to your career management

I am a Formula 1 fan and, because of that, I have been reading everything I can about it. It's impressive the parallels that one can draw to career management and, in fact, many other areas in life.

If you are interested in knowing more about Formula 1, watch "Formula 1: Drive to Survive", a Netflix series. You don't have to be an aficionado to understand and enjoy it. Another suggestion I can also give you is the book Total Competition: Lessons in Strategy from Formula One by Ross Brawn and Adam Parr. It was the first time I came across the sentence “luck is preparation waiting for an opportunity”, which changed my way of thinking and propelled me to write about career management.

So now you are wondering, how is this relevant to career management? Yes, career management is a thing and rather an important one! More to come on this topic. Watch this space. But for now, carry on reading for some tips.

Well, if the NHS (National Health Service in the UK) can partner with Formula One to tackle patient flow and reduce delays, so can we! This partnership resulted in a significant restructuring of the patient handover procedure, resulting directly from the F1 pit technicians' input. If you want to learn more, click here. Perhaps I am too naïve to think that I can compare career management to the partnership mentioned above, but the reality is that we can use some of its principles.

Formula One is perhaps one of the most throat-cutting industries; therefore, teams always have to push themselves and the boundaries to the limits. A fraction of a second can make all the difference. How often have you almost got that job or that promotion? Yes, it was not down to a fraction of a second (unless you are a professional athlete or similar). Still, it was probably due to the relationship you built with your manager and those around you. Probably it was the perception you created of yourself and the quality of your work (what I call your brand). Perhaps it was the fact you couldn’t showcase your experience and skills on your CV/interview. There could be many reasons… And some you can’t control, that’s just a fact. But the truth is: if you don’t do all the things within your reach to ensure you are successful, then you have no one else to blame but yourself.

Ross Brawn has done many things in his 40-year old career. His strategy principles that are relevant for career management are:

• Avoid unnecessary conflict

• Build trust consistently

• Know yourself and know the others

• Embrace humility

• A complete process leads to a competitive product

• Develop and apply a set of rhythms and routines

• Strive for simplicity, manage complexity

• Never stop iterating and improve continuously

This last point is close to my heart. I strive to use continuous improvement in everything I do. One of the things that one often overlooks is how to improve oneself. One quick-win I can give you is to keep updating your CV. It doesn’t matter if you are looking for a job or not. Because once you actually need it, you will have to rush to complete it. And that will not play in your favour. If you look at your CV in iterations, you will be able to spot things you haven’t noticed before. If you keep updating it, it will be much easier to remember what you have done that is worth mentioning in this tiny document.

How many of us stop to think after a recruitment process, what went wrong? In F1, this is their daily life. After every Grand Prix (race) there is a debrief to understand what went well and what went wrong. And the main objective is to correct it for the next race.

There is so much more that I can tell you about Formula One and how it can be applied in your career management. But I will leave that for another time, so I don’t bore you with this long read.

Pro tips:

• Don’t do a CV with more than two pages (in fact, one is probably the best option, especially if you are junior or very senior with an established career)

• Format and spelling are fundamental and often overlooked. If you struggle to create something visually appealing, use, for example, one of these resources (they also have free versions): www.novoresume.com, www.resume.io, www.canva.com. Remember: recruiters/hiring managers will look at dozens, if not hundreds, of CVs. Make sure you are not easily forgotten or disregarded.

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Stay safe!

Claudia