Originally published at CLO Lens. Available here.
May, 2025
What can a $40K wooden sailboat teach us about world-class leadership?
More than you might imagine…
I wrote this piece to explore what’s possible when we stop managing and start really leading. When we move beyond outdated paradigms and step into something far more powerful: human-centred leadership.
Huge thanks to Cathy Hoy and CLO100 for inviting me to contribute to this month’s edition of CLO Lens.
There’s a wealth of insight in this issue – especially around financial fluency for L&D. A brilliant reminder that when done right, L&D isn’t a cost centre, it’s a catalyst for real organisational value.
There is a famous Brazilian sailing regatta called the Refeno.
It’s a 300-nautical mile race from Recife to the remote island of Fernando de Noronha, and in it competed a wooden trimaran named Ave Rara. Worth just $40,000, on paper the boat was no match for high-tech carbon racers skippered by Olympic sailors.
Yet Ave Rara didn’t just win its category 15 times over 16 years, it crossed the finish line first overall four times, earning the prestigious Fita Azul award.
It shouldn’t have been possible. But it was. Not because of money or tech, but because of belief, unity, and shared purpose.
Each year, skipper Gustavo “Guga” Peixoto assembled a new crew of amateur sailors. They didn’t race for glory. They raced to test their limits – and the limits of the boat – together. Their mission was always the same: to give everything they had for a shared purpose.
This is what real leadership looks like.
Today’s business world is faster, more complex, and more fractured than ever. Yet many leaders are still clinging to outdated, Industrial Age mindsets, valuing process over people and efficiency over empathy. But those models no longer serve us.
We need a shift. Because when people don’t feel seen, connected, or inspired, they check out. And companies suffer as a result. Gallup’s 2023 report shows disengaged employees account for up to $1.9 trillion in lost productivity annually. Conversely, engaged teams are 21% more profitable.
This is the power of human-centred leadership.
For over 20 years, I’ve worked with global brands to push leaders beyond comfort zones and into experiences that rewire how they think, lead, and connect. My work with TIE Leadership and my consultancy work is rooted in the belief that real transformation doesn’t come from theory. Instead it comes from lived, uncomfortable, paradigm-shifting experiences.
Through immersive and virtual programs, we connect leaders from the Global North with challenges and communities in the Global South. From individuals to cohorts to scaled experiences impacting hundreds, we help leaders step into unfamiliar contexts that unlock resilience, cultural intelligence, empathy and innovation.
This isn’t about learning empathy. It’s about living it.
We’re not interested in soft skills; we’re developing essential human skills for a new world of work.
So where do we start?
Not with another slide deck. And not with another one-size-fits-all course.
We start by gathering off the grid, outside the norm, and away from autopilot. Through leadership programmes, immersive offsites, transformative workshops, or keynotes that crack open conventional thinking, we give leaders the space to reconnect with what really matters.
Because in a world that demands more of business, the most powerful investment isn’t in another system. It’s in your people – and the way they lead.
Let’s build the kind of leadership that moves the needle.
Like Ave Rara, they won’t always have the flashiest tools or biggest budgets. But they will have something much more powerful: belief. Unity. Purpose.
And that changes everything.
