Toto Wolff has been heading the Mercedes F1 team since 2013. Mercedes won the constructors championship for 8 consecutive times from 2014 to 2021. Then suddenly as new rules came through in 2022, the golden era of Mercedes was over. Toto Wolff gives some insight in a short interview as to how he had to adapt his leadership style when the winning streak for Mercedes was over and when things got more difficult. He also explains how he had to manage himself and not try to micromanage everything.

Click HERE to listen to this interview on Spotify and HERE to listen to it on Apple Podcasts and HERE to listen to this interview on Google Podcasts.

Two points to focus upon as you listen the interview.

The first point is how Toto Wolff has to adapt his leadership style when things got difficult and Mercedes stopped winning. As he says at first there was shock and then there was a period of minimisation as the mind defends itself by “hoping” that this is just a temporary blip and things will just revert to how things where in better days. Then the major risk is accepting mediocrity and not winning becomes an accepted norm. I see this happening in family businesses all the time. The performance of the business has taken a downturn and there is either shock or an element of false hope that this is just a temporary blip (some of the so called temporary blips had been going for years) and that things will go back to how they once where in some magical way. When this does not happen, a sense of helplessness creeps in and the focus turns on justifying mediocrity rather than working on changing things round.

The second point to keep in mind, is when Toto Wolff speaks about his natural reaction to try to micromanage everything. He owns up to being a control freak but speaks about how he had to go about things with his technical team members in getting issues sorted without him micromanaging them.

Hope you enjoy this podcast. I found it very insightful.

As I keep repeating, leadership is a learnable skill. However, it will not be learnt on its own. Leadership training is probably the best investment you can do in yourself, team members and ultimately your business.