You Can’t Lead a Team That Can’t Find Your Rhythm
What The Boys in the Boat teaches us about leadership, strategy, and the power of cadence.
There’s a scene in The Boys in the Boat that we return to every time we launch a new cohort of Atlas Rose Licensed Fractional CMOs. It’s the Poughkeepsie race. Eight rowers. One boat. An extraordinary amount of pressure. And a young man sitting at the stern who isn’t rowing at all.
Every time we watch it, something new stands out. And every time, we’re reminded of a fundamental truth about leadership: You cannot lead a team that doesn’t know your cadence.
Before we go any further, watch the scene.
Now, let’s talk about what just happened. Because there’s a lot more going on in that boat than eight men rowing toward a finish line.
The Most Important Person in the Boat Isn’t Rowing
One of the most fascinating characters in the scene is Bobby Moch, the coxswain. While eight men are exerting every ounce of physical energy they have, Bobby is sitting in the stern. He’s not pulling an oar. He’s not providing the physical power that moves the boat forward. But he’s absolutely essential to its success.
He’s watching the race unfold, assessing the competition, calling out instructions, setting the pace, and reminding his crew what they’re capable of and when it’s time to give more. He’s leading.
Here’s what struck us during a recent cohort discussion: It must take tremendous discipline to sit in that seat and not row. Imagine the temptation. Everyone around you is working at maximum capacity. They’re exhausted, fighting for every inch, and you’re sitting there asking them to work harder. Surely there’s a part of you that wants to grab an oar and help. But the moment Bobby picks up an oar, he stops doing the very thing his team needs him to do.
That’s a powerful picture of strategic leadership. As fractional CMOs, we often step into organizations full of people doing the work. Marketing teams are producing campaigns, salespeople are pursuing opportunities, agencies are executing deliverables, and business owners are trying to keep everything moving. It’s tempting to jump in and start rowing alongside them. And sometimes, that’s exactly what the situation requires.
But if we spend all our time rowing, who’s watching the race? Who’s assessing the conditions? Who’s calling the cadence? Who’s making sure all that effort is actually moving the organization in the right direction?
Our value as strategic leaders isn’t measured solely by how much work we personally produce. It’s measured by how effectively we lead the collective effort. That requires a different kind of discipline.
A Great Strategy Is Not the Same as Great Leadership
Something else happens during the race that deserves our attention. There’s a plan going in. The crew has trained. The coach has prepared them. They know the race strategy, the pacing, and the moments when they’re supposed to make their move. But once the race begins, reality intervenes.
The conditions aren’t exactly what they anticipated. The competition behaves differently. The race unfolds in ways that demand decisions in real time. And Bobby adjusts. He doesn’t abandon the objective or forget everything they’ve practiced, but he recognizes that blindly following the original plan could cost them the race.
This is where strategy becomes leadership. We see this constantly in business. A fractional CMO enters an organization, assesses the situation, builds a strategic marketing plan, and establishes priorities. It’s thoughtful. It’s informed. It makes sense. Then the market shifts. A key employee leaves. A campaign underperforms. A competitor changes the landscape. A new opportunity emerges.
What happens next? Some leaders cling to the plan because it’s the plan. Others abandon the strategy entirely and start reacting to whatever seems most urgent. Neither is particularly effective. The art of strategic leadership is knowing what must remain constant and what must change.
The destination remains clear. The strategy provides direction. But the leader has to remain engaged enough with reality to make adjustments along the way. Bobby couldn’t simply memorize the coach’s instructions and repeat them. He had to interpret what was happening in the water and lead accordingly. That’s what we have to do for our clients.
A strategic plan isn’t something we deliver and then defend at all costs. It’s something we lead, evaluate, and refine as the business moves forward.
You Can’t Find the Swing Without Trust
In rowing, there’s a phenomenon called the swing. It’s the moment when every rower is so perfectly synchronized that the boat seems to glide. The individual movements become one collective motion. The resistance feels different. The boat moves with extraordinary efficiency.
But getting there requires more than eight strong athletes. It requires trust. Every rower has to trust the person in front of him, the people behind him, and the coxswain calling the pace. One person deciding to do his own thing can disrupt the rhythm of the entire boat.
Think about what that means inside an organization. You can have exceptionally talented people in marketing, sales, operations, and leadership. Each person can be working incredibly hard. Each can be making decisions that seem perfectly reasonable from their individual vantage point. And the organization can still struggle to move forward.
Why? Because individual excellence does not automatically produce collective momentum. People need a shared direction. They need to understand how their work connects to everyone else’s. They need clarity about priorities, timing, and expectations. And they need to trust the person leading them.
That trust isn’t automatic. It isn’t granted simply because someone has a title or a strategic plan. It’s built through clarity, consistency, sound judgment, and follow-through. When a leader repeatedly demonstrates that they understand the business, communicate effectively, and make thoughtful decisions, people become more willing to follow their lead.
And when that trust is combined with a consistent cadence, something remarkable can happen. The team finds its swing.
Cadence Is How Strategy Becomes Movement
This brings us to the lesson we most want our fractional CMOs to understand. Watch Bobby during the race. He’s not simply shouting encouragement. He’s calling specific instructions, communicating pace, and telling the rowers when to hold steady and when to increase their effort. His voice and rhythm give the entire crew something to follow.
Now imagine if he didn’t. Imagine eight rowers, each doing their best, but nobody establishing the pace. They might all be working hard. They might even be rowing in the right direction. But without a shared cadence, they’d never reach their collective potential.
And yet, how often do leaders enter an organization and attempt to lead without establishing any cadence at all? They create a strategic plan, identify initiatives, and assign responsibilities. Then everyone goes back to work. There may be occasional meetings, sporadic updates, and conversations when something goes wrong. But there’s no consistent rhythm for evaluating progress, making decisions, resolving obstacles, or keeping everyone aligned.
The strategy exists. The people are working. But the boat isn’t in sync.
Cadence is the operating rhythm that turns strategic intention into coordinated action. For a fractional CMO, that might look like a consistent rhythm of leadership meetings, marketing team check-ins, KPI reviews, initiative planning, and cross-functional alignment. The exact meetings and frequency will vary depending on the organization. The point isn’t to fill calendars. The point is to establish a reliable rhythm that allows everyone to move together.
A strong cadence answers essential questions: What are we working toward? What matters most right now? Are we making progress? Where are we getting off rhythm? What decisions or adjustments need to be made? What happens next, and who’s responsible?
When those questions are answered consistently, people stop operating in isolation. They begin working in coordination. And over time, that coordination creates momentum.
The Leader Sets the Cadence, But the Team Creates the Momentum
There’s one final distinction worth making. Bobby can’t win the race by himself. He can call the perfect strategy, establish the ideal pace, and deliver the most compelling encouragement imaginable. But if the rowers don’t respond, the boat doesn’t move.
The opposite is also true. The rowers can be incredibly strong, disciplined, and determined. But without leadership to coordinate their efforts, much of that potential is wasted. The victory belongs to the crew.
That’s an important reminder for those of us who lead as fractional executives. Our role isn’t to be the hero of the organization. It isn’t to make ourselves indispensable by personally handling every critical task. It’s to help the organization become more capable, more aligned, and more effective because of our leadership.
Sometimes that means challenging the team to push harder. Sometimes it means holding the pace. Sometimes it means recognizing that the original plan needs to change. And sometimes it means resisting the urge to pick up an oar because the team needs us to stay focused on leading.
That’s not passive leadership. It’s intentional leadership.
So, What’s Your Cadence?
If you’re leading a marketing function, a department, or an entire business, consider this: Your team may already have the talent. They may already have the resources. They may even have a well-developed strategy. But do they have a rhythm they can follow?
Do they know when you’ll come together to evaluate progress? Do they know how priorities are established? Do they know when decisions will be made and how obstacles will be addressed? Or are they each rowing as hard as they can, hoping their individual efforts will somehow add up to collective success?
At Atlas Rose, we believe fractional CMOs must be leaders before they are marketers. That means our responsibility extends beyond developing marketing strategies and recommending tactics. We have to lead the people, processes, and priorities that bring those strategies to life. And one of the most important ways we do that is by establishing cadence.
Because a strategy can point the boat toward the finish line. But cadence is what gets everyone rowing together.
And when the team finally finds its swing? That’s when the extraordinary becomes possible.
