Leadership and Tennis

There are probably more books, research and articles written about leadership than any other business subject. And I have read a lot of them in my time! However, when delivering training sessions or facilitating workshops with staff it is important to be practical not academic. Discussions around “leadership” often take place as we try to get a greater understanding of what a leader is, and we often conclude that a leader is:-

“someone who figures out the right things and makes them happen”

Why I like this definition is because it has nothing to do with position, title or power – anybody can be a leader in any job.

It has two components, thinking ability (figuring out what to do) and acting ability (making things happen) and you need BOTH!

We all know people who have one or the other but without both, results and therefore success will not be achieved. You can even use it personally when you are in a tricky business situation and struggling to move forward. Are you struggling because you don’t know what the right thing is, or because you don’t know how to make the right things happen? The answers to these simple questions often lead to different thoughts and actions to solve your dilemma.

Leadership is like Tennis (and not Particle Physics).

Particle Physics is a ‘knowledge-based’ discipline. Skills such as analysis and communications are useful but in essence the more you know about the subject the better a Particle Physicist you will be.

In contrast tennis is a skills based discipline. It really doesn’t matter how much you know – what matters is how well you can apply a very small number of skills.

In tennis, there are only four basic strokes—forehand, backhand, volley, and serve.  Everything else is just a variation. You can read umpteen books about it, but what matters is how well you can hit the ball when you get on the court. In fact, lots of great tennis players read no books about it at all. To get better, they just go out and practice more.

Leadership is like tennis, not Particle Physics. The way you excel at it is by getting really good at applying a very limited number of skills, not by reading more and more about it.

For many years I used to buy and read lots of management books (from Waterstones, Borders etc), until I realised that quite often the book was already on over-laden shelves and I had already read the book!

I vowed there and then to stop reading more and more on the subject and instead to put the essential skills into practice day in and day out. This is comparable to be a great tennis player by playing tennis instead of reading more books about playing tennis.

Ok, I hear you ask,  so what are the essential leadership equivalents of the four tennis strokes? What essential skills do we need to develop as a leader in any job? They are quite simply:-

• Communication
• Creative Problem Solving
• People Leadership, and
• The Inner Game

More on Communication next time…..