The Beautiful Game: Tennis Lessons in Business & Life

In front of a packed crowd and full Royal Box, an array of Wimbledon champions were greeted by a standing ovation. Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Bjorn Borg, Billie Jean King, Venus Williams and Rod Laver were among the returning stars. The legends made their way to Wimbledon’s Centre Court in celebration of it's 100th anniversary. As I witnessed the breadth and versatility of these super-human, multi-championship winners lined up alongside one another, it left me feeling nothing short of nostalgic and inspired.

During my childhood, tennis was everything to me, it was my entire life. I experienced the joys of representing my country after winning the junior national championship as a teenager. I was lucky enough to work with some incredible coaches, mentors, fitness trainers, nutritionists, physiotherapists, sport psychologists and more, all whilst making some amazing friends and memories along the way that will stay with me forever.

Sadly, my tennis career was cut short at an early stage due to an ironic golfer’s elbow injury, however I’ll always be grateful for the life lessons I’ve taken from my experiences and being able to apply many transferable skills into the world of business - an area of fascination to me on how the human mindset in both sport and business are so closely aligned.

Back when I was at university, my dissertation focused solely on this topic. I conducted an empirical study leveraging my network of sporting peers, engaging 97 participants who completed an adaptation of Schein’s Career Anchor test to help me assess and identify if there was a prevalent leader in one of Schein’s 8 career preference constructs. The results produced a resounding majority falling into the Entrepreneurship category, which made a lot of sense given the similarities seen across entrepreneurial business leaders and champions throughout the sporting universe.

Schein describes individuals who are identified as being anchored to the Entrepreneurship career construct as the type of person who:

“Would not give up the opportunity to create an organisation or enterprise of their own, build on their own abilities and willingness to take risks and to overcome obstacles. They want to prove to the world they can create an enterprise that is the result of their own effort. They may be working for others in an organisation while learning and assessing future opportunities but will go out on their own as soon as they feel can manage it. They want their enterprise to be financially successful as proof of their abilities.”

Although the world of tennis and business have evolved significantly since this study, I strongly believe the findings still apply. Here are my broader thoughts on certain mindset characteristics shared by individual leaders in their respective fields and winning organisations that I believe we can all learn from and apply to our daily lives.

Dream Big – Have a Vision

Many of the great achievers in this world had big dreams before they even begun on their journey towards the upper echelons of success. If you believe you can, you are far more likely to get to where you want to be. A clear vision in business sets a realistic, tangible and achievable destination which serves as a collective motivator that inspires the belief in every individual that they are instrumental in contributing to a better future, together. Every person, no matter what their role, is working towards helping turn that dream into a reality. ?

“The man who has no imagination, has no wings”, Muhammed Ali

Similarly, of course, world champions in sport share the same characteristic and have big dreams of holding the cup, standing on the podium, receiving the big cheque and even whilst participating in their sport visualise the ball passing their opponent before it’s even been struck. For those with this ability and talent to make the shot, it has been scientifically proven to increase accuracy and by virtue, win more games, matches and tournaments.

“Tennis is mostly mental. You win or lose the match before you even go out there”, Venus Williams

Separately, we’ve seen an increase in popularity during recent years in the power of manifestation and law of attraction, drawing attention from thought leaders such as Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Toll and Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn with books like “The Secret” selling over 30 million copies worldwide. Why? Because having big dreams and a vision is paramount to get going and set yourself off on the right path towards a defined destination.

Evolve or become irrelevant

Stagnation is suicide. The world will surpass you if you fail to develop and improve. Competition is everywhere both in sport and in business. There will always be someone nipping away at your heels if you’re in the lead, and likewise we do the same to get in the lead if we’re not. It’s incredible to think of the evolution in tennis over the last 20 years, from technique, equipment, tactics, speed, strength, training, etc.

“If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got”, Albert Einstein

Innovation is imperative for evolution. I’m lucky enough to witness this directly, working at a world-leading fintech organisation. We pride ourselves on being the innovator for innovators and empowering those with bold ideas such as being able to buy a car via text, enabling supermarkets to serve without cashiers and connecting crypto-currencies and banks. Ideas that would’ve been shot down years ago for being too outrageous, but we’re now in a place where being bold and driving innovation has never been more important to survive, let alone enter onto the playing field.

“Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity, not a threat”, Steve Jobs

Creating sustainable success with innovation by building an innovative infrastructure to remain competitive goes way beyond technology and includes tools, systems, people, culture and process, much like in sport. Because the environment is constantly changing, improving different areas to solve emerging problems and to keep creating new value is non-negotiable.

Get the right people on the bus

If you’ve read Good to Great by Jim Collins, this may sound familiar. You can’t achieve greatness on your own. A concept our Entrepreneurship career anchored population may struggle a little more with than other characteristics listed. It takes a whole team - the right team, and in the right seats of course. It’s not just the quality of leadership, or the sporting star leading the charge who are important, it’s the quality of the whole collective. Spotting the right people and getting them to jump on your bus will ensure you are driving in the right direction with the greatest of focus and intent towards that vision.

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships” Michael Jordan

You only know what you know. Leveraging the expertise of specialists in their respective fields, who are disciplined, have a great attitude and are committed to the cause will bring new insights and skills to keep you competitive, relevant and innovative. The right people on the bus have other perspectives and expertise that are invaluable in evolving businesses, sportspeople and teams. That’s why encouraging diversity is such an advantage and has become an ever more prominent business strategy generating real, measurable rewards and thus garnering greater recognition in more recent times.

“In 2021, 47.8 million workers quit their jobs,?an average of nearly 4 million each month” *

In the age of the Great Resignation, top talent is becoming increasingly difficult to find, and keep, which is why hiring people with the right attitude who have great potential is so important in this environment. It’s also why there’s been an increased focus on outsourcing, to allow businesses to maintain their attention on achieving growth objectives whilst entrusting elements of their operations to organisations who already have the right people on their bus.

“One of the greatest values of mentors is the ability to see ahead what others cannot see and to help them navigate a course to their destination”, John C. Maxwell

Another common characteristic of successful business leaders and sportspeople is having a great relationship with a mentor, someone who they admire and can trust to share their relevant experiences with and to provide guidance and advice on what matters most. Having the right mentor in place who understands your motivations, challenges and personality can have an enormous impact on your future success.

Practice Resilience

Remember the person that gave up? Neither does anyone else. Even the greatest players of all time have their off days, impacted either by internal or external factors. It’s near enough impossible to sustain 100% optimum performance, 24/7. ?No matter how much you plan and prepare, there’s always a chance of being thrown a curve ball. Anyone who’s ever worked on a project will be familiar with encountering uncertainties – the difference in those who achieve greatness is the way they react to those curve balls. Facing challenges with optimism and a problem-solving mindset to overcome such obstacles, and even knowing when it’s best to walk away if you find yourself heading towards a dead-end are key characteristics of those successful individuals in business and sport.

“Victory is sweetest when you’ve known defeat”, Malcolm Forbes

Nurturing your bounce-back attitude and letting go of a perceived negative hurdle quickly, will keep you pushing towards achieving your vision and never losing sight of the big, bold picture. That’s what sets the good from the great apart. In tennis, this is particularly important, to reset after every single point to ensure any remnants of bitterness or self-doubt don’t impact on the next point, game or set. This takes such discipline and mental strength and is also so relevant in business too. If a pitch doesn’t go to plan, a campaign doesn’t achieve the results you expect, or there’s an unforeseen risk when building a new solution and you need to deviate from your lovely linear plan – don’t give up.

Learn from losses

Failure presents the greatest opportunity for learning and growth. Having watched Emma Raducanu’s post-match interview after getting knocked out of Wimbledon to Caroline Garcia, her practicality around addressing her weaknesses that lost her the match and eagerness to tackle those was admirable following the home turf defeat on centre court.

Closely aligned with resilience, being able to assess and analyse those weaknesses and setbacks that we all inevitably experience and having the willingness and determination to explore and understand ways on how best to combat those to better prepare for the future takes great maturity.

“Champions keep playing until they get it right”, Billie Jean King

It’s no secret that many of the greatest entrepreneurs have experienced significant setbacks, from losing their best people, to business failures and even bankruptcy’s. Whilst in some cases, acknowledging and addressing failures can be painful, damaging to the ego and attacking of one’s pride, the winners in life tackle such situations head on to embrace and find comfort in delving through Pandora’s box to get to the bottom of why, so they can learn and grow. They use this newfound knowledge as an invaluable insight to drive improvements, put in place new processes, change behaviours or go back to the drawing board altogether.

“A champion is not defined by their wins, but how they recover when they fall”, Serena Williams

If you never hit a setback, life would be boring and there’d be nothing to learn from, overcome or improve. Failures and losses are one of the best sources of information to analyse and help shape your next move. This is why we should all be taking some level of calculated risk and putting ourselves in positions where there is potential to fail so we’re exposed to the opportunity of experiencing important growth lessons.

Be Accountable

Losing, learning and owning it doesn’t come easy to everyone, and can be a real struggle for the faint hearted. Webster’s dictionary defines accountability as, "the obligation or willingness to accept responsibility for one's actions." Those that take full ownership of the good, the bad and the ugly are realists who can deal with challenges rationally to ultimately help make better decisions based on the facts. Accountability fosters an environment where individuals are committed to meeting their obligations and work with greater integrity, thereby enabling teams to work better together to meet deadlines and bring their A-game, because they care about their output.

“Accountability breeds response-ability”, Stephen Covey

Accountability is also an essential attribute in building trust. If you show up for yourself, you show up for your team, and build better relationships along the way by having control over managing the expectations of others in doing what you say, every time. You are ultimately the master of your own destiny and those who meet targets and goals set for themselves or by others by taking ownership and accountability have that burning desire to deliver. Take accountability and be more like the champions of the world.

Celebrate Success

It would be a crime not to allow yourself to bask in the glory of your success when it comes. Arrogance isn’t an admirable trait, and conversely modesty shouldn’t always be the go-to either. Success is a truly beautiful thing, which absolutely should be celebrated otherwise what’s the point of having a Big Dream!?

“Learning to celebrate success is a key component of learning how to win in the market”, Douglas Conant

It’s important to reward yourself for all of the hard work and effort that you put in, recognise it, and shout about it too. Not everyone will become a Wimbledon champion or a multi-millionaire business tycoon, but we all have our own self-set goals and measures of success, some aligned to our business objectives and those set out by our organisation, managers and business leaders but it’s important to celebrate when you achieve any goals you set for yourself too. Recognition will help your confidence soar whilst making it easier to maintain sight of your Big Dreams and keep heading towards your vision.

As mentioned earlier on, with getting the right people on the bus, having a mentor / mentee relationship can make the world of difference. In celebrating your success, you can serve as an inspiration to others and experience the other side of the coin in being the mentor, which also poses significant benefits from a leadership perspective.

Rest & Recover

Last on my mini list is that business and sporting leaders don’t underestimate the importance of rest and recovery. Again, this is another topical point as the issue of burnout has gained an increasing amount of publicity over recent years. Taking the time to rest your body and mind, whilst knowing when to do so gives the opportunity of reaping the rewards when you get back to it with a fresh mind and perspective. Recovering from burnout can take a lot longer than taking a break before you reach that point, in sport to avoid injury and in both to avoid overwhelm and other physical and mental health implications.

“If you feel “burnout” setting in, if you feel demoralized and exhausted, it is best, for the sake of everyone, to withdraw and restore yourself.”, Dalai Lama

Hundreds of thousands of hours have gone into dissecting leadership traits and characteristics by the brightest brains from every segment throughout history, to try and ascertain a formula on how someone goes about becoming great in whichever field they choose. This is just a snapshot of some of my very high-level views on just a few of the characteristics that spring to my mind based on what I’ve seen, learned and experienced.

To sum it up, if you are one of those super-humans who are getting closer to their Big Dreams through the highs and lows, the rough and the smooth (tennis pun intended) I am in awe of you and inspired by your many amazing traits, talents and sheer tenacity. As the quest for unearthing the ever-evolving “method for achieving greatness” continues, we’re all lucky enough to have our own unique and special formula to keep us on track in chasing our individual dreams. Keep winning team!

* U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, 2021