Management demystified using tennis

When you type ‘management’ into Google, the first result reads:
“the process of dealing with or controlling things or people.”
My God that sounds awful. ‘Dealing with something’ is almost always not fun. It’s likely something annoying or problematic. ‘Controlling’ is not any better. It screams distrust and incompetence. No wonder the word has a poor sound to it.

We need a new way to think about ‘management.’ And I have chosen the game of tennis to help us with that. I hope this will give you a new framework to think about how to lead and empower people. Let’s jump in 👉

Hire individuals who love the game of tennis 😍

I know it’s easier said than done. But recruiting people who genuinely enjoys the game, makes all the difference. Find individuals who play tennis, for the sake of playing tennis. As their number one priority. Not for the money, fame or all the other superficial stuff.

How do you do that exactly, Jonas? Well, that’s the hard part of it, I know. I believe passion is like love: you know it when you see it. And over time you learn how to spot it early. Passion that is. I’m not talking about falling in love with minors here…

Moving on. What I try to look for is why people are passionate about their field. Do they have a parent they look up to who used to play tennis? Is there something about the sport that fits their temperament extremely well? Like individual freedom and clear outcomes. A high level of teamwork. Or high risks and high rewards. Do they look up to famous tennis players? If so, who and especially why? The stronger the why, the greater the passion I usually find. But again, you start to see patterns over time. Spending a lot of time with people who loves to play tennis, makes it a lot easier to spot in new people as well.

Draw up the field 🎨

In tennis, you’re standing in a rectangular square. You need to hit the ball, so it goes over the net. But not outside of the court. And you need to do it so well, so the other player is not able to return your ball.

Those are the simple rules. And we know from business that having some boundaries increases the chance of:
A) knowing what to do, B) focus your energy on what’s important and C) be creative about it. So make sure to draw up the field. Set the context if you will. In business this can be:

• the company background and reason for existence
• the company culture, deconstructed in collective behaviour, traits, values, and traditions
• how to communicate with your colleagues and how to make decisions
• the relevant teams and their responsibilities
• the future direction of the company

Give people the required tools 🎾

In tennis, you need a racquet and balls. In business, you need a computer, access to relevant online tools, keys to the building and so forth. Make sure people have the needed tools from day one.

Give feedback to make sure people don’t play tennis blindfolded 👍 👎

This one is a little tricky. But follow me here for a second. Imagine you play tennis with blinders on. You serve, and then nothing happens. Was the ball in? Did I hit the net? Did I do well or did I not do so well? The basic feedback loop needed to learn anything. If you don’t know how you’re doing, you don’t know how to improve.

In business, you need to be mindful about not letting your people play tennis blindfolded. Because it’s not always clear to them how they’re doing. Not because they are stupid. At least hopefully not. But more likely because you have more information about the context than they do.

You need to talk to your peers frequently. You need to track the right things and thereby implement short feedback loops. You need to clearly define the outcome to empower them in the right direction.

Match skill set with challenges ⚖️

You continuously need to match the skill set with the level of challenges. It’s not that fun to play tennis with either somebody much better or much worse than yourself. You will loose your great players if they don’t feel challenged. In business, this is not always a human competitor, but rather a hard problem to solve. Match the difficulty of the problem with the right skill set.

Sometimes you might have to ‘give back,’ playing somebody not as good as yourself. ‘Pay it forward’ it’s called in the business world. But it can’t take up the majority of your time.

Define what winning the trophy looks like 🏆

In tennis this is pretty easy: Outcompete your competitor by winning most of the balls. Do it throughout many matches and win the trophy in the competition.

In business, it can be a little bit harder. But you need to make sure that people always have the trophy, the higher purpose, in mind. And not only that but also an understanding of what it takes to get to play in the finals.

Help develop their career path 🗺

Success in tennis can mean different things. For some players, it’s winning the Wimbledon. For others, it’s transitioning into becoming a tennis coach. For some, it’s commentating the game of tennis. Still for some, it’s judging the matches. Make sure that winning the Wimbledon is not the only way to progress in tennis.

In business, the typical mistake is to think that becoming a manager at some point is the only way to be successful. Because success is apparently how many people you manage.

It is not true, however. Yes, you need managers in a company, as you need coaches in tennis. But that’s only one way to go. And it’s not necessarily the way to go. Oftentimes the real stars are the players, playing the game. If you’re not a great coach, then focus on becoming a better tennis player or judge. There are many roads to success.

Give people the freedom to practice and learn from their mistakes 🕊

Sometimes you need to join the training session and help them adjust their swing. Other times you need to talk about their strategic positioning on the court. Or help them work on their backhand. Other times you need to let them practice and get better in peace. Be mindful of keeping that balance. Don’t be one of those tennis coaches that screams at their players every single second of the game. Trust them to put in the hours and let them learn from their mistakes. That’s the best way to grow.

It’s all just a game, so make sure to have fun! 😂

While playing tennis is extremely fun. And while it can even pay your bills at some point. It’s all just a game. So make sure to have fun while playing the game. And make sure to have fun outside the court as well. Same thing in business.

Conclusion

To help a person become an insanely great tennis player, you need to:

Hire players that love the game. Define the playing field in an easy to understand way. Give people the tools to succeed. Provide them with continuous feedback to help them improve. Match their individual skill level with the challenges on the court. Paint the picture of what winning looks like. Help them develop their career path in whatever direction they wish to go. Give people the freedom to practice and get better each day — without breathing them down the neck. And make sure you have fun in the process!

Imagine if we started to say “I’m in charge of empowering people. I’m responsible for serving them. My focus is to clear their path. I try to help them grow.” Instead of implying that you deal with and control people as a manager.