66. What executives can learn from watching high-performance sports.

Introduction

Here we are, starting 2021 with a new sense of hope that our lives and careers will get back on track.

As my team and I take a break from working non-stop since the launch of this podcast back in October 2019, I have selected for you a very special episode from our catalog, which I feel is a perfect listen for this time of the year. You may not have heard this episode yet, or if you have, it may be worth re-listening. I have picked it to match the times we live right now, and I feel it will be a great companion as you walk your dog, prepare a meal, or get ready to take action on your New Year’s resolution.

About this episode

In this episode, I’ll be sharing with you my observations of high-performance individuals. In this case, high-ranking tennis players and their teams, their coaches, family, doctors, physios – and draw learnings and ideas we can use in managing our careers and getting ready for job hunting and career progression.

I believe we can learn by observing, and not just by reading books or going to school. High-performance research studies, high-performing individuals, and teams have been topics I am interested in for over 15 years. I started paying more attention to sports performance when I wrote my Honours thesis and noticed a link in the bibliographical references in papers I was reading: management and psychology literature referenced papers from sports and health journals.

The more I read, the more fascinated I became about using the learnings usually applied for high-performance tasks and activities such as sports, defense, and space travel. And applying it to highly stressful, endurance-type career situations we face so often. Still, we don’t realize they are indeed a) competitive and b) endurance events that require strategic planning and team support.

This episode was first aired as a Facebook Live Video during the 2020 Australian Open, held in Melbourne every January. If you have been following me, it will come as no surprise to you that I really enjoy watching tennis, and I have many times made analogies between the game of tennis and job hunting. I analyze many traits, behaviors, and strategies the players and their teams adopted, strongly correlated with their success or failure.

I hope you enjoy listening to this episode; lookout for another great one coming up next week!

Click here to open the transcript of this episode on our new blog.