Be A Coach, Not A Boss

Here’s why all executives need to start thinking like sportspersons – and be obsessed with getting better

- Chandramouli Venkatesan

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A keen follower of sports and a fairly active sportsperson myself. I feel there is a lot to learn from sports and sportspersons, like resilience, determination, persistence, the ability to perform under pressure and the sportsperson’s spirit. One of the biggest differences between a sportsperson and you and me at work is the sportsperson’s obsessive focus on getting better—they spend more time sharpening the axe than cutting the wood, while we spend more time cutting the wood than sharpening the axe. Some of that is due to the different contexts and can’t be helped, but some of it is in our hands.

The other thing I observed about sportspersons that’s different from us worker bees is their willingness to take coaching to get better. A sportsperson is willing to let the coach run their lives at times. Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu allowed Pullela Gopichand to literally manage their lives so that he could make them better at badminton. They were willing to take instructions from him that would dictate their lives—when to wake up, which exercises to perform, how much to practice, what to eat, etc. We have heard the same stories about Ramakant Achrekar and Sachin Tendulkar, about Tiger Woods’ father and Tiger, and about how the Williams sisters’ father made Serena and Venus chase balls that were considered impossible to return.

Two things stand out for me in those stories:

1. The willingness of the sportsperson to take external assistance in the form of a coach in their effort to get better and become world-class. This is far greater than the willingness we show to take external help.

2. The contract between the sportsperson and the coach is very clear—‘I want you to make me better and in return, I am willing to do anything you ask me to’.

The contract, effectively, is a get better contract, not a results contract.