How to be an Efficient Leader

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Leadership lessons from my sports coaching experience

My sporting career has taught me a number of soft skills and today, I would like to talk about one in particular - Leadership. As a professional sportsperson and a former national level table tennis player, my sporting career is something that I'm proud of and I'm happy to be in touch with my sport as a coach at the moment. From the day I started to plan my Master of Business Analytics abroad, working as a part-time Table Tennis coach was something I looked forward to even before I arrived in Melbourne, the sporting capital of the world. I strongly believe in visualising and executing and only with these attributes can you find the luck to do what you planned. I actively networked, and asked people for opportunities and found the perfect one for myself. I work as a table tennis coach in a highly regarded school in St Kilda, Melbourne and also in a private table tennis academy. I lead workout, practice, and high-performance sessions for a group of children aged 5-15. I'm living proof that you get only what you ask for, and if you don't ask, you'll never know!

Here are some of the leadership lessons I learned from my experience as a table tennis coach:

  • Change of Perception or View: As I was coaching a six-year-old kid who was barely taller than the standard table itself, I realised I had to kneel down to match her height to understand her point of view (literally) to teach her how to serve. The lesson learned here is that often when you achieve a certain level of expertise in anything, you forget the challenges of an amateur and tend to expect them to know things. Changing your perception or view about it helps you better understand the best way to lead them to learn quickly and easily. You only understand what you go through yourself.
  • Leading from "behind": We often use the phrase "leading from the front" but as a coach, I realised the importance of "leading from behind". The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu (Laozi) quotes "A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves." I learned that you can lead people from behind the scenes and empower them to learn and do things themselves while you monitor and show them the way.
  • Blending in: There were times when I had to deal with kids who do exactly the opposite of what is instructed, haha... I learned that being friendly, casual, and "blending in" to give them a feeling that we are just another one among the lot helps tame them better. This may not be the exact scenario in a workplace but we will definitely come across employees or colleagues that are just hard to get along with. I have learned that empathy takes us a long way in such matters. After all, "love conquers all" is true and something I believe in. I feel bossing over just makes the situation worse.
  • Making the most of the best ones: As there were tough kids to deal with, there were also ones who asked the most questions, curious and eager to learn and better their skills. These are the ones who take that extra step and are initiative. I have learned to make the most of such kids to compensate for the entire team by giving them the extra attention they deserve. These kids got extra morning training sessions that were not mandatory. As a leader, it is very essential to identify the best ones and give your best to lead them and help them learn better.
  • Serving the needs of others: After all, leadership is a form of service backed up by a vision bigger than oneself. It is a process of helping others learn a skill or art to make society better. One of my most favourite quotes by Sir John Monash is: "Adopt as your fundamental creed that you will equip yourself for life, not solely for your own benefit but for the benefit of the whole community." Gary Vaynerchuk always emphasises the power of empathy and how leaders serve others and not the other way round.
All of these experiences and learnings from others that I look up to point at the same thing about leadership. It's about them, not about you! It's also about something bigger than you. If you are one to have visions and the empathy to serve the needs of others to build a better community and society, I hope this blog added some value to your thoughts. Nobody is born a leader. It's the experiences, thoughts and actions that make one! I hope you learn from the smallest of experiences and start building on yourself just like I have.

If you liked this blog, please share it with someone that would benefit from it and also have a read about The Fundamentals that Schools don't teach us where I have listed my learnings from being a sportsperson from childhood. Have a great day ahead! Stay tuned for more!


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