Dear Colleagues,
In the recently concluded French Open final, we were all witness to the making of history by Rafael Nadal who crafted his magnum opus by exhibiting one the most dominating performances in the history of tennis by defeating his opponent in straight sets 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 to win his 10th French Open Title. Rafael Nadal has won as many 11 Glam Slams in his illustrious tennis career spanning for a decade. I wonder what lessons can we learn from his focused pursuit of excellence and a few thoughts came to my mind:
Constant visualization of success; he has mastered the technique of focusing his energies toward the activities that will lead to the accomplishment of his goals.
There is no dependence on luck. He brings his individual brilliance to play. Along with this, he brings into play passion, cohesion, discipline, dedication, training and goal clarity. There seems to be a constant thought in him “what is necessary to be champion”.
He also knows that he can’t win every title each time he plays an International tennis tournament. You win some, you lose some. He enjoys winning, but doesn’t let success go to his head. The moment it does, he knows that he is on his way to failure. And if you do face a failure along the way, treat it just as a result of the employed strategy and nothing beyond that.
The most important takeaway from a failure is, when we lose, let not lose the lesson.
Playing to win brings out the best in us and in our teams. It brings out the desire to stretch, to achieve that which seems beyond our grasp. However, it is not about winning at any cost. It is not about winning every time. It is not about winning at the expense of others. It is all about innovating all the time – ‘It is a continuous endeavor to do better than the last time’.
The most important one is the lesson on humility. Look how lightly success sits on his shoulder. There is a thin line of difference between confidence and arrogance.
Confident people are always open to learning.
Not all of us can play tennis like Rafael Nadal but each one of us can take lessons from his book and make our lives and our company’s performance top class.
I have been sharing my thoughts with you for over a month now and would like to know if there have been any changes in your approach to work post these messages. Have you been able to seize the initiative, innovate or change attitude? I would like you to share these thoughts with me at kamal_loungani@kitgroup.com
GOOD LUCK to all of you.
– Kamal Kishin Loungani