Vikram Banerjee
Having recently made the transition from playing professional sport to the world of leadership, coaching and mentoring, I am fascinated in the crossover between the two and whether there really is any potential for learning to be gained. How can you compare motivating those sitting around a boardroom with things such as winning a County Championship Trophy or an Olympic medal?
In recent years, the divide between the sporting and business world has been bridged somewhat and many business leaders are willing to pay vast fees to listen to talks by sporting legends.
Geoff Miller professional cricketer and after dinner speaker
But do their stories provide businesses with anything more than an opportunity to rub shoulders with their childhood heroes?
Vikram Banerjee – Footdown
Through reading what I’m sure is just a small sample of the literature available, I have found that while there may be much literature, there isn’t really an agreement between writers on what leadership is! Despite the lack of an agreed formal definition, most writers on the topic do agree that successful leaders, regardless of their field, are successful because of their ability to bring about positive change and performance improvement.
I have been fortunate enough to experience, and work under, a range of leaders in different situations. I have experienced good and poor leadership in both the sporting and business environment and I believe there is a huge similarity between the two areas. Business can certainly learn from sport in the areas of continual evaluation and empowering all members of a team; while sport has much to learn from business in areas of goal-setting, preparation and handling the different kinds of characters within a team.
Across a series of articles I will be exploring each of these areas in more detail, outlining my views on how leaders can get to the top, what they need to do to stay there once they’ve reached the peak and team leadership, all the while using sports as a backdrop for the learning.
Keep updated – Subscribe to my articles.
Having just witnessed the remarkable Australian Open Tennis final and Djokovic’s amazing victory, my next article will be about how business can learn about mental toughness and resilience from the world of sport.
My next article on “Getting to the top – Mental Toughness” will be published 7/02/201.
Follow @FootdownVikram for updates.
Good article Vik – I’d be interested to read an article on what makes a poor leader, as people can learn from that too! Or an article on what aids and hinders a good leader in terms of the types of people in his/her team – how do they influence a leader? Also interested to know the background of a good leader – is there a common demographic you see with good leaders? Are more men better leaders for example? What are the characteristics of a male leader versus a female leader? How does someone’s background and experiences shape a good leader? Can we all become good leaders? And are there sub-types according to which personality strengths that person brings? Many questions!
We especially look forward to looking for ways to apply it in the NHS which is a very unique field as it is customer centred (or should be!) but has no finacial benefit from lots of customers, in fact the reverse is true!
I am very much looking forward to reading all your articles and maybe even contributing one day in the future! Look forward to a catch up soon Vik! Ex-roomie.
Thanks for your comments guys. Some really good stuff to get my teeth into. I have noted them down and will do my best to address them one at a time! Keep them coming…
Vik
I’d be interested to hear about the comparisons between leaders in business and sport in the context of employee mental wellbeing. Given the current drive for talking freely about mental health in the workplace (such as Mind’s ‘elephant in the room’ and the tv-advertised ‘time to talk, time to change’ campaigns), the recent revelations of high rates depression in cricket, and individual high profile sportsmen such as Stan Collymore opening up in public forums (twitter) – it seems to be a really hot topic! What can leaders do in both contexts to promote employee/sportsperson mental wellbeing, and as you mentioned “bring about positive change and performance improvement”? Fascinated!
Hello Becca
Thought you might like to see Vikram’s latest article inspired by your comment:
http://www.footdown.com/6699/leadership-and-employee-wellbeing/
Look forward to your thoughts
Fascinating question Becca – and yes it is a huge hot potato at the moment. I am by no means a psychiatrist but I do believe that there is a direct link between effective leadership and mental wellbeing. There is also some research to back me up here.
I read a stat recently that said mental health problems affect every business – right now, 1 in 6 workers is experiencing depression, anxiety or stress, at an average cost of £1,037 per employee, or £3billion in total per year for the economy as a whole.
I have started writing about this subject in greater depth and I will publish an article on this subject (as well as some of the other questions above) once this series has concluded. If you haven’t already do sign up to get an email telling you when that is published: http://eepurl.com/iYcID
In the meantime – my latest article on mental toughness is now live, so please have a read of it here and let me know your thoughts: http://bit.ly/yM2L6E
Thanks everyone,
Vik