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The inner game of tennis – how it can help off court

The physical practice necessary to become a Grand Slam champion is clear for all to see. It also requires a huge amount of mental work for players to be at the top of their game. In his seminal book, The Inner Game of Tennis, Timothy Gallwey explored the part the mind plays in successfully learning and performing in sport. It’s an interesting read with many themes that are also pertinent for those looking to improve their capabilities at work.

Here, we explore three of the key ideas Gallwey highlighted as vital to success in The Inner Game of Tennis: self-awareness, self-acceptance and self-trust.

Self-awareness

Self-awareness is a prerequisite for learning and growth. It provides us with the perspective needed to understand ourselves better and to recognise our strengths and weaknesses. Having self-awareness is vital as, without it, it is almost impossible to focus attention where it is needed. Being honest with ourselves helps us gain an accurate evaluation of where we are currently relative to our aspirations.

Self-acceptance

A key enabler of self-awareness is self-acceptance. Letting go of negative self-judgement and embracing ourselves as we are at the time removes a key inhibitor to being honest with ourselves. Gallwey suggests that self-acceptance enhances the accuracy of our self-awareness and reduces negative emotional interference that can get in the way. By accepting ourselves in that moment without judgement, we can moderate the discomfort of not being who we thought we were or want to be and treat any setbacks as learning opportunities rather than failures – something the numerous greats of tennis show during the ups and downs of their matches. The Inner Game of Tennis clearly showing itself.

Self-trust

If we accurately know ourself, we can trust ourself, allowing us to approach challenges with less doubt and more certainty. In 2023, Vondoursova was the first unseeded woman to win Wimbledon – something that would have been nigh on impossible to achieve without self-trust. She clearly showed that she believed in herself, took the opportunity presented to her and demonstrated the resilience necessary to take the risk of truly showing up and giving her all. Crucially, self-trust decreases a person’s need for external validation or approval. Instead, it helps a person improve their conviction to pursue and achieve ambitious goals – be it to win Wimbledon or to achieve other personal or professional aims.

How a coach can help

Of course, knowing that self-awareness, self-acceptance and self-trust help us learn and perform better is very different to actually being able to do these things.

Fortunately, they can be developed – especially with support from a coach.

For instance, coaches can play a significant role in assisting individuals in developing self-awareness. Through reflection and feedback, coaches can help clients gain insight into their strengths and areas for improvement. For example, Novak Djokovic is now excellent when he comes into the net, whereas in the past opponents recognised this as his weakness. His coach, Goran Ivanišević, helped him identify this as a development area and he then did the work to round out his game. Coaches, therefore, act as a stark mirror, reflecting back a truthful image.

When it comes to self-acceptance, coaches can help a person quieten their inner critic. By creating the opportunity to get to know our inner critics and their motives better, we are able to renegotiate that relationship, making room for a happier and more liberated mindset. In doing so, a coach can facilitate a healthier intrapersonal relationship. Having been a runner up in three grand slams, how Ons Jabeur processes her disappointments through this lens will likely be key to her future success.

Finally, coaches can also assist in developing self-trust and build confidence. True trust requires us to know both what we can and can’t achieve. Gallwey saw an unfettered positive psychological approach as a prohibitor of self-awareness. In a similar way to the inner critic but with the opposite valence, a Panglossian attitude may not serve us well either. A balanced perspective supports good decision making, appropriate risk taking and can enable us to get into the coveted ‘zone’ where instinct and ego are in harmony.

Using Goldcrest Partners

We are experienced in helping individuals foster stronger self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-trust. We work with people who want to enhance these skills, to build a solid foundation to develop and improve. In doing so, we support clients in their journey towards achieving their goals and realising their full potential. Call Goldcrest Partners today if you’d like to do the same.

Bringing together the 7 conditions of a high-performing team

Creating a high performing team is essential not only for the team’s own success but for the overall success of its entire organisation. As we will explore, the following 7 essential conditions must be met to ensure optimal team performance: trust, vision & alignment, autonomy & empowerment, social glue, healthy conflict, connectivity, and continual learning.

Vitally, they must all be present for a team to be truly high performing.

No single condition must be left out. Each one is interconnected and interdependent on all others. None will ever thrive in isolation. For instance, consider healthy conflict. Having a constructive debate would be difficult without trust or social glue. These conditions complement and strengthen each other so they can be leveraged far more powerfully.

Ensuring all these conditions are present within a team is not an easy task. Nor is it a quick one. There are several challenges that a team leader or manager could meet along the way while trying to nurture and cultivate such an environment. For example, employees may be resistant to taking more responsibility for their work, or some may struggle to maintain their efforts towards continual learning.

But the rewards that all these 7 conditions cultivate cannot be underestimated, which is a hugely motivating factor for leaders. There are many practical steps and strategies that leaders can use to foster trust, promote healthy conflict and instil all other conditions mentioned in this series of insights.

If you’re a leader, Goldcrest Partners can help you identify and implement those steps so that you can build and sustain a high performing team that is incredibly successful. While many of our tips and ideas are part of an ongoing process, the long term benefits such as increased competitiveness, improved employee retention and better success at meeting targets make the effort worthwhile.

Interested? Contact us so we can start setting up your 7 point high performing team model framework to ensure your team’s success.

Challenge and support in the workplace

Did you ever have a teacher at school who influenced you? Maybe even changed your life?

When I reflect on conversations with the people I have trained, coached or just met along the way in my time as a leadership developer, I notice how often an inspirational teacher from school is fondly remembered.

In any performance environment, knowing when and how to challenge or support people is a vital leadership skill and I can think of few professions which know more about how to do this well than teaching.

For some of us it is natural to want to stay in our comfort zones. As we mature and grow, we learn how to be more comfortable with pushing ourselves. Being stretched and challenged is uncomfortable for all of us initially, a bit like yoga or weight training, but with practice we get better and it becomes a habit.

I spoke recently with Louise North, Principal of Framlingham College, for her perspective and she described that when she started her job, she noticed the school was doing an amazing job at supporting and nurturing pupils – but that there was room to challenge them more.

“The school had a reputation for kindness and niceness, but we weren’t actually challenging the children to reach their full potential,” Louise said. “Kindness is not the same as accepting mediocrity – it’s just the opposite.”

Louise encouraged the teaching body to challenge the students more, giving them the confidence to do so with her support. She also encouraged the staff to be honest with parents about their children’s performance and to work together to motivate pupils more. It all served the goal of enabling children to reach their full potential within a supportive environment.

So, if this is the task at hand, how can we do it well?

Challenge and support

How can we define what it means to be challenged or supported at work? How, as leaders, can we try to achieve that same level of balance as the inspirational teachers of our childhoods?

A leader can challenge by questioning the status quo, looking for continuous improvement and keeping things moving. A leader can also support by checking in often with their team, encouraging everyone to participate and offering coaching where needed.

These are behaviours where we may have a natural preference to do one or the other and it takes self-awareness, emotional intelligence and developed skill to read the situation and respond accordingly.

The best leaders are able to both support and challenge, in the right way at the right time for the best results.

Managing mental health in the workplace

As mental health is a fundamental component of how people think, feel, relate and perform at work, it’s vital to have a company culture that is healthy and supportive.

Mental health is no longer a peripheral workplace issue. The vast majority of a workforce will have been touched or affected by mental health challenges at some point in their career, whether it has been overcoming difficulties personally or supporting someone who has.

Recent years, particularly during and following the pandemic, brought mental health into sharper focus. While the virus itself was not a cause of mental health conditions, the global response, including prolonged uncertainty, isolation and changes to working patterns, created an environment in which anxiety, stress and low mood were more likely to emerge. In many cases, these challenges were dormant or manageable beforehand, but were intensified or newly triggered by the circumstances people found themselves in.

For some, this period was especially difficult, particularly those with existing vulnerabilities or limited support networks. For others, it became an unexpected catalyst for adaptation, prompting reassessment of priorities, stronger boundaries and healthier work-life balance. What became increasingly clear was that mental health exists on a spectrum, fluctuating over time and shaped by both personal resilience and organisational context.

Awareness in the workplace

A healthy workplace culture acknowledges mental health risks without defining people by them. While it is vital to recognise stressors and challenges early, it is equally important not to assume fragility or inevitability.

Mindsets, therefore, matter. A tendency to catastrophise or to frame experiences in extremes can inadvertently undermine wellbeing. While the placebo effect is well known (where positive beliefs improve outcomes) the “nocebo” effect can do the opposite, reinforcing difficulty and diminishing confidence.

And therein lies the rub. How do we adequately acknowledge very real personal stressors and mental health risks while, at the same time, keeping ourselves from making them a self-fulfilling prophesy?

The key is to be aware of both the potential mental health issues that may arise and our ability to overcome them.

Tips for leaders

1. Everybody’s different

How the working world has changed since the pandemic has shown that trusting people to manage themselves is not just possible but highly effective for the business and something that individuals prize. If you can maintain trust and flexibility, employees will continue to find their way to optimise their approach. It might look different for everyone but that is likely a good thing.

2. Wellbeing and performance

Prioritising performance over well-being in anything but the short term is a false dichotomy. They are two sides of the same coin. If we allow our people to attend to their well-being, then they perform for the long term. Performance without well-being is unsustainable, particularly in an ‘infinite game’ like financial services. At Goldcrest Partners, we believe an emphasis on both well-being and performance will yield superior long-term outcomes for organisations and individuals.

3. Slow and steady wins the race

Change often fails because it is ‘too much, too soon, too fast’ for the individual or organisation to tolerate. If we let people travel at their own pace and provide appropriate boundaries and encouragement, then it will certainly pay dividends.

In summary, at Goldcrest Partners, we believe it is important to be both vigilant and confident in the ability to mitigate mental health risks and support individuals if needed. Furthermore, allowing individuals the flexibility to optimise their working habits and trusting them to do the right thing may prove to be a key factor in not just mental health but also attracting and retaining the best talent.

The upside here is a competitive advantage in your people.

Empowerability – the secret to maximising employee potential

Leaders are often advised that empowering their followers is the path to effective teamwork and success. It involves them providing resources, knowledge, skills, and support to their employees and team. Doing so facilitates and encourages employee participation in decision-making to help hit firmwide goals and achieve personal targets.

But to operate at Lightspeed, as exemplified by the success of the Pfizer Covid vaccine rollout, leaders must do more than just empower their teams. They need to ensure their members are ready to seize the opportunities given to them.

In other words, it is essential to consider a team’s empowerability. Arguably, it is just as important as a leader’s ability to empower.

Here, we explore why.

What is empowerability?

First, let’s look more closely at the notion of empowerability and what it means exactly.

Empowerment refers to the process of enabling individuals or groups to gain control over their own choices to help a team or department reach its aims and targets. It’s a key component of effective followership, where employees have the ability to take direction well and to do what is expected of them.

Empowerability, therefore, refers to a person or group’s inherent capability or want to be empowered. It emphasises the importance of building self-confidence, self-efficacy, and self-determination. It is dependent on individuals possessing certain qualities or attributes that allow them to be empowered or become agents of their own development.

Those attributes, skills and mindsets include:

A clear comprehension of accountability, understanding the need to take ownership of results and to delegate specific tasks to achieve the desired outcome.
Inner confidence in their ability to handle the responsibility, supported by feedback and a track record of success.
A deep understanding of their team members who, in turn, can be empowered if they are ready.
Recognition of their responsibility to question and seek clarification from those they follow, ensuring a thorough understanding of the task at hand. These questions and challenges are meant for improvement, not just to be difficult for the sake of it.
A clear grasp of boundaries and successful followership, while being willing to challenge them when appropriate for the best outcome.
Effective communication up and down the chain, reassuring superiors that messages are understood and clearly conveying tasks and responsibilities to subordinates.

Why is empowerability so important?

Empowerability is crucial as it increases and strengthens trust between team members, leaders and followers – making teams more effective. Plus, while trust is the foundation of any strong team, it’s vital in allowing leaders to delegate with confidence. Being able to rely on individual members, means a leader knows they’re going to perform and play their part. Then, subsequently, a leader has more time to dedicate to other value-added activities – not simply checking up on the status of a project or task.

Looking at the real world provides some colour on how empowerability can be so essential to a team’s success.

Consider an orchestra: to create a harmonious symphony, every instrument must play its part flawlessly. Each musician must possess the technical skills and mindset necessary to carry the melody and its supporting parts, maintaining the same level of excellence. Moreover, every member of the orchestra must trust that their fellow musicians will fulfil their roles. The end result is a beautiful performance.

Or, in sports, when a player passes the ball to a teammate, the player needs to know that the recipient knows how to handle it, understands their options, can take responsibility and make accountable decisions.

How can you ensure employees can be empowered?

While some individuals have an innate empowerability, not everyone will immediately have the ability (or want) to be empowered. Across a global business, in particular, there can be difficulties with empowerability. These difficulties may arise due to different cultures having different approaches to leadership, leadership styles and followership.

However, it’s possible to develop empowerability and train employees so that they can be active, effective team members. To do so, consider the following factors:

Access to information: Provide individuals with accurate and relevant information so they can make informed choices and decisions.
Skills development: Offer opportunities to individuals to develop a range of skills, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills. Doing so will enhance their capacity to navigate challenges and exert influence.
Support networks: Encourage the development of strong social networks and support systems to foster a sense of belonging, increase social capital, and provide individuals with the emotional and practical support they need to pursue their goals.
Agency and participation: Encourage individuals to participate actively in decision-making processes, whether at the individual, team, or departmental level, enabling them to have a voice and contribute to shaping their own successful and prosperous career.
Advocacy and social change: Empowerability recognises the need to address systemic barriers and advocate for changes in policies, practices, and structures that hinder individuals’ ability to exercise their power and agency fully.

For leaders to support a team member’s empowerability, it can be helpful to remember a number of key ideas. Firstly, be brave and delegate – give people a chance to shine. You may need to support them, but they’ll never grow if you don’t. Additionally, be clear on your expectations as well as your boundaries. Finally, you need to be open and supportive of questions and challenges.

Making empowerability a priority

Remember, when employees possess the capability to be empowered, they transform into effective followers – a fundamental requirement for team success. So, by placing empowerability at the forefront, leaders have the power to unleash the full potential of their employees, fostering a culture rooted in trust and accountability. Organisations can then soar towards sustainable success amidst today’s fiercely competitive business landscape.