Roger Federer: Foundations of Leadership

I am a huge sports fan. If you ask my lovely wife, she will say that I probably watch sports 24/7 if possible. I grew up with sports, played sports, and have always loved the action and the stories associated with sports.

I am an avid football/soccer fan that loves watching Manchester United. I am up on weekends early to watch matches. I also enjoy watching MLS matches and hope that the league continues to improve and that one day we will have one system in the United States that includes relegation and promotion, but that is for another show. Besides soccer, college basketball and football are my next favorite sports. The desire and willingness to put everything on the line by the players and the unrivaled support of the fans makes each game so enjoyable.

I also watch many other sports, even curling, darts, and this summer was sucked into the America’s Cup competition in Bermuda where New Zealand literally sailed away from the United States with the trophy.

Wimbledon crowned their champions in the men’s and lady’s tournament in July. For the men, Roger Federer won his 8^th Wimbledon title and took his total of Grand Slam titles to 19, more than any other man in tennis history.

If you have ever had the chance to watch Federer, you have had the enjoyment of watching the beauty of an athlete in motion as well as the mental game that is needed throughout the match. Knowing not only what shots to make during each point but also making those shots, is beautiful to watch.

There are three things that I see as foundational pieces that not only make Roger Federer the greatest tennis player of all time, but are also foundational pieces to great leadership.

Humility

Roger Federer is considered by many as one of the most humble players on the tour. You might think he has always been on top but that is not true and that plays into his humility.

He became a professional in 1998 but his first tournament win was not until 2001 at the Milan Indoor Tournament. This was the beginning of an outstanding career and from 2002-2012, he won multiple titles each year. In 2013, he suffered a knee and back injury that kept him out of tennis and could have ended his career. However, he continued to work hard and relearn how to play following the injuries. He did not consider himself to deserve better treatment and got back to where he was before encountering more difficulties in 2016 with another knee injury. His willingness to continue to work hard showed in winning the Australian Open and Wimbledon in this year.

Today’s society often defines humility as being weak, but in truth humility is the willingness of a person to be in a place of continual learning and knowing you must work harder than others. A leader must truly take on the role that continues to work harder than others and to learn. You need to remember a leader is not there to be served but to serve others. This is a lesson that Jesus even stated when asked why he came, and he states, “I did not come to be served but to serve.”

Humility does not mean weak, a leader needs strength along with humility to continue to take the stands that are needed in an organization, to continue to learn and be aware of the trends in the world, and to continue to work harder than anyone else in the company.

Consistency

Roger became a professional in 1998 and has been continually ranked in the top 10 from Oct 2002 to Nov 2016. He is currently ranked 3 in the world. He has won at least one title in 15 consecutive years. He has reached the finals of 29 men’s singles Grand Slam events, which included 10 in a row from 2005 Wimbledon to the 2007 US Open. He has 93 career titles which includes the following:

Australian Open: 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2017

French Open: 2009

Wimbledon: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2017

US Open: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008

Consistency is a major part of leadership. An organization feels secure when the leadership is consistent in how they operate and perform over many years. This does not mean they are not innovative or do not change. It is often in consistency that most organizations are creative and innovative and open to change that needs to happen in order to be successful. When the leader operates in a consistent manner with fairness across the board, then an organization will continue to follow.

However, if you are a leader and you are not consistent in your values, your treatment of others or how you lead, then it causes division, and people do not feel valued. This leads an organization towards division and ultimately to failure.

Respect

Sam Querrey, an American tennis player that participated in this year’s Wimbledon Championship, on Dan Patrick said that other players will watch Federer’s match when they are in the lounge. He is a nice guy and very respected. Sam did wish Roger was a little bit of a jerk so you feel good when he loses.

As a leader, you need to have respect and trust from those you lead and from colleagues. Respect is not given it is earned. It is earned through hard work and consistency. When you do have the respect of your team, you must guard it because it is only given once and can be taken away very easily.

As Roger Federer continues his legacy in tennis, I would ask you, what do you want your legacy to be as a leader, or as a person in your organization? Are you willing to walk a life of humility, looking to continue to learn and discover new thoughts, ideas, trends, and to work harder than anyone else? Are you willing to be consistent in all you do? Not only saying you will do something but actually doing it.

If you are, then you will gain the respect of your colleagues, those who lead you and the team you lead. You will find it opens doors for you even when others are closed.

These three foundational items have been how I have tried to lead. I never think I am the smartest one in the room, because others have the intellect and talent that I do not possess. To be a great leader, I realize that I need those on my team more than I need my intellect and talent for some projects. And in it, I try to be consistent in my words, in how I treat people, and how I live my life. If I am able to do this, I am a better leader, and more importantly a better person. In the end, I found I have garnered the respect from individuals both in my industry and outside of my industry as well as in my organization and outside of my organization. I need to continue to be humble and consistent to keep that respect.

I challenge you today to begin your legacy. I believe in you and know you can be the Roger Federer of your industry and organization.

How Organizational Leadership Destroys Itself

In the past several years, there have been numerous organizations that have seen failure because of their leaders and their leadership theory. I am currently reading William Cohan’s book House of Cards that works through the financial crisis of the early 2000’s. Cohan focuses on Bear Stearns as one of the financial institutes that failed during the financial crisis. The noticeable piece about the Bear Stearns failure was as much about the leadership of the financial institute as anything else. What is more amazing is the type of leadership style that contributed to the failure is still at work in many organizations. Because of this faulty leadership style, many organizations have reached an unhealthy state.

There are three pitfalls that leaders and organizations model that can lead to a failure of the institute. The first two are personal decisions that are made by individuals in their attempt to climb up the ladder to lead. The third is an organizational decision about leadership promotion that can lead to possible failure in a department, unit, group, or entire organization.

Me vs. We

When leadership begins on the foundation of “Me/Self” rather than “We/Team”, the opportunity for true success is small. This is not to say success defined in some manner will not happen. However, it will not be a success that leads to the total growth of an organization and its team members.

Individuals that are leaders by position who think only of themselves can cause division and lack of value in their team. The idea of leadership for them is to highlight their achievements and skills while neglecting or taking advantage of the team members. They want the limelight and believe only they deserve it.

As stated before, this can be true, but it does not provide for a healthy organization. A true leader will understand that “Me” is actually “We”. This means the entire team and not only those they favor. The breadth of knowledge, ideas, and skills of an entire team is a valuable asset for a leader. The opportunity to harness this and use it to bring about organizational success that everyone can feel a part is beneficial.

Positional Privilege

Besides the leader that operates with only their self in mind, there is also the leader that leads because of the privileges that surround the position. I have been in organizations that leaders, whether they are true leaders or not, take advantage of their position. This can be a little difficult but let me explain.

I often talk about the need to have a healthy life balance of work, family, and relaxation. However, as a leader you need to know when the appropriate time to take time off and when not to take it off. As a leader, the participation in organizational events, meetings, and conferences is important to your entire team. However, if you decide to take the time off during one of these scheduled occasions, to your staff, it can indicate your lack of support for the event or that you do not care about it. On the other hand, I have a good friend that does extensive traveling returning home late at night but will still be up and available for early morning meetings. Even though traveling is a part of the position, the commitment to the team he leads is more important than the positional privilege of taking time off.

Competency vs. Leadership

A third area of concern is an organization that promotes individuals based solely on competency and length of service into leadership positions. Let me state first, that any true leader does need to have competency in order to lead at any level of an organization. However, that is not the primary requirement for leadership. If an individual knows how a specific program works but does not know how that interfaces with processes or its role in strategic planning, that can cause an issue for an organization. Additionally, the knowledge of a program does not offset the inability to lead, motivate, or grow people that they are set to lead.

I think that any strong, successful leader is continually learning and gaining knowledge. The difference is not to gain control or move up in company but to better serve the company. The competency that a leader strives for is to provide growth for everyone, not just themselves. The individual that seeks knowledge for themselves becomes a “Me” leader and not a “We” leader and is usually wanting to move up into leadership for power and privilege not to serve others.

Your Choice

The world of business, higher education, government, and many other industries look for individuals who will lead them to success. However, that does not mean they leave behind the values of team growth, valuing individuals, and serving others. It now requires those items and many more. The questions now become; how is your organization being led? How are you leading? Do you do it for yourself and the privileges associated with the position? Do you desire to assist others to succeed and in it see the organization grow? That decision is up to each individual and through it success and growth can be experienced. If not, your organization could be the next Bear Stearns. 

Focus, Pivot, Build Confidence

I want to begin by stating that I am not a New England Patriot fan or an apologist for the team. I actually rooted against them in the Super Bowl. This might be the fact that being an Ohio State fan, I cannot root for Tom Brady from the “School up north.” Further, as a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan, watching a past coach, whom we fired succeed with another team, is heart wrenching. However, what I witnessed, as many others did, was an incredible example of what a successful leader in a successful organization can accomplish.

The success of the Patriots was not based on only the actions in this game, but is a part of the essence of the organization and specifically their coach. It began from the pre-season practices and meetings that each player and coach attending. In those meetings, three important values were shaped to lead to the victory in the Super Bowl.

Focus on Your Strategic Vision – The first value is that a leader stays focused on the strategic vision of the organization, and make sure the rest of the organization is focused as well. For Bill Belichick, the focus from the first day of practice was to win the Super Bowl. It was not to make it through the season and play well, but their strategic vision was to be the best football team in the league. Even when there were a few obstacles, which we will discuss later, Belichick kept the entire organization focused on the vision. This did not wane in the game, even at 28-3, but was the force the drove the team.

As a leader, this is needed in all organizations. When an organization begins to falter, it often means the leadership has lost focus of the strategic vision. It causes the organization to begin to operate in fear, which leads to basing decisions on false information and creates operational units to silo and not partner. When a leader can stay focused on the strategic vision, and continually remind their team, then the opportunity for success will be more possible even when obstacles arise.

Pivot and Make Adjustments – The Super Bowl was not the beginning of the Patriots success but was the culmination of their organizational identity and desire to be successful. As I watched the game, I said to friends of mine that I was still concerned about the Patriots because Bill Belichick is able to make the necessary adjustments to refocus the team to be successful in the game. This could be seen in the Super Bowl and the domination that the Patriots showed in the last portion of the game.

However, this was not the first major obstacle the team faced. The beginning of the year started with the team’s number one quarterback, Tom Brady, suspended for the first four games of the year. Belichick needed to make an adjustment to the team in order for them to be successful and not just maintain. The strategic vision and goal was still the same with the adjustment, winning the Super Bowl.

When an organization faces obstacles, successful organizations will make the needed adjustments to continue to move forward towards fulfillment of the vision and not only maintain. I have been a part of organizations that when obstacles influenced the vision of the organization, it would create chaos. The leadership would not be prepared or know to make the necessary adjustments or pivot their idea and would move to fear based model of operations. This would then lead to silos in the organization. Other organizations back off and maintain their current place when obstacles influence a vision, which can be good, but many organizations stay in the maintaining stance and never adjust or pivot towards operational success.

Team Confidence – The final piece for the Patriot’s success in the Super Bowl was the confidence that the team had from their coach. Bill Belichick from the beginning of the season instilled confidence in the players on his team. Confidence is not only telling the player they are doing a good job, but more importantly it comes from believing in them as a person. Belichick has the ability to not only access talent and form them into a part of the team but he has real belief in the abilities of his players and pushing them to success.

A successful organization is lead by an individual that is able to bring the best of their team or teams. This begins by a leader believing in the players’ talents, skills, and knowledge they bring to their position, and pushing them to excel. This belief leads to the confidence of the entire team to succeed in accomplishing the strategic vision or project of the organization.

An organization with an environment where employees do not have confidence to succeed appears when employees do not feel like the leaders believe in their talents, skills, and knowledge of their positions. Lack of confidence often spreads and causes an organization to lose focus of the vision and to operate in fear. As long as though leaders stay, the environment will probably not change. That is why building confidence is needed at the beginning is an essential element of the organization and not a “program” that is created when times are bad. 

As an organization, the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl at the beginning of the year, and more accurately, 17 years ago when the organization brought Bill Belichick as their head coach and he began to build a team that would continually stay focus on the strategic vision and goals. The team learned to make adjustments and pivot when obstacles arose. Finally, he instilled belief in every person that was a part of the organization, which lead to the confidence to produce the success the organization strove.

As a leader, are you doing this now? If not, what do you need to do to begin moving in this direction?