The Tennis Lesson Diya Obeid at Columbia University

How long ago? It was eight years. It was staff development and training. I was talking to young people like you. The question was how do we train them, how do we mentor them and what do we ask of them to do?

It was a few years earlier, I was taking tennis lessons from a great instructor and I did analogies from that lesson. It is something that I use a lot in my life from those lessons that I use to take with him. One of the things he said, as a player for instance if you are at the receiving end of the serve you have to stand and take the correct position and be positioned for things to happen.

You take a new job; you are on a new job. You have to be in a position to receive. We spoke about this. You have to position yourself to be receiving and while you are doing this you have to be focused.

The supervisor, the employer, the client, if you are there he will call you and if you are focused on them he will be giving you that pension that you want. Then the ball comes from the other side being served. One of the things you need to do way before you hit the ball; you need to reach out to the ball. The ball is not going to be served straight at you. Anything that you are doing on your job you have to come up and meet it. You have to get closer. You have to take proactive measures to get to the ball. This is even before we hit the ball. Even before we hit the ball we have to create flexibility. The way to create flexibility on the tennis court happens to be by bending our knees. So, you hear the instructor saying to the customer bend your knees. If you look at great tennis players they all always bend their knees before hitting the ball. David Chang, his knees almost touch the ground and Agassi likewise. Bending their knees create this flexibility and that is what we need to do.

Second thing is that we need to do, at that moment we have to create an attitude. A great attitude is one of the most important, imperatives for doing a good job. It’s not just the talent, the skill but it is also our attitude. It is not our industriousness, or good communications or team play it is also our attitude. In tennis your attitude is positioning your shoulder towards the net and taking the racket back. Now, at that time is something you need to do which is hit the ball.

I’m sure in the work place you have seen a lot of people don’t even hit the ball. It is like you have to do it. Ultimately, you have to do it. You have to hit the ball. You can’t hit the ball and not stop, you must follow through. You submitted a resume to a hiring manager. You need to call them and say, did it happen, you told someone. Give them a call two months later and find our how they are doing. You talk to someone on the job find out by following through.

It is amazing how inexpensive of an exercise, how least consuming of an exercise and unbelievable how much return on the investment it is. We went through this whole exercise all we have to do is let our hand go and that is the follow through. Do not freeze and stop.

When it’s all said and done, take if from someone who is older than most old people in the room, after you do hit the ball, don’t stand admiring your achievements because the ball is coming back. Position yourself again and wait for the ball because it’s coming back.

Audience: Clapping and saying Thank you!!!