The Inner Game

“Be clear about this: letting go of judgments does not mean ignoring errors. It simply means seeing events as they are and not adding anything to them.” ~ Tim Gallwey, The Inner Game of Tennis

I was surprised recently when I was skimming social media to find a post by Daniel Pink about the book The Inner Game of Tennis by Tim Gallwey. Somewhere around 1980 someone gifted me this book. I didn’t then, and don’t now, play tennis but the book is really not about tennis so much as it is about getting out of your own way in order to perform at your highest level.

I was incredibly young and incredibly lost on so many levels when I received this book - and while I ground my way through much of it at the time - it would take years, maybe decades to truly understand its place and impact in my life. I was a three sport athlete in what was junior college - now community college - at the time I first read the book. Between high school and college athletics I had moments of stellar performance which illustrated my skills and abilities - and I had an equal if not greater number of moments when my inner critic and inner judgmental voice led to mediocre at best performances (which must be why some well meaning coach shared this book).

Optimum performance or peak state is sometimes looked at in terms of ‘flow state’ (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi). As an athlete I had moments of stellar performance while in the flow state - when time seemed to disappear, and I was completely immersed in the moment and completely connected body and mind …. Until something disrupted the moment (a buzzer, a time out, half time) and I spiraled back to reality and my inner judge and critic returned. At moments like this as we try to regain the flow experience our mind tells us that if we should just try harder - but forcing it, as Gallwey will tell you, never leads to peak performance - the more you judge and the harder you try the more you disrupt your natural ability.

How might this apply to leadership? Often as leaders we get stuck in our heads; analyzing/overanalyzing, second guessing, afraid to make mistakes. This can be paralyzing and overwhelming and certainly doesn’t lead to our best leadership performance. One important concept from The Inner Game that you can start to apply today is to not view everything with overt labels of good or bad - and instead be willing to step back and reflect on what happened and why. Focusing on curiosity and awareness, not judgement, will ultimately lead to more flow in your leadership journey.