[CAREER NEWS] What if your career was like a game of pickleball?

This fast-growing North American sport, a blend of tennis, badminton and table tennis, has won over millions of players (including me!) thanks to its simplicity, accessibility and the collaborative spirit it encourages. Just like a fulfilling career, it's based on a fine balance between fun, performance and adaptability. Imagine if you could apply these principles to your career path: exploring new skills, creating intergenerational synergies and finding meaning in every project... Are you ready to rethink your career with the agility and lightness of pickleball? 

Discover how to transform your ambitions and achieve your goals with this inspiring approach. 

1. Adopt a beginner's mentality and broaden your strategic skills  

Pickleball appeals to novices and experts alike, because it's accessible to all and offers plenty of room for improvement. In the same way, on a professional level, opening up to new disciplines or acquiring skills in an innovative field can create opportunities, and cultivating a beginner's mentality also enables you to approach new challenges with humility.

Key message: leaders who forge ahead are those who know how to reinvent themselves regularly by adopting a continuous learning posture. In times of uncertainty, cognitive agility becomes a strategic advantage: identifying the know-how to be acquired even before the market expresses the need is a key skill for staying ahead.  

2. Encourage intergenerational cooperation to strengthen collective intelligence  

Just as pickleball can unite all generations around a common activity, companies need to value the transfer of knowledge between young talent and experienced managers. Open dialogue between these generations enriches strategic perspectives and stimulates innovation.  

Key message: visionary leaders encourage the creation of intergenerational teams to optimize collective performance and anticipate societal changes. The future belongs to organizations capable of orchestrating these synergies and valorizing the diversity of experience.  

3. Balancing performance and well-being for sustainable growth

Pickleball illustrates the idea that it's possible to perform while having fun, a concept that's essential to integrate into the professional world. Effective managers know that sustainable performance depends on an organization that fosters employee commitment and fulfillment.

Key message: the most successful companies adopt a balanced approach, where well-being becomes a lever for productivity. Supporting a motivating and positive work climate reduces turnover and increases innovation, with a direct impact on long-term results.  

4. Cultivating organizational adaptability to meet tomorrow's challenges   

Just as pickleball calls for rapid adaptation to the opponent's moves, managers need to be highly flexible in the face of changing market conditions. This adaptability relies on quick decisions and the ability to question and pivot effectively.  

Key message: in an uncertain, volatile and increasingly complex world ("VUCA World"), organizations need to prioritize iterative strategies, with models capable of continuous evolution. The best-prepared companies are those that establish a culture of experimentation ("Test & Learn") and encourage collective learning at all hierarchical levels.  

5. Strengthen strategic networking through cohesion initiatives

Pickleball, often played in teams, fosters conviviality and social bonding. In a professional context, networking should no longer be limited to acquiring contacts, but should become a strategic skill for building quality alliances and long-term strategic partnerships. 

Key message: leaders need to promote a culture of collaboration both internally and externally, facilitating partnerships and access to open ecosystems. By fostering authentic and regular interactions, organizations strengthen their ability to co-create value with their internal and external stakeholders.   

6. Simplify to maximize impact and operational efficiency  

Pickleball proves that simplicity is not synonymous with mediocrity or ease! Whether you've already played tennis, badminton or ping-pong, you'll certainly have a few basics that can help you at the very beginning, but you'll soon realize that pickleball will invite you to unlearn certain strokes in favor of others that are simpler and far more effective. In business, leaner processes and clearer strategies also enable you to concentrate resources on what generates value.  

Key message: managers must constantly question organizational complexity to refocus their efforts on the essentials. Agile organizations that simplify their structures, optimize decision-making and eliminate bottlenecks ultimately gain a competitive edge in the marketplace.  

7. Develop a “cross-fertilizing” culture

Pickleball, a hybrid sport at the crossroads of tennis, badminton and table tennis, is increasingly supplanting tennis, particularly in North America. In France, pickleball is making inroads in the same way as padel... As tennis player Arnaud Clément said at the Alumni Forever evening last week, the French Tennis Federation had to take the turn of pickleball and padel or lose many of its members. Pickleball illustrates the importance of "cross-fertilizing": in other words, in the professional world, opening up to external practices is the key to innovation and even market survival. For a company, it is essential to integrate this agility dynamic and not hesitate to transpose ideas or practices from other sectors or disciplines into its own internal operations.   

Key message: leaders must encourage this culture of cross-fertilization and innovation, where experimentation is valued. An organization capable of being open and rapidly adopting new approaches, sometimes from unprecedented sectors or even the opposite of its own, can place itself in a leadership position in its market.  

8. Creating inclusive leadership focused on collective resilience  

As in pickleball, where each partner must adjust to the other to maximize team performance, modern leadership relies on inclusion and the ability to create collective resilience. Leaders must foster collaborative decision-making and involve teams in strategic projects.  

Key message: organizational resilience no longer relies on the individual strength of leaders, but on collective intelligence. Creating an inclusive, empowering environment enables us to weather crises more serenely, while cultivating lasting motivation within our teams.  

Conclusion: towards a new way of thinking about performance and careers  

Like pickleball, the professional world now rewards agility, openness to the unexpected and the art of creating strong connections. In a constantly changing environment, linear career paths are giving way to more flexible and collaborative ones. 

It's time to sit down and think: what new skills or partnerships could you engage today to stay competitive and fulfilled? Because in business as in the field, those who dare to reinvent their game are building the future!

What if the future of your career depended on your ability to play differently? 😊

Elizabeth TOUCAS - Executive Strengths Coach & Career Manager - IÉSEG Network

For any requests you may have for personalized Executive Coaching or for information on the Career Development Services, please contact me: e.toucas@ieseg.fr or +33.6.85.33.01.57.