Be confident in yourself or Embrace your inner…Martina Hingis?

Hingis when she beat one of my favorite all-timers, Jana Novotna.

Last month I shared an email on this blog that I had sent to a young CEO that I mentor. I find that, while in person meetings are always best, sometimes the best conversations I have with other leaders is a back-and-forth on email, text, or Slack.

I had another exchange with a different young entrepreneur recently that I thought I would share. He was starting to doubt his ability as a leader, particularly because (he perceives) there are things that he struggles with that other leaders seem to excel at. The irony is that he’s a leader that I’ve learned many things from in the course of our relationship, and he naturally does things that I’m not that great at.

I decided to try a thought experiment and I asked him what sports/athletes he likes the most. I was thrilled when one of his answers was Martina Hingis, once the top female tennis player in the world, because she is the perfect example of what I wanted to convey to him.

Here is what I sent him:

Perfect. Let’s take Martina Hingis. If you remember how she played, she didn’t have a lot of power, and she really wasn’t too fast, but she was smarter than everyone else and played with a ton of variety. She’d hit a high arching shot, then a low angled one, then a drop shot, then a deep shot down the line…her style was to out-think the other player and take them out of their game.

No doubt she heard criticism about not being as powerful as the up-and-coming crop of players. She didn’t hit the ball like Monica Seles or the Williams Sister. She didn’t have a hard serve.

But she embraced who she was and focused on her strengths, and became the best Martina Hingis she could be. Rather than trying to hit the ball harder, she tried to continue to get better at HER game.

There are things that make you special. Embrace them. Lean into them. Use them to continue to make YOU a special leader.

Size up your challenges and then find ways to get them done, either through a process, or through a team member, or software, etc. But don’t try to change YOU. I respect the heck out of you for the leader you are, and if you have weaknesses, welcome to the club. We all do. But the good ones have a few uniquely amazing qualities that make them successful, and they push hard on those areas to continue to evolve.

Be the best you that you can be, and be confident that you can build a great business leading in your unique way. I certainly believe you can and will.