How Skills Gained From Professional Swimming Help Me Become a Better Manager
Why do so many leaders play sports
What makes a great manager? This question is the source of numerous discussions, expert opinions, and books. Nevertheless, we don’t have an answer yet. I decided to find my own, based on my professional experience (I’m the co-founder and the CMO at CodeGym.cc, the company with over 2.5 million users) and personal path.
I’ve been in professional Finswimming for over eight years now. I’ve taken part in numerous competitions in Ukraine and abroad. I even took part in two Finswimming World Cups, in Serbia and Hungary, where I came fourth and fifth. I’ve invested so much time and effort in this activity, so it’s become a part of who I am. It shaped my personality and helped me to learn multiple lessons. Surprisingly, they turned out to be extremely valuable for my business and product management in particular. In this article, I’m sharing these lessons with you.
Why do I think my personal experience matters? Because it’s not just mine. Mark Zuckerberg was a fencing star in high school. Whole Foods ex-CEO Walter Robb was the captain of the soccer team back at Stanford. Also, I read about the survey Ernst&Young conducted several years ago. They found out that 96% of women in C-level executive positions used to play sports. Of course, it doesn’t mean that every athlete is an efficient entrepreneur, but it looks like there’s a certain connection between sports and skills that managers can benefit from. And although I’m not a researcher, I tried to summarize what Finswimming taught me — and how I’m using it in my work.
1. Surround yourself with the best people
It will stimulate you to grow and achieve better results.
When I was in the third grade, I was diagnosed with asthma. Also, my allergy was progressing. The doctors suggested that I start taking swimming lessons to help develop my lungs. At first, my parents brought me to the beginners’ group. Its purpose was just to teach kids how to swim. Nobody was expecting us to become champions. I was among the weakest kids there. Learning to swim wasn’t easy for me. It took almost a year. But when I started to notice my first small successes, I felt a genuine interest.
Suddenly I understood that I wanted to swim faster than the others. I enjoyed starting the exercise last but finishing it the first. Soon, my coach saw my progress and recommended transferring me to the advanced group.
The kids there were much more trained. Some of them had already been participating in competitions or preparing for them. I was looking up to them and tried to become better, too. In time, I started to swim faster than everyone in my group. And the next step for me was to enter the professional swimming club.
Again, I found myself in a new challenging environment. Everyone was five or six years older than me, and almost everyone was better. At first. But as I badly wanted to become the best, I already could swim faster than some of the older boys in several months. Also, it came as a surprise that I’m capable of winning prizes in championships. I became one of the strongest swimmers in my city and region. And I owe it to this approach: aspire for the best.
Later, as an adult, I understood that the same principle applies to management. You can’t grow if you’re among people who are much weaker than you. Instead, if your peers and subordinates are smarter (faster, more educated, etc.) than you — it’s an opportunity to become better.
Of course, it requires humility to accept that you may not be “the fastest kid in the group”. But the result is worth it.
2. Listen to professionals even if you are sure you’re right
Once, trying to achieve even better results, my friend and I decided to start exercising by ourselves in addition to all the training we had with our coach. Sometimes we had several workouts in one day. But it turned out that it didn’t make us better. Instead, our results worsened because we put too much pressure on our muscles. Moreover, I even got injured while lifting a big weight, which threw me back.
I recall this story occasionally, especially when I don’t like to hear what a colleague tells me and feel tempted to do it my way. Then I ask myself: do I trust this person’s expertise? If the answer is positive, I consider my colleague’s opinion.
3. Be persistent in achieving your goals (even when something’s going wrong)
After many years of training, I wanted to earn the title “Master of sports’’ (MS). To get it, you have to demonstrate specific results (high speed of swimming) at the national-level competition. It seemed easy: after all, I was already swimming this fast and showed the required speed at every training. I was sure that I’d do the same at the competition.
But the reality was different. I was too nervous, there were too many people… And I failed. It took me almost a year to earn the desired title.
We often make the same mistake in product management: we create an MVP (a minimum viable product) and assume the target audience will love it, and we’ll scale it quickly and flawlessly. But then harsh realities bring us back to where we started. And if we’re not persistent, we’ll lose.
4. Allow yourself to make mistakes
Professional athletes know the value of a good mistake. It teaches you never to give up, analyze your past, prepare for the future, and eventually get better.
Doing business requires the same attitude. If you made a mistake and never learned from it, you really failed. If you learned your lesson, you won, even if your outcomes are far from great so far.
5. Keep your focus, plan, and stay organized
In high school, I had to combine swimming with studying and preparing for the university entrance exams. Instead of focusing on just sports, I wanted to achieve educational success, too. I had to learn how to plan my time. For example, I got up at 5:45 am, and I had my first training at 6:45 am. The school started at 8:30 am. Then I had lunch and went to the training course at the university that I planned to apply to. And at 9 pm, I had my second training at the pool.
Sometimes it felt like a too heavy load for one person. But, at the same time, this regimen taught me to always be on time and focus on a single task to avoid distractions. This skill is sometimes called “mental toughness”. It allows professional athletes to go on even when they are extremely tired or demotivated.
This skill is precious for a manager. You can’t achieve real success overnight. Creating a product requires taking time, planning, and staying focused. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. So, every manager can benefit from developing mental toughness. To do it, accept new challenges and try to keep your focus under the pressure they create.
6. Balance your work and life outside the office
My coach used to say: “The best results are born from the right combination of work and rest”. Our muscles and neural connections need this change of pace to grow most efficiently. You can’t keep putting more and more load on your body without allowing it to rest. Otherwise, you’ll get injured.
The same is true for the work-life balance. If you’ve been working intensively for a long time without proper rest, you’ll be at the risk of burnout. That’s why even in weeks when I have to work 10–12 hours a day, I dedicate at least one day to non-work-related activities. It helps to switch focus and, therefore, get energized.
Burnout is a serious problem, and the IT industry is not an exception. According to the survey conducted by Indeed, over the past year, the situation has worsened. In 2021, 52% of employees were feeling burned out. 67% of them think this feeling has gotten worse since the beginning of the pandemic.
So, today this lesson is vital: maintain the work-life balance and help your employees to do the same. Notice the first signs of burnout in yourself and the people around you, and act upon them. Have some rest, give an employee an extra day-off, take a short trip, etc.
7. Retain confidence
Any type of success, in sports or business, would be impossible without feeling confident and taking risks. You have to make decisions and often do it quickly and under a lot of pressure. I’m not a big fan of the old proverb “Whoever doesn’t risk never gets to drink champagne”. I rather believe that facts and analysis should support every decision. But when it comes to trying something new or implementing changes, facts and analysis mean nothing without confidence and willingness to take risks.
8. Take responsibility
In sports, there’s no one to blame for your failures and no one to praise for your successes except for yourself. In business, we sometimes can’t follow this rule. We blame our competitors or an economic situation. But this attitude won’t bring us anywhere closer to our goals. If we want to succeed, we need to take full responsibility for our actions and outcomes.
9. Strengthen teamwork
Although swimming isn’t a group activity, still, it taught me how to be a part of the team. You have to listen to your coach and teammates, communicate your opinion, and conduct a dialogue.
While working as a product manager, I understood that the value of the team is the most significant value you own. A weak team means an ineffective product. A strong team with solid communicational skills equals a strong product with precise positioning.
10. Act
It may sound trivial, but some people dream while others act. Guess who wins?
So, both in sports and business, it’s crucial not to hesitate. If you have confidence, support from your team, and a clear vision, then act.
And there’ll be nothing that can stop you.
