Leadership, Democracy, and a Dysfunctional Tennis Club

A fascination with leadership

What makes a good leader? If we started off with a level playing field, would women be better leaders than men? What special skills do Alex Ferguson and José Mourinho have that David Moyes probably doesn't?

How would Margaret Thatcher have coped with the intellectual sensitivities of John Terry? Would Condoleezza Rice have gone for 4-4-2 or opted to flood the midfield?

Decisions need to be made

I've understood loads about leadership over the last 15 years, even if the learning curve still feels quite steep, but one lesson that has stuck is the need to make decisions.

I don't think you need to make too many decisions running a business - it's far more about evolution that revolution. But every so often a decision does need making. This might sound 'oxymoronic', but when a decision is needed you'd better do it quickly and decisively.

A bad decision can often be better than no decision (Alex Ferguson showing David Beckham the door being a perfect case in point). And that brings me neatly on to my tennis club.

Death by committee

I play at Queens - a great institution that's full of successful, opinionated and occasionally annoying folk who, on the whole, care passionately about the place.

A membership of clever, wealthy people with too much time on their hands creates plenty of issues. From what I have managed to discern in my 20 years of membership, there are about 150 people on different committees.

The Chief Exec's main job seems to be pandering to the committees. And, as a result, it seems to take an awfully long time to meander painfully towards expensive bad solutions.

The result is that the bulk of members are united in their joint frustration at the way the place is run. And truth be told, being united in our misery does wonders to create that 'special' club feel.

So maybe not the worst way to run a club - but for a business it would be an absolute disaster.

Ben Black