In the modern business environment, the success of companies lies fundamentally in the capacity of the individuals who run it, much more than in the resources or products it possesses. We are in the era of knowledge, of creative thinking, where concepts such as emotional intelligence, human resource management and organizational change, influence positively or negatively when evaluating the behavior of company managers.
Companies invest increasing and better resources to train their employees and train their executive staff. Coaching corporate has become the most widely used training tool today to train individuals who are directly or indirectly involved in daily decision-making in their company.
As Goleman, the author of the most outstanding book on Emotional Intelligence ever written, said for organizations, getting the brightest in some field is a matter of time and money, but finding the fittest will be much more difficult. And it is that actually finding the "ideal" or preparing the "ideal" requires not only technical questions of knowledge or experience, but rather a set of psychological factors, where intuition, logic, creativity, adaptability to change, self-preparation, and even acceptability to failure, as a measure to compel improvement.
According to Edward de Bono, a prominent modern thinker, "Creativity is a process and the main thing is to get people to see things differently, is to look at what we do and ask ourselves if there is a better way to do it" and if we consider how Professor Laplaza said, “that analog techniques in lateral thinking are enormous triggering resources for creativity” and that “in chess, analogy can be used as a resource to increase the flow of ideas and their originating mechanisms, when faced with a problem or a situation in front of an idea in a starting move ”, then we can recognize in the game science a tool to increase creative, logical, intuitive and, as we know, strategic thinking.
I have done other works demonstrating how chess can become a strategic analysis tool for business, the "chess in business" method of training and education, which is taught through a theoretical-practical course, demonstrates this, but this time I will basically deal with another of the aspects that make up the method and it is the evaluation of the science game as mental training for executives, in short, people who have to make decisions and directly decide the strategies to follow in their company.
Regardless of whether there are other factors or elements that support these decisions or the formulation of the strategies to follow, there is no doubt that the psychological factor, often influences decisively the acceptance or failure of these ideas.
One of the fundamental elements in the psychological preparation of a chess player is the knowledge of his opponent, as it is for the executive of a company his similar competitor.
Chess games are decided by the influence of several factors, regardless of the importance of the training and the preparation prior to it, however I would like to emphasize the psychological preparation of the player before the knowledge of the personality of the opponent, since in my opinion understanding this plays a fundamental role in obtaining the objectives set. If we are able to study our enemy, his ability, his strength, his weaknesses, we will be in a better position to face him.
The psychological chess preparation focused on the individual we are facing forces us to obtain as much information about him as possible, not only about his style of play, the most used openings, those with which he feels most uncomfortable, but also features of his personality, character, clothes he wears, those he detests, among other factors that combined allow us to better plan our strategy before and during the game.
If we analyze the entrepreneur from the economic point of view, we say that he is the person who organizes and runs the company, exercising a role of authority over the workers who work in it and assumes the risks that his activity implies. As Sánchez Calero states in his work "Institutions of Commercial Law", The entrepreneur is the driving force of the company and, ultimately, of the economic system, because it has a power of economic initiative and, ultimately, an evident economic power.
Analyzing these definitions, we will agree to point out that the emergence, development, success or failure of a company depends to a large extent on its management, on the executive staff, on the ability of these individuals to carry out their functions, so their preparation Psychological must be arduous, and like their training and formation, they must be prioritized objectives if they are to succeed in their endeavor.
As a chess master, the manager must and first of all recognize himself, work on his own errors and defects, that is to say, focus his preparation first on factors outside his business activity, those that affect his behavior, his state of spirit, such as personal problems, their health and then addressing the second group of factors that directly affect their work, such as attitude, lack of confidence and lack of attention to issues inherent in their functions. These factors determine, in a primary state, the capacity of an individual to direct, organize and administer the human resource he possesses to develop his company.
The entrepreneur is an individual like any other, who has emotions, sufferings, joys, failures and successes, however due to the great responsibility he has and the characteristics of his work, he continually suffers from stress, and feels an emotional charge which sometimes releases with physical exercises or sports in general. I recently discovered that a company in Mexico is dedicated to training people who work in any business sector, during a few days of outdoor activities, in which these individuals, navigate, climb, parachute and even explore, feeling a great improvement at the end of the training.
These techniques seem great to me, as does the systematic practice of physical exercises, as they contribute to improving physical health. However, I think that the combination of these physical training sessions with a mental one, such as the systematic practice of chess, would contribute to the overall improvement of the entrepreneur.
Contrary to what many may think about chess, his study and systematic practice, without the need for professional practice, contributes to forming a more capable, logical and intelligent person than he was before dedicating himself to it.
For my theories to work, they require not only discipline, but also a set of factors internal and external to the individual, such as: The will, the desire to excel, the combination with physical exercises, the search for the necessary time and the systematization, Inter alia. Without these it will be difficult to find a good result.
Planning of mental training through chess:
Systematically playing a game of chess, if not possible with humans, can use some computer program and measure their performance day by day, organizing simple game tournaments that do not exceed 25 minutes.
Playing chess games at least twice a week, you can even combine the game with the study of these games and we recommend, if possible, follow those played or played by your favorite chess player, with which you will feel more comfortable.
Participate if possible in chess tournaments that you organize in your own company.
Motivating yourself and the rest of the team to practice this game.
The best hours to play or play games is once you arrive at your office or in the afternoon, never at night.
You should combine mental exercises through chess with physical exercises, at different times if possible.
