Christine Dumery, head of digital paid media campaigns in Corporate Marketing, and an accomplished tennis player, participated in the 2022 United States Tennis Association League National Championships, held in Oklahoma City, from October 14-16th. Christine’s undefeated team represented Northern California in the National games.
[Christine Dumery, playing tennis]
“When you are in a very competitive tennis match, you have to quickly problem solve; when your opponents are really beating you up on the court, you have to change your strategy.”
I was down 6:2, 5:1, and I was at love 40, match point. It was a Friday night. And all of a sudden, I mentally resolved, ‘I am not losing against this opponent. I am not losing.’ And guess what? From that point on, I went back and I won that point, won that set 7:5 and won the next set 6:1. So that was a lesson in never giving up– in remaining driven and determined, you will come out ahead.
The game is also about being smart and fast.
And you know the match that I was just describing? The person who I beat still doesn’t want to talk to me. And that was 10 years ago.
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If you’re ready to be competitive when you walk onto the tennis court – you’re walking in to win. You’re not there for anything less, and you don’t want to set up for anything else. You’re there to win, and if you adopt this type of mentality, you have a greater probability of success.
I would say that my team has to be agile, maintain an unbeatable strategy, communicate effectively across divides, and just go for it.
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The importance of team in both sports and the workplace cannot be overstated. To both my team on the court and my team at work, I often say “You know guys, we go in and we win as a team, or we lose as a team.”
It’s amazing to see how much strength and how much drive you can find inside when you say ‘I cannot let my team down, I’ve got to fight harder.
In tennis, part of the reason as to why my team has been doing so well is because we are very close to one another. When you actually care for one another, whether you play a competitive team sport or at work, I mean, really, nothing can really stop you.
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In tennis, you need to have your goals and you need to be driven. And it’s the same for work. When you run a campaign, for instance, you have to drive towards the objectives that you set out for yourself, and if you’re behind, you’ve got to quickly make adjustments.
You adjust your strategy, or your game, to reach your goal, which is to deliver the most influence to pipeline, or on the tennis court, to win.
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I did not expect to go to Nationals, but I think that no matter what, if you put your heart into what you do, and work hard at it, good things happen.
One thing that’s very important and that I always try to mention to my teams, both on the court and in business – “Let’s work hard, let’s give it 200%, but let’s always make sure that we still have fun in everything that we do.” Because that’s what keeps us going, and that’s what keeps us interested, and that’s what I believe allows us to keep growing.
I believe that everyone needs to keep growing, to keep learning, to continue their education informally and to keep trying to achieve the goals they wish to attain. I also feel that strategizing, proactively addressing challenges and remaining solutions-oriented is central to who I am as a person, and a shared DNA element among the people around me – both in tennis and at Check Point.
We only live once, so we have to follow our dreams and believe in ourselves. We never give up. The sky’s the limit.
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