How Playing Bridge Strengthens Three Important Leadership Skills

Reflecting on the past decade, I realise that my journey with the game of Bridge has been transformative, deeply influencing my professional trajectory and helping shape the Leader I am today.

Through this article, my aim is to guide you through three aspects of leadership where the game of Bridge has significantly sped up my personal growth.

1. Better, faster and more informed decisions

As an Engineering Manager, I’m faced frequently with tough decisions that can have a big impact on my team and our company. In this regard, there is a clear parallel with Bridge.

First, playing this card game requires thinking ahead and anticipating. You have to remember which cards have been played and the probable distribution of the remaining ones! Like in business, this requires critical thinking, so you can anticipate actions and adjust your strategy.

Second, Bridge forces you to prioritise and manage your resources effectively. Just like you would with a team budget or a hiring plan, you have to manage your cards effectively to strategically optimise your chances of success.

Third, in Bridge it’s essential to think objectively and weigh the pros and cons of different options, the basis for making good decisions.
During a game, you have to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your own hand and decide whether to bid or not.
But the evaluation doesn’t stop here. During the bidding stage, you’re expected to justify your decisions; failing to provide a clear reason behind your choice might earn you a penalty. This is remarkably similar to strategic decision-making in business, where decisions need not only be taken wisely but also be communicated effectively to ensure a shared understanding among the team!

2. Getting better at navigating ambiguity

The game of Bridge is more than just fun — it’s also a great tool for practicing how to deal with uncertainty. When playing Bridge, you have to make important decisions without knowing all the details, like which cards your opponents are still holding.

This is similar to the uncertainties we often face in business where we may not have all the data or details needed to make the best decision.

And just like in business, playing Bridge requires you to be flexible and adaptable. Sometimes (often?) you will be wrong, or the situation will change — strategies that worked one round may not work in the next. This need to rethink plans and quickly adjust to new circumstances

3. Forming mental models faster

As described on the popular blog Farnam Street:

A mental model is a compression of how something works. Any idea, belief, or concept can be distilled down. Like a map, mental models reveal key information while ignoring irrelevant details. Models concentrate the world into understandable and usable chunks.

During the bidding phase of Bridge, players use ‘mental models’ known as ‘conventions’. These represent a dialogue of agreed-upon signals, allowing players to decode one another’s hands.

Using these ‘conventions’ over and over again really helped me to get better at making sense of complex situations by extracting essential information really fast.

The ability to form and use mental models developed through Bridge is therefore an indispensable tool in navigating the intricacies of a complex business world in constant evolution.