A few weeks ago, in the world of tennis, a match for the ages took place. Before you assume it doesn’t apply to business or leadership, pause and think again. This bout between world number one Jannik Sinner and world number two Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s French Open final served up a veritable highlight reel of headlines. The top two players in the world faced off. A herculean comeback occurred. And the match extended for five and a half hours. But arguably the most important highlight was a single statistic, a measure called total points won. Alcaraz beat Sinner by a single point, 193 to 192. If you’re a human with a pulse, you ought to be thinking “Wow.” Yet, as a leader, you’re probably thinking, “ Why does this matter to me? ” Simple. Too often, leaders measure success in terms of both immediacy and heroism. When they do, they forget the most important metric for long-term success: perspective. In the context of the match, here’s a typical way to sum it up: Coming back from two sets down to win, Alcaraz is truly a hero. This was his fifth Grand Slam championship, two more than Sinner has. Alcaraz is obviously the better player. But before you get carried down the typical path, let me remind you: Alcaraz won by a single point, hardly a conclusive victory for forecasting the future. That easily overlooked statistic doesn’t jump out when looking at the typical measurements of games, sets, or championship wins. Yet, it’s possibly the most important metric. Why? Because it gives perspective. It invites people to pause and consider more than an inch-deep view of what happened and what might yet happen. Not ready to pause? Then, consider this: Despite his loss, Sinner’s rank remained number one. If you’re a leader aiming at future success , you should be asking yourself, what viewpoint does tennis take that most people fail to consider? In sports fans and onlookers ask, “Who won the game?” The business translation is “Who made the sale?” or “Did you hit your numbers?” No doubt, the answers matter, but not enough to ensure ongoing success. Yet, these are the very measurements that drive most leaders most of the time. Important as they are, those common measurements are small and fleeting. Rarely do people track perspective. Perspective is not the same as attempting to predict the future. While leaders can’t control the future, they can pause and gain perspective about their next steps toward that future. What makes tennis exceptional is that rather than leave perspective-taking to chance, it’s built into the entire structure of how the game is measured, won, and indeed played. Perspective-taking in tennis is the conscious mentality at every turn and in every measure. You need to look no further than the language of the sport to see perspective and a long-term focus. In tennis, the word “game,” for example, is used in a way different from in other sports. If you win the game on other fields of play, you win, and you’re done. In tennis, win or lose the game you start over. Less an end, it’s more like a new beginning, at least from a perspective standpoint, and one that occurs repeatedly. In tennis, individual games must accumulate into sets for a player to advance. To win a match—that is, to beat an opponent on any given day—you must win multiple sets. Sets are an added measure for perspective taking. Each game and and each set is literally a fresh start, and should freshen your perspective. It keeps going. To win an individual championship, you must play seven rounds of matches, allowing a mental reset at every level. Even tennis rankings work this way, which is why Sinner’s current 10,880 ranking points puts him ahead of Alcaraz, who has 8,850 points for the season to date. Sometimes, people look at success on the court or in the marketplace as luck, or maybe magic. It’s not. It’s a choice. Like tennis, business is inevitably a game played over time. Success demands a perpetual long view. The data clearly show that the most successful companies build that long view into what they measure. Furthermore, and perhaps more surprising, they measure it daily. While some assume otherwise, measuring perspective isn’t as hard as leaders assume. A company’s cultural priorities , its mission, and its purpose statement all can be forged into measures, some as simple as asking how these things are showing up in daily operations. There are other versions as well. The trick is less about finding opportunities to measure and more about making those measures active, shared, and daily. As Sinner himself reflected, “Every match is a new beginning.” It’s a thought worth lingering on before you declare victory. The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com. The final deadline for the 2025 Inc. Power Partner Awards is Friday, July 25, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now .