What Team Sports can Teach us in Business

The best team isn’t the one with the best players, but the team that plays the best together.

[JAMIE DIMON]

If your family are anything like mine, you would have loved the sport over the past few months. We are avid Tour De France supporters and went from that into the Olympics, what a sporting treat!

I am not sure if you’re a cycling fan, or have ever watched a major cycle race like the Tour De France, but those teams and their work ethic are what inspired this newsletter.

From the strategies of the coaches and managers to the dedicated athletes who endure some of the toughest conditions for weeks on end. These athletes are faced with unforeseen setbacks, bad weather conditions, accidents, injuries, and stronger opponents, but every day they get up and start again, working themselves to their highest possible performance for their team and their agreed goal.

The work ethic, dedication, persistence and resilience that it takes to make it in these competitive sports is mind blowing, not to mention the strong leadership.

In all team sports, each team member has a very specific and vital role to play. The team has an overall goal to which everyone is committed. Within that there are also personal goals but those cannot undermine the team goal if the team is to be successful.

This got me thinking about the similarities between business and sport, particularly team sport.

They may be performed in vastly different physical environments, but there are huge overlaps. 

1. Both involve high stress and mentally demanding situations.
   Elite athletes and top business leaders face huge physical and psychological demands, in fact, Lee Eldgridge refers to Business leaders as “cognitive athletes”.

   
   2. Both require Strategic thinking.
   They must strategize and follow through. No matter the position you play on the field, in the pool, on the mountain or in the business world, you’ll need to develop a strong understanding of the big picture.

   3. Setting goals and maintaining focus is critical.
   When you play a team sport, you set both personal and team goals. Then you learn what you need to do as an individual player andas a unified team to reach those goals. It’s no different in the business world. Whether you are playing a sport or involved in a business, you need to learn how to set reachable goals and figure out what you need to do to reach those goals.

   4. Perseverance and determination.
   It’s no secret that the path to career or sporting success can be riddled with obstacles and discouragement. You need to learn how to face obstacles head on, so that you can work through them and reach your goals, to keep going even in the toughest conditions.

   5. Teamwork skills.
   Team sports teach the value of collaboration and cooperation; As a team player, you must learn to collaborate not only with individuals whose personalities work well with yours but also with those whom you find more challenging. While it might be difficult at times, you’ll learn that cooperation and compromise ultimately lead to the success of the team.

   6. Learning to take feedback.
   Feedback is critical for growth and realizing maximum potential.

   7. Respect.
   Learning to respect team members for the value they bring (even if you don’t like them), appreciating them for their strengths and how they contribute to the overall goal.

   8. Thriving against competition.
   Competition ensures that you constantly working to improve.

   9. Consistency is key.
   The best performers are the most consistent. Success is not a one-off event; it is achieved by small successes, repeated over time. Athletes who train and play regularly are the ones that succeed. Business is no different. Being healthy and fit allows you to perform consistently and have a higher cognitive function.

   10. The Value of preparation.
   An entrepreneur or manager may spend hours preparing for a big client meeting, a product launch or key presentation but their big moment may last just a few minutes. Not dissimilar to an athlete.

   11. Strong leadership is key.
   Leaders who communicate their vision, and recognize and appreciate the unique contribution of each team member, increase engagement and commitment.

   Despite all these similarities, there is a significant difference between Sport and Business, between the physical and the cognitive athlete, that difference is …

Health and wellbeing

How you look after your body and mind is critical not just for athletes but for everyone working in pressurized, stressful environments. Yet how many people in Business schedule rest, prioritize sleep, exercise, eat a balanced diet?

The need for recovery is probably the biggest discrepancy between these 2 disciplines and is an area that the business environment does not appreciate. Recovery plays a vital role in an athlete’s ability to adapt to training, and therefore improve.

For cognitive athletes, this is the same. Stress is stress. Overtraining leads to underperformance syndrome, whereas overworking leads to breakdowns or burnout, which we know is a growing concern in the modern-day workplace. Success comes from training and working hard, of course, but recovering is equally important.

Elite athletes are required to travel hundreds of thousands of miles during the year. Competitions, training camps, media events, presentations, negotiations and visits come with the job, so they build in rest days after their flights and before they need to perform.

Business travel, however, involves heading straight from the airport to the meeting – taking the red eye flights, travelling back late at night so we can be back in the office first thing the next day.

This lack of attention to recovery has become obvious in the results we see in the EQ Assessments where Balance and Health score consistently the lowest of the success outcomes – in stark contrast to the high Effectiveness scores.

The ability to recover determines your ability to train. [Anonymous]

In conclusion …

We all love the pride that comes with winning. Our Springbok rugby team have proved time and again how a winning team can unite a nation! Isn’t this what we want for our workplace teams?

Let’s look at what sport can teach us and build a winning culture that is sustainable, not one where people are burning out, where individual goals surpass team goals, where leaders are quick to take credit and assign blame. But one where true team players are united to achieve a common goal!

As Steve jobs says, “Great things are never done by one person. They are done by a Team of People.”