What Makes the Top Three?

At dinner the other night I met someone new. Always something I enjoy. They then asked me what I did. Always something I find slightly less enjoyable, as I find it so hard to define what I do with my mix of day job and non-exec work.

Luckily, they found the details of my day job interesting, and after some lively conversation, came up with this killer question:

‘One hears so much about sport transferring into the business world. What are the top three aspects that you believe have a fundamental benefit to the corporate world, and what’s the one that you think is incorrectly ‘sold’ as truly transferable?

Quite the question. Especially for a Friday night…

My first answer involved me invoking my book, Staying the Distance: The Lessons From Sport That Business Leaders Have Been Missing. This focuses on long-term sustained performance, putting the spotlight on the lessons from sport that have too often been over-looked in the focus on short-term ‘winning’, or in the moment ‘high’ performance. However, when I explained that there were thirteen lessons in all – six focused on how to get the best out of yourself over the long-term, and seven on how to get the best out of those you lead over the long-term, I was told that that wasn’t going to cut it. Fair enough.

So then I decided to be brave, and totally narrow my thinking, relying on what I have read about, experienced, seen and heard over my career to date. Not focusing on the stats in my answer (although there are so many wonderful and differing pieces of research linking sport to all sorts of positive benefits, from promotion to C suite right through to the mental well-being), not making a distinction between team sports and individual sports, but just zoning in on the three aspects that I felt most universal, applicable and significant.

1.      Athlete mindset

This covers so many areas, but I tried that night at dinner to list out the top ones. In no particular order, this is what I set out.

·       Resilience. Athletes lose all the time. (Even if they are the best in the world). They get injured. They miss out on selection. They suffer setbacks on a regular basis. Those who stick with it have learnt how to cope. They’ve built up mechanisms and techniques to bounce back, keep motivated, keep disciplined, and keep their eyes on the prize.

·       Emotional regulation. Athletes make mistakes all the time (tell me the last time you watched any sport – either live or on TV – where any player was perfect). The ones that stay the distance learn how to deal with this – moving on quickly from mistakes in the moment, making sure they don’t get derailed.

·       Reflection and continuous improvement. I have always fundamentally believed that sport is about enjoyment. And enjoyment goes hand in hand with development and improvement. Sport is a brilliant environment in which to learn how to reflect, analyse, try something different, build your execution skill-set accordingly, and then repeat the cycle.

2.      Team performance

There are two areas that stand out for me here. First, sport teaches you the value of a diverse team. Indeed many sports are set up in a way that actually demands diversity. Think of the nature of a rugby team, from your solid props to your speedy wingers. Think of a netball team, from your towering goal shooters to your nimble and agile centres. It’s a brilliant way to understand how teams benefit from all types. The same goes for business (with less emphasis of course on the physical shape and size!)

Second, team sports put the spotlight on each position, and their role in the team. A successful sports team is one where everyone knows their role on the team, and what their job is. Whether you are goalkeeper, left back or centre forward. It sounds fairly straightforward, but I can’t tell you the number of times I have worked with leaders and corporate teams where this clarity has made a fundamental difference to performance.

3.      Goals and Process

Whilst sport, at least at the elite level, is always about winning or losing, the work that sits behind this is often a surprise to people. And it speaks to a debate that is universal in business. Should we have targets/goals? And if so, how should we be setting them?

Research across sport, examples of which I have seen successfully in action both in sport and business, lifts the lid of what works:

·       have an overall goal/aim in mind;

·       work out what processes/steps/systems/activities will give you the best chance of getting there; and

·       set goals/targets relentlessly at that level, to give you the best chance of success.

Simple. (Provided you have identified the right processes. How to make sure of this? Reflection, data collection, analysis).

I felt quite pleased with myself after sharing the above, and reached for my wine. I was then reminded that I hadn’t yet come up with the final bit – what’s the one thing I felt was incorrectly ‘sold’ as truly transferable?

After a few seconds thought, I shared the area that has caused me more thinking time than probably any other. One that companies often want a ‘magic bullet’ on, and on which it is common to look at sport and expect it to come up with all the answers. And this is culture.

Why did I reach for that? And why has it caused me so much deliberation over the years? Because I think sport can do culture brilliantly. There are countless examples of teams who have really focused on culture and succeeded accordingly. However, even with the biggest teams in the world, including all the ‘teams behind the team’, you are never talking about more than a few hundred people. So yes, sport has some brilliant lessons for business in terms of how to build a winning culture. But it can’t teach business how to do so in a huge global company. Not in a way that is truly transferable. Principles and concepts can be carried across, but the execution is going to look completely different, so that has to be figured out separately.

Since that night at dinner, my mind has turned every now and again to the conversation, and the answers I gave. They have stood the (short) test of time. I’m happy to stick with them, and so to share them.

 For more on this or any aspect of leadership and performance, with a healthy dose of mindset, sport, and I hope usefulness thrown in, do feel free to browse through all the articles in the Huddle, or get in touch with me directly on catherine@sportandbeyond.co.uk. To order a copy of my book - Staying the Distance: The Lessons From Sport That Business Leaders Have Been Missing – click here .