The Sport of Business

“I sometimes allowed my competitiveness to get in the way of my integrity”Quote from Australian Sportsperson

Often when we speak to business leaders, we hear that they are very busy people who don’t have time to read business books, study the latest management fads or learn to use new technology.

Many of these business leaders then go to sports events, sometimes even offering or experiencing corporate hospitality. Yet they don’t see and analyse what is going on right in front of them.

Sports can be a fantastic learning tool for business leaders. It is highly visible, there is extensive media coverage and people from all walks of life talk about it. The information is easy to find and is available to analyse and apply.

Some examples:

• Sports clubs are established for achievement and success in their fields. They often achieve this through the leadership of the coach and players, rather than the team owner, Board President or Chair, or the CEO.
• The whole club clearly defines its identity, by defining the values, vision and intentions they share. This allows the CEO to show implicit trust in the ability of the coaches and the players to perform, without measuring every action on the field, without requiring extensive reporting on each element of the game and without micromanagement.
• Sports clubs understand that they are made up of people. Their fans (customers), shareholders (owners and members), suppliers (medicos, equipment manufacturers and stadium managers), backers (sponsors) and staff (coaches, players and administration) are treated as people with more to their lives than the club alone. They all have roles to play in success, and are provided with opportunities and encouragement to contribute.
• Teams are structured so that the most important person at any given moment can change. When the on-field action is on, the owner, President, Chair or CEO sit and look on, possibly undertaking tasks of obtaining sponsorship or engaging with their supporters, that is tasks that create an environment for success, but don’t actually create the ultimate success.
• They achieve success through the talents, hard work and dedication of the players, who are strongly motivated by personal and team considerations, not just the overall financial success of the organisation.
• Players are often asked not to use all of their talents, but to be contributors to the high performance team. They are asked to undertake roles that sacrifice their full range of abilities to ensure team success, and these sacrifices are acknowledged by team members, coaches and supporters.
• Sports clubs watch and learn from their competitors, but are not driven by them. They create their own game plans and do everything they can to prevent their competitors interfering with those plans. They don’t aim for competitiveness, but for achievement.

Aren’t these some fantastic ideas for you to consider for your organisation!

There are many other examples that I could use, as is obvious from Adam's comment on the blog about perfection. Indeed, one comment from a sportsperson has generated this series of posts, and could have been used to generate a few more.

Given how busy you are in your business, take the opportunities that exist outside of your business in your other activities to find ideas and to challenge the way you think and achieve.