As Tenato recently added a client in the sports and recreation industry, I’ve been reading and learning a lot about team sports, and noticing the interesting parallels to business.

You might think this is just a metaphor, but there is actually a world of wisdom in sports that can be applied to the world of business. Coincidentally, or not, many of our most successful clients have been very sports-minded individuals. 

So with that, I give you 7 key lessons that sports can offer any business:

1. Teamwork

This doesn’t mean just getting along. If you’ve ever seen Moneyball, there’s strategic thinking at work. A good coach uncovers unique strengths in each player, gives them the right challenges to develop those strengths, and ensures the players are working together harmoniously. 

In business, we often instead see business leaders failing to delegate tasks they do not do well, or hiring too many like-minded individuals. The diversity of a team makes it much more capable of handling a broader variety of tasks.

When recruiting, how about trying this? Take an assessment or “inventory” of a person’s broader and creative skills, i.e. do they love bargaining, public speaking, know other languages, or have artistic talents? You never know how these will advantage you in winning new business or developing new ideas. And it goes without saying that these can also be used to plot career trajectories.

2. Practice

A great sports team practices hard, and pushes its members to improve. Sit-ups, push-ups, running lines, running laps. If skills or strengths are lacking, those become focal points. Furthermore, building multiple skills can open up moves that wouldn’t have otherwise been possible – such as an unblocked defensive player who can reliably make a 3-point jump shot.

In business, too often we let our players get “out of shape”. Their credentials become old, they haven’t taken any new training in years, and they stop stretching themselves to achieve greater challenges, instead settling for the comfort of routine.

I believe all businesses need to open up a training budget that lets their staff grow in new ways, and facilitates movement into different roles. Maybe an accountant wants to learn sales, or maybe the salesperson wants to learn about interior design. Imagine how much more effective a salesperson with a technical credential could be, especially for certain opportunities.

3. Competition

Sport builds in competition by definition, but too often businesses think of competitors as adversaries. But in observing competitive factors at play, as in the story of the Chicago Bulls and the Detroit Pistons (we recommend watching the new Michael Jordan series on Netflix), the Bulls would never have been pushed to weight train and improve their strength had the Pistons not been such as strong team.

In fact, Michael Jordan was known to play his very best when a competitor gave him the subtlest slight.

If there was no competition, just imagine how lazy a business would become. (This is often the complaint about crown corporations). Feel grateful that your competitors exist, and let them inspire you to become your best every day. 

After all, someday you may buy them, or they’ll buy you, and then you’ll be on the same team.

4. Defence

On a team, defensive roles are usually filled by physically strong, blocking-type players who prevent the other team from scoring goals. They are usually not stars of the show, but without them, the other team is robbing you blind. They are there to stop something bad from happening.

The defence side of a business is analogous. These people are usually strong workers, diligent about lowering cost and risk – such as accounting, legal, customer service and to some extent, operations (especially at the front-line management end) and purchasing. Thinking defensively is what makes a company grind its vendors for lower pricing, cover its legal risks with paperwork, replace humans with technology, and cut costs on its building, materials and equipment.

While these are wise moves for a business, sometimes thinking too defensively can be an error in judgment, especially if it affects product quality, or the customer experience. This is where its offence needs to come in.

5. Offence

In a sport, the offensive roles are usually filled by the fastest, shrewdest, or most talented players on the team, sometimes with all of the above qualities. They look for their openings, often seeing several steps ahead, and then strike to get the score.

In business, the offensive players are those who are involved in winning new opportunities and expanding the business. In other words, they are typically marketing, sales, financing, and investor relations.  

Quite often, these are folks who dress in style and make sure there is business rolling in the door. Others usually see them as confident, outgoing, charismatic and risk-loving people who often stir up a little chaos by getting the business into large commitments which need to be achieved by the rest of the team. In behind these folks are sometimes other lesser-known offensive players, such as inside salespeople – not charismatic, but very capable of ensuring each customer has their every need fulfilled.

Like a Michael Jordan, a business often has one player pulling in most of the business. But it is much wiser to develop an entire offensive line than to rely on a single star. After all, your key star might love selling, but if they had to bid on a huge RFP, 99% of that effort might need to come from a very diligent person who wins work based on thoroughness, not charisma. You need and want both types.

6. Leadership – Offence or Defence?

Now, you may wonder, should the leadership of a business be an offensive or defensive player?

If a leader is defensive (comes from a defensive role, such as accounting or cost control) the business may not grow – but its bottom-line profit will improve, at least in the near team. Such a leader can be good to have in place if the business is getting ready to sell. Typically, private-equity firms prefer leaders with this kind of background so they can buy the business, and sell it at a profit.

A leader who is more offensive will be the opposite;  profits will fall in the shorter term, as bank accounts are emptied to make way for expansion. This is more in line with how founders of a business typically think: they risked everything to start the business, so they want someone with drive and ambition to believe in possibilities, and do anything to make them happen.

As an entrepreneur and an offence player myself, I see the most success when I have a client with a team that includes an offensive leader who says, “Let’s do this” and a defensive leader who says, “I don’t think you’ve considered this and this…” Without the offence, it wouldn’t have started. But without the defence, it wouldn’t have finished. In truth, the offensive “yes” person needs slightly more influence than the defensive “no” person to create forward momentum, but the push-and-pull is what makes it ideal.

7. Fun

Sports are something people do for fun. It’s exhilarating and healthy, and creates opportunities to socialize, travel, perform, and maybe be in a spotlight.

And when you do something for fun, you often will do it for free, or at least put in extra time just for the love of it.

Imagine if you could make your workplace so fun, people would want to do it for free (not that you should stop paying them). Then ask yourself, are there ways to make it fun, with a sporting twist:

• Showcasing employees’ work or achievements – giving them MVP-type credit on your website, or at events.
• Holding celebrations – new product launches, milestones, or even birthdays or holidays.
• Inviting employees to help design new products and services, and even naming them.
• Putting game elements in the workplace – An office I knew had a huge bell they rang for each $10K in sales they just closed. 
• Creating a “Hall of Fame” – letting people showcase their non-work talents, such as their art projects, hobbies, or anything.

So…Love it Like a Sport

When you spend your life in your business, why not make it more like sport…in other words, a joy instead of just a job – for you and, your entire team? The good thing is, at least in business, no one will make you retire at age 30 or 40….you can play the game as long as you’re having fun. But if you’re not having fun, go ahead and change the rules. I dare you.

You can read more about our own offence-defence balance at Tenato (read our blog about working with your spouse – ha). And if your business needs some great offensive coaching, contact us anytime.