Those who know me know that I spend quite a bit of time at the rink. Whether it be attending my son’s practices and games or volunteering for hockey organizations, I always enjoy seeing how coaches inspire, motivate and work to get the most (and best) out of their players on and off the ice. I can’t help but draw parallels between the sport team dynamics vs the workplace team dynamics, with the latter being the topic of many discussions with my clients.
As much as we would like to think that new leaders were put in their roles because they are pre-equipped with the skills and habits that will enable them to be immediately successful and happy in their new leadership roles, this isn’t the case. Unfortunately, this skills gap leads to a lot of stress in many new leaders. Unless these skills are intentionally honed, new – and even more experienced leaders, can resort to evasive and ineffective behaviors when faced with a challenge simply as a result of not knowing what to do or how to handle certain situations. Their teams also suffer from lack of inaction, leading to sub-optimal results.
When leaders are in the trenches, they sometimes get swept away with the “do-ing” of the work and lose touch with collaborative team practices and the more strategic aspect of their leadership role. To accelerate learning and adjust to their leadership responsibilities, leaders can tap into skills they have already developed in the past – though perhaps in completely different contexts. We tend to think about more technical knowledge when thinking about transferable skills. New and emergent leaders sometimes lose touch with certain principles when they ascend to a leadership position, while professional sports teams often excel at implementing these principles for success.
This week’s newsletter isn’t so much of a newsletter as much as it is more of a collection of observations and thoughts that come to mind when two of my worlds, leadership coach and hockey mom, collide:
Team Cohesion
Professional sports teams prioritize team cohesion and unity. They understand that individual talent alone does not guarantee success. Leaders, on the other hand, may lose touch with this concept as they focus on individual goals, power struggles, or siloed departments. Successful sports teams build strong bonds among their players – regardless of the position they play, which fosters a sense of belonging and teamwork that transcends individual capabilities. Each player understands their role and how it supports the systems in plays. Similarly, work teams are most successful when they work around different members’ skillsets and strengths and understand how their role fits into the greater good of the team and picture of the organization.
As a leader, creating opportunities for collaboration amongst not only teams, but across different teams and departments, can help foster this similar unity.
Continuous Improvement
Sports teams are constantly striving to improve, both individually and collectively. They embrace the concept of continuous improvement and recognize that complacency can lead to being left behind in a very competitive environment. This is why professional athletes are constantly looking for and leaning on feedback from their coaches to continually improve their skills. For some reason though, once individuals settle into their work roles, most tend to stagnate. Behaviors such as possessiveness over tasks, gate-keeping information, looking for individual success rather than the team’s success as a whole creep in. Individuals begin to feel comfortable and might begin to lose sight of the need for ongoing learning and development (or be too busy to learn), which can limit their own effectiveness and the growth of their teams, and ultimately – that of the organization’s.
Leaders can model continuous growth by accepting mistakes as part of the process and instilling workplace culture where continuous learning, mentoring and coaching is the norm. Transparency about their own journeys usually helps break the ice – as does normalizing conversations about feedback and professional and personal goal setting.
Data-Driven Decision Making
Sports teams often use data and analytics to inform their decisions, from player selection to in-game strategies. Some leaders, once they achieve a certain level of authority, may rely on their “gut feeling” or intuition or give experience more weight, instead of making data-driven decisions. Staying in touch with this principle can lead to more informed and effective leadership decisions. Now, I’m not going to say that a leader following their gut feeling is all bad. It’s a balance that needs to be learned. But when a leader leans too heavily on their gut feelings, it can create issues that go beyond business numbers. This is where perceptions of favoritism and lack of transparency/trust issues can arise. Just as coaches know their players and know who can they rely on in specific moments or which player is having a bad day, to game-time decisions, leaders have to take the time to get to know each of their team members equally well so that they can make similar decisions for optimum team functioning and results.
Adaptability
Successful sports teams are adaptable, able to adjust their strategies and tactics to respond to changing circumstances, opponents, and injuries. Leaders who lose touch with this principle may become rigid and resistant to change, potentially hindering their organizations in a dynamic and evolving business environment. This is when a team or organization becomes stagnant and falls behind their competitors. Yes, change usually equates to more work, and constant change can be exhausting! Though change is a reality that needs to be taken into stride. Being able to constantly keep the team’s eye on the prize is one of the most motivating factors leaders can easily tap into. In fact, getting everyone on board and keeping everyone motivated is so much easier when all team members know what the end game is. Going a step further and making sure everyone understands the value they each bring to it also helps them buy into change. Asking questions like: “How do you stand to benefit from this change?” or “What do you need from the team to be successful in this?” can help appease concerns and offer reassurance of support when teams are experiencing change.
Clear Communication
Communication is essential in sports, with coaches and players needing to convey their strategies and intentions clearly and effectively – sometimes at rapid-fire speed. Leaders sometimes forget the importance of clear, transparent communication as they ascend in the organizational hierarchy. An obvious and common example of this would be asking front-line team members what the organizational values, priorities and goals are. I tend to get a lot of “deer in headlights” looks. Communication doesn’t just have to be clear, but it must trickle down to all team members to ensure everyone is super clear on the game plan. Maintaining open and honest lines of communication at all levels also fosters trust and alignment among team members and helps achieve collective goals.
Goal setting
While the goal in sports teams is simple – win, leaders in the workplace could stand to better communicate what their team’s version of winning looks like. Too many team members fall into the trap of doing things because that’s how they’ve always done them. But no one ever tells them any differently. Leaders need to paint a clear picture of what a winning team looks like – along with how the team interacts, works together and what success looks like to them. Leaders need to stop assuming each of their team members “just know” what’s expected of them. New leaders really do need to spell this out for their teams, and then revisit the “how to” when trying to create a winning team environment, more often.
Handling varying skill and confidence levels
When individuals achieve a certain level of success or ability, they tend to develop a powerful sense of identity and ego tied to that achievement. When the whole team always knows what they are doing and have experience doing it, the team’s work feels like a well-oiled machine. Unfortunately, rare are the teams where all members began working together at the same time and have been together for so long without change, that they experience an effortless synchronicity. Like sports teams, work teams don’t exist in a bubble. Conditions are very dynamic in both worlds.
In a sports team setting, typically successful or more tenured players may feel that their status is threatened by the presence of a talented newcomer. Similarly, in organizations, leaders who have achieved success may become protective of their status and reluctant to accept new ideas or newcomers who challenge their authority or ability. Rather than weaponize varying experience and skill levels, leaders can really hold team members accountable to sharing their knowledge for the greater good and highlighting each team member’s skill set and strengths. Leaders can also stop stepping in to “rescue” work or tasks by doing it themselves just as coaches can’t jump in the game to do the work for any of their players. Offering bite-size guidance, advice to continually help individuals improve ensures constant growth of all their team members’ skills set.
Successful sports teams often excel in supporting these principles of team cohesion, continuous improvement, data-driven decision making, adaptability, clear communication, goal setting and handling varying skill and confidence levels within the team to achieve success. Leaders can benefit from reflecting on these principles and finding ways to implement them in their professional lives to improve their own team’s dynamics, help increase their teams’ enhance their leadership effectiveness.
If you are looking for a more customized leadership development experience, leadership coaching may be the better option to get you to your professional development goals faster. Book a complimentary “Discovery Call” to discuss your goals and see if working with a leadership coach might be the way to go.