Lets get down to it….Why should a business invest in bringing in athlete’s to their workforce..?
People automatically think of many attributes when an athlete comes to mind. Relentless training to improve and develop, dedicated to overcoming competition, achieving success for friends, family and fans, and pushing mind and body to the limit. Without living the life of an athlete, even from a distance it is clear that these are some of the reasons why athletes across all sports are admired, and seen as true leaders and role models.
The Transition Phase is built on the belief that it is the athlete’s leadership qualities, their dedication, and willingness to compete to win that can be applied to serve businesses, to breed success and a high performance culture. That is why fundamentally we believe within many industry sectors, athletes can be developed into real long term assets….and here are some other beliefs that I am sure you’ll find interesting reading!
Professional athletes understand how important development is, and are dedicated to taking on feedback to improve every day to make themselves better performers and better people.
Their time, day in day out is dedicated to sport, committed through an installed mentality and demanding approach, they can become exceptional at anything they see fit. It is this type of endeavour and ethos that provides a diverse approach to most other employees, who simply have a different mental make-up. An athlete, uses criticism and negative feedback to think about improvements and how they can be better next time. People within business could learn a huge amount from this approach.
Healthy body, healthy lifestyle, healthy mind. With the dedication and sacrifice that comes with an athlete’s experience, they are able to ambassador a healthy lifestyle, which cannot go underestimated. Leading a healthy and competitive lifestyle will bring a fresh approach to a workplace, and is likely to instil extrinsic motivation to a team, to lead a healthy an competitive lifestyle in and out of work. This naturally will benefit a business and its employees by bringing a healthy body, healthy lifestyle, and healthy mind approach.
Athletes compete to win. Coming up against challenge, competition or obstacles can reduce performance and cause uncertainty. Athletes tend to thrive under these situations. They enjoy adversity, and compete to perform and win. So they hit their objectives as an individual and as part of a team, but perhaps more importantly, they analyse failure and challenge, and keep going until they find a solution. On top of this, they will perform under different managers throughout their career. Forging a relationship with managers within elite sport is vital, but it’s not always the case that athletes will get on with a manager. But what they make certain, is that relationships are professional, and they will do whatever it takes to perform, improve and hit targets. Employees can take a lot from this. Many decide to leave a business because of their manager, rightly or wrongly. An athlete, will find a way to work professionally and provide resilience against challenge.
An athlete’s mentality is enriched within the true essence of teamwork. Athletes advocate true teamwork, they understand how to work as part of a team to achieve objectives, whilst taking individual responsibility of their tasks. Importantly also, they are able to adapt to play to others strengths, and also cope with changing team dynamics. Within business, being able to collaborate effectively within a team is vital, and cannot be overemphasised. One of the most common inefficiencies within a team is change in management and direction. Athletes have been brought up to make the most of these kinds of situations, and find a way to work effectively. Putting the overall objective above their own simply comes naturally. Significantly also, athletes know how to take ownership and responsibility, they don’t shy away from a mistake, they learn from this, and enjoy sharing success.
Athletes love learning. Being flexible, having the ability to be proactive, and significantly be able to adapt to challenge, means athletes understand the value of learning new skills efficiently. Thus, businesses will find an athlete coming into business, a fast learner, able to adopt new skills, and always looking to better themselves. This will in-turn raise standards and push team-mates to continue their learning.
The difference that makes the difference. The innate skills and competencies that an elite athlete has built up over a career within sport, is raw, diverse, and full of potential that can be shaped. With the right on the job training and technical learning, combined with an athlete’s personality and behavioural make-up, an organisation can create true competitive advantage, that can make the difference.