Learning from the best Sports Teams: What can your leadership learn from the coach of your favourite sports team?
The Role of the Coach
Imagine your favourite team adopted your company structure and culture. What would your position, as boss or leader, be? Would you be on the field with the players? Have you ever known a top team where the coach was on the park, playing?
Coaches provide the vision, highlight the values, and re-enforce the standards and expectations for the team. Coaches are better able to see what is happening on the field, and in training, by not being in the game. That seems so obvious in sport, but the reasons apply to your business also. What is the game plan, or in the business case, strategy? Do the players, or staff, know their roles, what is important, what to do and what success looks like? All of this, and more, can only be planned and communicated if the leadership is focused on its job. That cannot be done successfully if they are on the field rather than looking on from the side.
Team Structure
Coaches, and leaders, put in place the structure to support the team achieve the goals that will deliver on the vision. When the game plan or strategy is sorted, and the gaps are identified, the coach sets out the tools and resources to allow the team to deliver the desired results. The players need the best available structure around them from trainers, medical and physiotherapy staff, training equipment, etc. The leadership needs to plan and provide these tools, systems and processes, to allow the team to improve and deliver the required outcomes.
Performance and Feedback
Coaches provide the players with feedback on their performance against expectations, areas for improvement, and their impact on overall team performance. This results in actually delivering the results on the field, or with the customer. Are the targets in place for each player, or employee? Are they being monitored so that they can review and improve after each game, or time period? Are the individuals being mentored to ensure they are being personally improved as well as working better as a team?
The Players
Finally, we come to the players or your staff. As the team performs it will become clear where the weaknesses or strengths lie. Also, as they meet greater challenges or standards, previous strengths may become recognised as weaknesses for the next level of requirements.
Successful teams recruit to fill gaps in skill and abilities. They look at how the new resources can fit in with the present structure and if the new players will work with the culture at the club. This approach will also work with companies. The company should always be looking at gaps being highlighted by the market through feedback and re-evaluate the skillsets and balance across the organisation. Just recruiting to replace leavers, or to job titles, ignores the lessons and feedback from the market and the strategic needs.
So would your company setup mirror your successful team’s approach, or could you learn something from the best sports teams.
