Sport and Business Connected

Your life is not a bed of roses. At some point in our lives we have all been coached through something for example in an athletic event, the birth of a child, coping with the loss of a loved one, shaving for the first time, or learning how to type.

All of these activities require some form of coaching. Whether it is athletically based or teaching a life lesson, instructors are essential to life. After all, that is what sport and life consist of--setting goals and achieving them.

During conversations with business professionals and professors, I learned that there were five areas that, with incorporation, could efficiently improve employee output. These areas were Teamwork, Communication, Creativity, Time Management, and Leadership. Each was as important as the others and all were dependent on one another. In today's growing global economy, we could very well be coaching our current and future employees to adapt to their changing environment and so better serve the goal(s) of their company.

Teamwork is becoming a lost concept in today's capitalistic approach to accomplishing goals. Human nature compels us to take care of ourselves primarily and make sure that we survive , a characteristic that has crept into the business approach to success.

This natural desire combined with the preference of many professionals to work independently eliminates group discussion, the introduction of multiple opinions, and ultimately prevent the best solution from being utilized.

With the help of team work one can achieve even harder goal.

One person cannot efficiently perform a task without some direction. Coaches are trained to get people to cooperate and to evaluate individual strengths and assign group tasks in order to accomplish the team goal.

Coaches will also put each person in the role that will best prepare him to make the goal achievable. The best teams will be those whose players will do anything for the teammates beside them on game day.

If their biggest fear is letting their teammates down, the coach can consider himself successful. The players have learned the value of teamwork. This concept will remain with them for the rest of their lives.

TEAMWORK:

How can we teach this? In my four years of collegiate experience, I structured the activities outside of football, such as obstacle courses, team bowling, community service, etc., where the players must use all their skills to accomplish a common goal and communicate the best ways to foster togetherness.

These activities enable the players to interact with one another off the field and take care of each other on game day. Management can use the same techniques with their employees. Make the employees see that they are all part of the same family.

Communication accompanies the concept of teamwork. Without it, there is no teamwork, and in order for a business to build it, it must coach its employees to communicate with one another, even use hand signals to communicate everyone's responsibility.

For instance, a quarterback may tap his helmet to let the wide receiver know that he is going to throw him the ball. In response, the wide receiver may tap his helmet to let the quarterback understand what he is supposed to do.

The point is that both players are communicating despite the obstacles and the coach is facilitating the communication.

Co-workers have to overcome obstacles such as distance, difference in personal or business background, language barriers, etc, so they can accomplish the goal of the company.

Sometimes people think that it is impossible to do this task , but one if determined , he can achieve his target.

Coaches are using hand signals to help their teams overcome the screaming crowds by the communication of basic information. The smallest changes in a routine or creative effort are often accepted as a miracle.

For example, Bob Stoops, the football coach at Oklahoma, allows his offensive and defensive linemen to go out for passes or field kicks. He also organizes touch football games in which everyone is allowed to run, throw, or catch the ball.

This may not seem like a novel concept, but when offensive or defensive linemen are allowed to experience these aspects of the game it involves them more in the total team goal.

Stoops is using a creative and constructive (fun) way to condition his players and break up the monotony of the long season.

Business coaches can use this same type of creativity by planning softball leagues, picnics, cooking classes, or encouraging employees to express their ideas on company management. Anyone who wants to learn how to run his business more efficiently can call upon those who are involved in the day-to-day operation of the company.

Like Coach Stoops, we are trying to rejuvenate the attitudes of company employees. Our aim is to convey work as not just a place to collect a paycheck, but as an area in which employees can come to express their creativity, share ideas with one another, and build a bond that will carry over after work is finished.