The success of a company relies a significant amount on the performance of its employees. A solid team of high-performing staff who know how to take the initiative and collaborate is an integral part of business growth and expansion.
Having a sports background or encouraging your employees to use gym memberships can go a long way towards having the focused and determined staff you need for your business.
If you decide to provide incentives to employees who take up a sport or participate in the company sports teams, then be prepared to support them well. Encouraging a sports team isn’t about lip service. It is about making sure they have the right equipment to deliver a stellar performance.
This performance can be directly translated into the workspace. Thus, it is in your best interests to provide them with the best equipment possible, whether that means a gym space or branded sports equipment.
Time Management Skills
Time management is an essential skill for employees. No matter how talented or brilliant a staff member is, poor time management will affect their job performance. An employee who cannot meet deadlines and consistently take longer to accomplish tasks than the projected timeframe will always be in danger of losing their job.
High productivity in the workplace is directly related to time management skills. Luckily, these are transferable soft skills and can be picked up by sports participation. Sporty people regularly have to manage practice schedules, gym sessions, and game day timings. They are naturally more able to meet projected timelines and finish tasks within deadlines efficiently.
Perseverance and Dedication
Athletes learn early on how to avoid becoming downhearted when something does not go their way. They are taught to take failures or setbacks as learning opportunities and to find ways to overcome them to meet their goals.
It can not be stressed enough that this is a necessary skill to have in the workplace. Employees who know how to persevere creatively to accomplish goals are prized as the corporate field is constantly challenging.
Employees who regularly play sports will innately know how to dedicate themselves to a task, overcome obstacles with self-motivation, and remain focused on achieving their targets.
Failure Is Never a Defeat for an Athlete
Athletes face failure all the time. Whether during a game or in the gym, sometimes someone will come last. Oftentimes it is through no fault of their own. In the workplace, this will take accountability and responsibility for their task in group projects.
Employees with a strong sporting background are unlikely to participate in office politics and know how to channel their failure to improve their future performance.
This can be the ultimate difference between a satisfactory employee and a great employee. A satisfactory employee will not take risks after one failure. They may be reliable, but they cannot be relied on to drive the dynamic shifts that every company needs for growth. A great employee learns from their failures and is always eager for another challenge. They see a failed venture as an opportunity to regroup and fix the gaps in their knowledge and skills.
The Team Mentality Over Individual Accomplishment
Team players are team players, whether on the court on in the office. Every business could benefit from having employees who think of themselves as members of a team that needs to succeed as a whole.
Team players are more likely to be the employees who help out their fellow employees to meet deadlines, achieve objectives, and complete projects efficiently. The success of the business is what matters to them the most. These employees can be counted on to deliver work that benefits the business’s objectives rather than making sure that they stand out above others.
Most importantly, employees with sports mentalities and ethics know how to take criticism. In any workplace, it is impossible to deliver work that is perfect every single time. Different perspectives and changing clients’ instructions will also cause many moments to occur when a manager or supervisor needs to hand out criticism.
Some employees cannot handle criticism, some employees do not know how to act on criticism, and a few employees may even resent criticism, and their performance will decline afterward. People who play sports are trained to accept and process criticism as a natural part of the play. They know how to take it and use it to improve, which will lead to tangible improvements in their work output.