If you’ve ever watched a professional athlete out on the field or in training, you’ll have noticed that nothing happens by chance — their success is the product of consistency, focus, competitive spirit, and leadership. We like to call this a pro-sport spirit, which can be applied to the workplace just as successfully as the sports arena. Here are five tips from the athletes’ playbook that are sure to improve your productivity at work.
Team Consistency
To become accomplished at any sport, an athlete must put in the work every single day. This means practicing the same skills over and over again, getting better step by step, until finally, they become a champion. From learning new skills, practicing those again and again followed by reflection of the training results (in sport this is often done via the video analysis) before competencies have developed. Bringing this consistency into the workplace—by taking small, repeated steps to improve—can help individuals build positive habits that boost long-term productivity at work.
Team Focus
Whether it’s aiming a ball towards a basketball net or hitting a shuttlecock at just the right moment in a game of badminton—both require immense focus. The brain must concentrate, learn, and adapt quickly before putting that thinking into practice. Applying this level of focus at work ensures that learning opportunities are fully absorbed and passive knowledge is into action. To be successful you have to make the connection between learning and doing.
Healthy Competition
Sporting activities such as football or tennis necessarily draw on strategy or a “game plan.” This is not only great practice for staying motivated and on task, but it also teaches players to visualize and self-actualize. A healthy sense of competition in the workplace encourages individuals to set clear goals, strive for excellence, and energize their teams—mirroring the drive seen in sports. Healthy competition can energize yourself and the whole team.
Self-Leadership
Every professional athlete knows their talents and resources well and how to activate them. They are self-starters who know what it takes to be successful and lead themselves toward that goal. Self Leadership at work means knowing your talents and resources, taking initiative, and actively seeking ways to add value. Through individual empowerment and Self Leadership, employees can become self-starters, increasing both productivity and happiness.
Team Leadership
Team sports allow each individual to explore their talents and contribute to a whole group objective. Nobody wins alone—every player matters, regardless of whether they’re providing support, defense, or taking the lead. In the workplace, effective team leadership means recognizing each member’s unique strengths and fostering collaboration so everyone works to “win” together.
The individual is the strength of the team and the team is the strength of the individual.
