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Bill Richards
HR Consultant, Australia
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Can a Sports Team Leader Become a Business Leader?
In a world where, everyday, there are constant calls for more effective leaders, better leadership or even leadership, one cannot help but lament on the fact that we have so many great sports team leaders and captains, then why can't they be as good in business.
In other words, can a successful sports team leader become a successful business leader? By 'successful sports team leader', I am talking about a team captain/leader. Has it been done before? If so, by who?
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Andrew Blaine
Business Consultant, South Africa
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Sports Team Leadership Exactly who is the leader in a sports team?
- If it is the on-field Captain then he/she must choose the team and lead those chosen.
- If it is the coach, then the same applies.
However, in reality, the team is selected by committee. The coach coaches and decides on the strategy to be employed on the field, and the Captain implements the coach's strategy.
So I believe it is really a case of lead by committee, is it not?
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Bill Richards
HR Consultant, Australia
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Sports & Business Leadership @Andrew Blaine: Hi Andrew, you may be correct, but whether it's the captain, coach or manager that selects the team, it is the captain that must lead the team on the field. He/she becomes the leader who must get the best out of the team members and have them play as a team and win. I'm sure there are many good examples to demonstrate this point.
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Andrew Blaine
Business Consultant, South Africa
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Captains and Managers Hi Bill, I accept your response, mine was, to some extent, provocative.
However, I would offer the comment that the team captain acts more like a business manager acting on the vision and strategy of the coach? If that is realistic, then surely the coach acts more like the leader?
Bringing it closer to home, I would accept that Michael Clarke leads your cricket team but ask whether the same applies to the Wallabies. In my opinion, The Wallabies are led by the Kiwi?
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Tom Wilson
HR Consultant, United States
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Leadership at the Point Where the Rubber Meets the Road @Andrew Blaine: In the established rugby clubs, leadership occurs at several echelons, which is also true of business and military organizations. At the point in rugby where the rubber meets the road, on the pitch between the whistles, there are leader/players, with the followers outside of touch. Rugby is an unusual game where whomever picks up the ball, becomes the leader, the guy carrying the side's pennant until possession is transferred. The captain of the side is the designated leader, and he carries an additional strategic burden along with being a leader/player.
It is this capacity for exercising a strategic role during the dynamic of the game that is the most transferable to novel operational venues outside the rugby pitch and club governance. At the same time, the other leader/players on the pitch may not have the strategic capacity on the rugby pitch but excel as leaders in commerce and the professions that they bring to the game as players.
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VENKATESH
Manager, India
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From Sports Leader to Business Leader Yes he/ she can in as much as a sports leader has the characteristics of a professional approach, character, open communication, working with a vision and values. These values perfectly fit into what is required of a business leader too.
However the sports leader would have to build certain functional business competencies.
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Tom Wilson
HR Consultant, United States
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Transition from Military to Business Leadership @VENKATESH: I agree completely that the acquisition of various business competencies are a part of the transition from a sports environment to the corporate sector. This is also true for people making a transition from a military environment. The problem many military have is the transition to the cultural values of the commercial sector, which is to say, a shift from the Mission, Men, Self ethos of the servant leadership culture to the Me, Myself and I culture of the American corporation.
As I say, the most violated management principle in the American business sector is esprit de corps. Evidence of this is the decline of organized labor from 40% of the working population at its peak to 12% or less currently. Union busting has been a major strategic agenda of the corporate sector since Reagan declared open season on them with PATCO. A union-free economy is a vision the Harvard Business model shares with the Soviet Union.
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V.T. Devassy Thomas
Manager, India
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Sport Team Leader ⇒ Business Leader Yes he/she can become leader in business field also. With inbuilt quality and capability of leading the business organisation. Even sport leader will have leadership quality in order to work towards the objectives of business goal/ or sport goal and success. So sport leader or captain can become the leader's in business environment.
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Gregory Johnson
Coach, United States
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Transition from Military to Business Leadership Tom Wilson's observation is interesting. The words "Military & Leadership" should never be used in the same conversation. It is clearly a oxymoronic reference since military leadership in the US is one of extreme FOLLOWERSHIP. When one exhibits authentic leadership through freedom of thought or action, there are very direct penalties.
I have had former military persons work on my staff and they were excellent managers as long as they were given very clearly defined guidelines and permission to manage in their autocratic manner to some extent. Oftentimes to get them to break out of this heavy handed management style would take an act of war. It's like they are waiting for permission to be leaders.
I am a Vietnam Veteran and have experienced it from multiple positions and perspectives. Because of this strong discipline they make good learners. In essence I believe with proper training that is steep impersonality assessment at the beginning can turn them around as GREAT Leaders. It has yet to take place.
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Bill Richards
HR Consultant, Australia
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Transition from Military to Business Leadership @Greg Johnson: Hi Greg, some interesting points as it relates to the US military. While I think that many of your points may apply to a lot of ex-military, there are those that do make the transition successfully. Yes, they do find the problem solving/decision making process 'different and somewhat slower' but some are able to look objectively at what they learned and experienced in their military careers and what can be applied to the business at hand. It's about leadership & management on a day to day basis whereas in the military it's about leadership in active operations and management in peacetime. Many struggle with determining the difference.
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Gregory Johnson
Coach, United States
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Sports Team to Business Leader In thinking about this topic one transitional point jumps out at me - passion.
Sports personalities have a deep passion and commitment to the sport they are engaged in and the preparation to become t...
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Andrew Blaine
Business Consultant, South Africa
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Sport, Business and the Military There are a number of contributors who seem to be of the opinion that successful sports folk and military personnel are not suited to similar success in business. Greg Johnson refers to the shift from...
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Bill Richards
HR Consultant, Australia
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Sports, Business & the Military Hi Greg/Andrew,
You both raise some very good points. I think passion is a key ingredient for any leader, be it military, sport or business. I have noted over the years the influence what type of spo...
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Tom Wilson
HR Consultant, United States
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Military and Sports Leaders are Used to Being Players, no Followers @Greg Johnson: Greg, I hate to start out this way, but "passion" doesn't begin to capture what the term "devotion to duty" reflects in the military psyche. The term "will to win" translates pretty wel...
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Gregory Johnson
Coach, United States
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Team Leadership Foundations Let me first say that the military leader does not come about in the same manner as the sports high performer. So, to compare the two is not possible in my world because the foundations are very diffe...
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Tom Wilson
HR Consultant, United States
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Teams are Teams @Greg Johnson: Teams are teams. The leadership of military teams and sports teams emerge out of group dynamics, a subject I am sure you encountered in your OD studies. Before 1947, the US Army doctrin...
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Bill Richards
HR Consultant, Australia
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Life After Sport - the Transition of Elite Athletes to New Careers Much has been written and continues to be written about the transition of elite athletes out of their respective sports - the good, the bad and the ugly. We have read about athletes who suffered from ...
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Andrew Blaine
Business Consultant, South Africa
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Depression and the Sport Professional @Bill Richards: I wonder if the problem, in this context, is not the "professional" aspect. In my youth sport was just that - a form of exercise that we all did, with varying degrees of success, in o...
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Bill Richards
HR Consultant, Australia
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The Value of a Good Education for Athletes Hi Andrew, Good points. I agree that some of the exorbitant amounts paid to some of these elite athletes and the expectations that go along with that have a significant influence of the athletes minds...
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