Athletes are among the most driven, hard working, resilient and goal focused people on the planet. They have grown up with the discipline and dedication required to perform to the best of their ability under huge amounts of pressure in a cut-throat, win or lose environment.
I have put below just 9 of the many reasons hiring an athlete or athletic traits could help you champion your business.
1. Athletes are coachable
To reach a high standard in any sport athletes must be coachable. This means being able to take advice (technical, tactical, physical, mental, recovery, nutritional) as well as feedback and criticism.
2. Athletes are adaptable
Businesses are constantly evolving so it is important to employ people who can adapt to change. Athletes are used to constantly adapting their game plan throughout a match as well as their training to enable them to win.
3. Athletes want to improve daily
Athletes will do whatever is required of them to improve. Improving next week or next month is not an option, athletes want to improve every day in every practice session. This work ethic and attitude will be of huge value to your companies culture.
4. Athletes want to win
You will not meet a high performing athlete who doesn’t want to win. Athletes will go above and beyond until they win. This mindset comes with high levels of commitment and perseverance. If you want to win you need an athlete on your team.
5. Athletes are goal orientated
Athletes are used to regularly setting goals. Athletes understand that process goals will get them to where they want to be more quickly than performance or outcome goals. A goal orientated mindset allows athletes to prioritise particular areas of their performance that will have the largest impact on the end goal.
6. Athletes respect their coach
The relationship between an athlete and their coach is unique. The relationship is based around trust, communication, positivity, honesty and genuine interest in the other persons life. The athlete trusts that the coach is the best person to help get them to where they want to be. The coach believes in the athlete and will do what is required to help the athlete develop. Imagine having this level of relationship with everyone you work with.
7. Athletes are resilient
Sport is a cut-throat environment, you win or you lose. Athletes who compete regularly are very used to dealing with the pressure of performing and have a mindset very hard to compete with. Athletes can recover quickly from a difficult situation, being down in a match for example, and can make decisions that are the difference between winning and losing.
8. Athletes can manage their time
Athletes learn from a young age how to balance their schooling, homework, training, competitions, travel and social life. This has huge transfer into the workplace where being able to prioritise tasks, work to deadlines and be highly productive are essential.
9. Athletes are good with people
Athletes are constantly around other people. Whether this be other athletes in their training squad, their team, training partner or coach. Athletes reach the level they are at because they have great listening skills but have also developed exceptional questioning skills in order to improve. The social nature of sport sees athletes develop a good sense of humour and the ability to interact with a large range of people.
I hope this post was of value to you. I’d love to hear your thoughts, please do send me a message on Instagram (simonjamescoaching).
Thank you for reading.
Simon James
