4 Employment Skills You Can Learn Playing Sports
By Koleen Singerline
With the Olympics in full swing, most of us are focused on the games and the participants. Given the dedication and passion of the Olympic players, it is not hard to see how individuals that participate in sports are developing skill sets that can help them with their careers as well. A study by mutual fund company
Oppenheimer
found that participation in sports can actually increase one’s chance of being successful in business. According to the study, 82% of women in executive-level jobs had played organized sports in middle, high or post-secondary school.
Some examples of these
executive-level women
that have leveraged their sports experience include:
-
PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi [and BlogHer 11 Keynote Speaker] played cricket in her native India;
-
SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro played lacrosse and field hockey at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania;
-
Sue Wellington, who recently took a sabbatical as president of the Gatorade division of Quaker Oats, was captain of the Yale swim team;
-
Sarah Robb O'Hagan, president of Chicago-based Gatorade North America who grew up in New Zealand playing team sports such as field hockey and netball.
The skills developed by athletes that transfer into the business world are:
Teamwork and Leadership
''The worst team pulling in the same direction can achieve more than an individual,'' says Kelyn Brannon-Ahn, 43, CEO of software company Movie Magic Technologies. A
softball
player since age 7, she took up rugby and cricket in 1987 when she moved to England to become the first female audit manager for Ernst & Young.
Steve Foley, USA
Diving
’s high-performance director and a three-time Olympian player, took a group of synchronized divers that hadn’t won a medal in ten years and finally won gold by building a team!
“He paired divers with friends and with strangers. He tested them under pressure in practice and in competitions. If he saw a better connection, he did not hesitate to suggest a change. Foley said he did not want his divers standing above the water afraid that a bad dive would disappoint their parents, or endanger their national team financing.
He wanted them to be afraid of disappointing the person beside them.
“When you’re in a partnership you think, ‘I don’t want to let my partner down,’ ” Foley said. “It’s a different mind-set.”
Discipline, time management, and perseverance
“Margaret Taylor, 42, formerly a competitive swimmer, says sports taught her that there would be bad days when nothing goes right. Rewards in business go to those who persevere, says the president of management consulting firm CIAGA."
Despite a heart condition which required her to often have a defibrillator on hand,
Dana Vollmer
claimed the title for 2009 NCAA Swimmer of the Year, Pac-10 Swimmer of the Year , the winner of the Honda Sports Award for swimming and the USA Swimming Perserverance Award.
Risk-taking and dealing with failure
“At age 24, Betsy Bernard was put in charge of 60 employees at AT&T who were five to 35 years older. She was promoted ''out of my comfort zone.''
Since Bernard had been ski racing on the edge of a wipeout since age five, she drew from that the ability to see her job as more exhilarating than frightening. Today, Bernard is the 46-year-old CEO of AT&T's $20 billion consumer business.”
Networking
Dina Gartland, a 31 year old partner at geotechnical firm, Leighton & Associates, gained valuable networking experience from her participation in sports. ''When you get out of a business suit and into a pair of running shorts, you look at each other on a personal level. It makes friends, and I like to do business with friends.''
Don’t despair if you are not athletic; sports is not the only place to learn good business skills. Any activity that is competitive requires perseverance and team work which can help you hone your skills. For you computer geeks, I’m not so sure Angry Birds will make the list.