Great leaders are instruments of purpose and community.

-“Steve Jobs was not (just) a leader”, HBR

The more I read and the more I learn, there seems to be a strong connection between the world of business and athletics. Take a look at my thoughts based on a Harvard Business Review article.

6 leadership qualities we can learn from the business world

Creative. Trainers, we must see ourselves as creators, just as artists do. Sometimes it’s about coming up with a training philosophy that resonates with you, your staff, and your team. Other times it could be building a culture of success that didn’t exist before you got there. Wherever your creativity is displayed, we should be passionate about shaping and protecting it.

Meaningful work. If you’ve been reading for a while, you know that I think coaching is a wonderful profession. Do I think I’m changing the world by teaching young women how to pass a great ball or hit a smart shot? No. But I do believe that I am changing the world, one person at a time, teaching my players how to win and lose gracefully, how to lead, how to excel in a team environment… and everything in between. other lessons that sport teaches.

Carry out. She was talking to a professor on campus the other day, and she talked about how he sees his lectures as performances…entertaining lessons that grab the student’s attention. I think training is more or less the same. How many times has he been tired of training, planning practices, scouting, recruiting… but he has to “take it” into practice? That’s call interpretation and we should all be good at it.

Engaged. A few years ago, she was on an interview committee and the young woman applying for the job came from the business world. I asked her if she was ready to coach at the college level and she said she wanted to give it a try. That’s when I crossed it off my list. That didn’t sound like passion for the job to me, it didn’t sound like enthusiasm for the field to me, and it certainly didn’t sound like commitment to the trade to me.

Expect failure. Every once in a while, a recruit sits in my office and talks about how his coach punishes the team for making mistakes. That’s the exact opposite of how things should be, in my opinion. If we want our players to excel, we have to give them room to fail. If they only do what they know how to do… they will only do what they know how to do. Most new things will be different and difficult, which will probably lead to failure… and that’s a good thing!

Not about us. In order to become a coach that players love to play for, we must understand this principle. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to want praise and personal success, but our coaching goals should always be to make our players the best human beings they can be. We have to want to equip our assistants with the tools they’ll need to be head coaches one day. I think we all want to make a difference in this world and training is how we have chosen to make that difference.

As the opening quote says, as leaders we must foster purpose and community… that sounds like “team” to me!