Business Sports Psychology - Developing the ‘Corporate Athlete’
Given how close sport and business psychology ideas are identical across different environments, the recognition given to integrating the two is not surprising at all. The principles of sports psychology offer a great resource to business executives, managers, and HR who want to help people and businesses perform at optimal levels.
As we know, sports psychologists traditionally worked primarily with athletes and athletic performance. That is and will always be the case. But what’s developed and continues to develop however is sport psychology principles and practices that enhance motivation, develop an effective team with communication strategies, knowing an individual’s role on the team and planning how to execute short and long-term goals.
Some of the related area’s between sports & business include:
Performance Environments
Leadership styles
Stress Management
Goal setting
Effective Teams
Competition
Mindset & Resilience
Focus & Mental Skills Development for Business
Using examples of the sporting world in the corporate life helps to provide insight into the challenges faced by a business executive. If the business person feels like they can relate to an athlete who has to perform in a tough environment, it would be advised for them to start developing those must-have capabilities in order to achieve full potential in high-stress, high-pressure environments. Focus, attention to detail, carrying out a plan and building resilience for the big game. This in turn will help to create ‘The Corporate Athlete’
With the help of sports psychology business consultants, executives might better understand that self-doubt comes with pressure situations, that it’s part of how things work in trying to achieve excellence. Sports champions have worked very hard to reach a high level of psychological strength. Promoting this fact may help business owners to show patience in the face of adversity. It’s more about long-term development, mental and emotional stamina and knowing results might take time. And, it’s about knowing how to coach employees and staff to gain those sills.
Application in The Business World of Performance Mindset
Focus
A key concept is that improved performance, whether in the corporate or athletic area, is gained by knowing where to put one’s focus. Basically, we’re talking about the skill of concentration. It’s the ability to target what’s relevant and focus on the task and not be side-tracked by events or people who detract from the goals. Yet, there is also a sense of flexibility and being able to shift focus if the business “game” conditions change.
Commitment
The high performance begins with a personal choice of succeeding. It is completely within our control. What sets apart achievers from the rest is that they are willing and determined to win. No matter how challenging the goals, they put in effort and commitment in order to achieve their goals. This means making all the necessary sacrifices. These people move beyond “hoping” things work and planning to make things work.
Athletes, for example, give 100% effort when targeting excellent results. Businesses need to understand that the same commitment has to be applied to work.
Mental Preparation
Mental preparation or readiness means identifying the best mindset for a certain task. Top performers usually have self-regulation strategies to turn to when they need to manage critical situations. These strategies often involve knowing when to get more pumped and when to be calmer and more relaxed.
Executives can learn about techniques to help change emotional and mental readiness. For example, when stress is high it can be extremely helpful to indulge in a few minutes of detachment every hour or when you feel the need. You can even exercise a little, or go outside for some fresh air, or do some short breathing or mindfulness techniques. Athletes use these tools a lot.
Managing Setbacks
Setbacks happen for many reasons. Top performers are well prepared to deal with them and know setbacks are part of success. When setbacks happen to use these simple rules:
Understand what occurred and do a review
Accept what happened rather than fixate on it
Plan a response and create controllable action steps
Implement that response
Ongoing learning
Ongoing learning and continued professional development are essential to performance. Learning always includes making changes after setbacks. But learning also means finding new methods to improve performance, studying successful people, and taking time for ongoing educations.
In the competitive work environment, receiving constructive feedback is also part of learning and development. Experienced coaches know who best to deliver messages and the corporate world can learn much from observing successful coaches. However, engaged coaches learn from their athletes just as corporate leaders and senior managers have to acknowledge that learning is a two-way process.