Source: Dumb Little Man
To the legendary Scottish coach Bill Shankly, soccer was not a matter of life and death – it was more important than that.
In some parts of the world, the soccer team you support reflects your neighborhood, nationality, faith or social class. For many American parents, soccer is the sport you spend an unreasonable amount of time driving your kids to and from.
For a growing number of Americans of all skill levels and backgrounds, it is a way to build a community, stay fit, and go to events where it is socially acceptable to scream obscenities and throw beer.
Soccer can also be a guide to success for organizations, managers, and staff. There is a good reason that Daniel Neal, a former college player, says that “not a single day goes by in my work life as an entrepreneur that I don’t use skills I learned playing soccer.”
I talked to dozens of current and former players at all levels about how soccer thinking helps them succeed off the field for my book, Soccer Thinking for Management Success: Lessons for organizations from the world’s game. Three of those lessons can make you more successful at work right away.
Here’s how soccer and business are related:
Know when to run and know when to rest
There are no timeouts in soccer and each team is only allowed three substitutions during a 90-minute game. That does not mean the players sprint back and forth the whole time, like some middle school gym class nightmare.
The best players pick their moments. They walk or jog to put themselves in position, take advantage of opportunities, and then sprint when they need to.
Neil Richardson, a former professional player turned manager and consultant put it well – “When you run, you run. When you walk, you walk. It’s about pacing yourself. You need to have the judgment to know when to go full speed or lay off. Leadership on the field or in the boardroom requires that you know about how to sense rhythms and understand timing.”
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You cannot go flat out all the time at work or on the field. Study after study points out that regularly working more than 55 hours per week is counterproductive. If the greatest players in the world can’t sprint for 90 minutes, there is no way the rest of us can sprint for 60 hours.
Like the top players on the field, top performers in organizations know the importance of taking breaks and getting rest so that they…
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