Training your employees to become workplace athletes

The discipline of athletes is second to none. Here’s how to condition yourself to be a rigorous workplace athlete.

By Craig Falck for Africa Report
Photograph: © Yuri Arcurs | Dreamstime.com

If you think that business and sport are worlds apart, you may just be a bit off the mark. Making your business run more like sport by utilising the rigour of athletes might be the way to unlock your potential for future success. A little discipline, after all, goes a long way.

When it comes to discipline, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone more dedicated, driven and focused than a professional athlete. They live for their sport. They wake up every day knowing that they have a day of training ahead, knowing exactly what they’re going to be doing, when and where they’re doing it, and more importantly, why they’re doing it. While many think that having the blinkers on like this is a bad thing, it’s actually quite the opposite. By blocking out interferences on the sidelines, athletes are able to concentrate on their goal and achieve their objectives. Athletes are finely-tuned machines who do what they do to be better and because they love what they do. And you need to make your employees behave the same way.

We’re not talking about getting them in at the crack of dawn to start working and not stop until they leave long after the sun sets. We’re looking at getting them into the routine of mapping out their goals, figuring the right way to get there, and then doing what they need to in order to meet these objectives. They need to focus on where they are and where they want to be. The easiest way to do this is to help them or get an employee who knows what they’re doing to help. You won’t believe how much better work is when you have a target and someone there to help you when you get stuck.

When it comes to training, athletes stick to the plan. Each and every single exercise is performed a certain number of times for a reason. Increases are applied to weights, times are lowered, and exercise intensity is increased for a reason – to be better. And the same goes for your team. If they know what they have to do, they can stick to the plan and won’t go off course. By deviating from the plan of attack, your employees could miss their objectives completely. This is why it’s important that your team have their blinkers on and don’t allow outside interferences to get in the way. And the best thing about this is that the more they are able to plan their schedule and processes out. The more they are able to reach objectives, the better they will become as employees and the easier it will be to meet objectives. It’s all about dedication and drive to get to their own – and the workplace’s – goals.

Turn your staff into business athletes by getting them focused on their goals and mapping out the business exercises that they need to reach to top step of the podium. Who knows, you might find a couple of gold-medal businesspeople in your team!