We’re all so busy in our lives and in our screens and in making our lives more streamlined through our screens that we sometimes lose focus of what we really need. Physical and sport activity not only helps keep the body healthy by fighting fatigue and boosting the immune system, but also keeps the mind healthy by releasing chemicals like dopamine that help elate our mood and combat stress. This in itself should be enough to get us out and about engaging in healthy physical activity.
Here’s the thing – health isn’t the only thing that sports can boost. They also help to better our character and work ethic especially when playing team sports. If sports teach you sportsmanship, team sports teach you how to be a team player and how to handle tough situations as a team rather than alone. There are plenty of things that team sports can teach about handling tough work situations as both have the similarity of requiring each team member to pull their weight and contribute wholeheartedly in order for the team to attain success.
Teamwork
The biggest skill that team sports instill in a player is the sense of teamwork. A team is a group of synergistic bodies working towards a common goal – and they can only reach the goal is the synergy is kept optimum. For this every team member needs to contribute! Each strategy, each plot, each game-plan, all of it leads to victory only if the team works together – and does so seamlessly. This is true not only for team sports like basketball and football, but also for the work place.
Focus
Working as a team allows you to keep your focus sharp and straight because the vision of the end-goal is not one person’s vision but the whole team’s. Even when you feel like you’re losing focus, a bit of support from your team-mates and you’re back on track! This helps in the workplace too. When you have back to back deadlines and meetings, and you’re struggling to keep up, a little support, even if it’s only moral support, from you team can help you regain focus and get on top of your game.
Confidence
Another huge benefit of team sports is the confidence boost you get from people who are just like you admiring you for a certain skill that only you possess – just like in the workplace. And this confidence comes in very handy when you’re dealing with different people from different backgrounds and having different points of view.
Strategy
In any team sport, each team member has to play some kind of decision making role on the field or court. Each decision can either be the winning or losing decision for the whole team and it needs to be made keeping in mind the welfare of the entire team. Same is the case for workplace decision making – you have to make decisions that will result in the success of the entire team and you have to be able to make decisions on the go and to think on your feet. When you’re faced with deadlines and urgencies, you have to be able to plan in the moment and strategize on the go.
Apply these team sport tactics to your workplace ethic and you’ll find that, just as in sports, in the workplace they help take your team to success!
