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Writer's pictureKelly Anne Harris

Lessons From The Sidelines To The Boardroom: Sports Lessons Applicable To Any Business

What a week...


If most of you follow me, you know I'm an avid sports mom, and we celebrated Mason's last home game of the regular season for middle school. I am super proud of myself as I was able to keep my emotions together and was really just more excited for him.


Excited for him being able to play school sports and be a part of such a great team with great culture. I was telling Travis at lunch today about how great the mom group has been and how we have all pitched in to help give the boys a lot of support. From car rides to T-shirts, goodie bags, posters for the game, and some cool mom/son photos.


Mason playing

Then I was thinking about teams we have been on throughout his childhood and when the culture wasn't as great.


Sometimes there was no culture, as well as a major lack of communication, and that really makes the entire experience for the boys. They get to build more experiences, and if the parents get along, the kids WIN. Or if the communication is good, it makes for an even stronger culture.


So that got me thinking about my team and my companies and how we see this show up everywhere. It got me thinking about what my son is learning about culture, communication, and teamwork.


So these are the things that got me asking myself questions:


  • Do we communicate well, do we not leave anyone out? As an organization grows, people can feel left out, and communicating to 4 people is way different than communicating to 20, 50, 100. With each new milestone of people, the communication has to increase.

  • Does everyone contribute to the team? Who isn't pulling their weight, and who is pulling more weight? Does the person pulling the weight of the ones not committed build resentment since they are trying to pull their weight too?

  • The coach in this situation is the CEO, and the parents are the team leaders, or maybe you could say it the other way around, but you get what I am saying. It's important we are all in alignment and support the CEO's decisions (so yeah, the coach is the CEO), and then the team leaders can add their spin to it and add more events, more team-building exercises. So, in this case, on our team, even if we don't agree with the CEO (which many times we don't always agree with coaching), do we still support the CEO and follow in alignment to act as one to create a great culture? Or are we trying to beat our own ways because we know more? Are we talking behind the coach's back? Are we bashing the coach to our child, which shows a lack of respect? Hmm, very interesting, right?


These are great lessons I've realized just from watching from the sidelines, and my son and his teammates are totally rocking it! Indeed, these sports lessons are applicable to any business.



Rewarding Trip

Anyway, those are my thoughts today as I fly to the Bahamas to spend a few days with our VZN organization and those that hit a threshold last year to qualify. I am so excited to spend some quality time with them. We are going to have a blast. We told them don't let us regret this decision. LOL. Behave, kids.


Have a great weekend!


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