In this bonus edition of our sports strategies series, we learn from five elite business people which strategies they borrow from the NHL to manage their day-to-day business challenges. Earlier this summer, we surveyed entrepreneurs from all over the world, asking them how they use strategies from sports to manage their companies and received such an outpouring of incredible advice that we decided to make a series.
Read the other articles here:
“5 NBA strategies to inspire startups, featuring Jordan & the Mavericks.”
“Steal these 5 sports strategies and use them to run your startup.”
“Even more sports strategies to inspire small business management.”
Without further ado, let the heist begin. Today’s five inspirational hockey strategies are:
5) Put the team’s success ahead of your own.
“Great teams beat great players, and the same is true in business. When a winning culture is established it breeds success, but every time a sacrifice is made to get a new hire, to close a new sale, or provide a quick fix to a problem, it will undermine that culture.”
Greg Marliave is Head of the Account Team at Everlaw which brings the superior software experiences you’re used to in your consumer life to your litigation toolkit.
4) Give your team clear goals.
In hockey, it good to have outcome goals (win a championship) and process goals (ie. content output goals). In a start-up things can be a bit chaotic, but giving your team things to focus on will bring the necessary structure to succeed.
Tatsuya Nakagawa is the VP Marketing & Strategy of Castagra Products, Inc. an industrial coatings company dedicated to bringing about better solutions for protecting steel used in the oil and gas and wastewater industries.
3) Play by the rules.
“In hockey, teams operate within a defined set of rules. One of the most important things about managing a successful startup is setting those rules for an organization in white and black to avoid any ethical failures that
can hurt your brand and your entire team.”
Brad Brown is Founder and CEO of Intelivideo, a Denver, Colorado based tech startup that makes it possible to manage, sell, and deliver video online.
2) Speak the truth.
The coach must equip their athlete with all the tools, skills, and training plan so odds of success are greater than failure. This so the athlete can perform at their peak. As an advisor, I must equip my clients with resources for them to make the best financial decisions. Speaking truth also means not sugar coating. If I see dangers or a poor business plan, I must be upfront and point the facts out.
Robert K. O’Dell serves clients in the Naples, FL office of Wheaton Wealth, a fee-only registered investment firm.
1) Personalize incentives for each member of your team.
“Learning that each employee is motivated differently and not always with monetary rewards was an important lesson I had to learn. Listening to the unique challenges of your employees as people first can be powerful when shaping their reward and goal structures.”
Brandon Laan is a Founders of Race Roster, an event management platform for Running Races.
