Workscape Institute

Sweat. Grueling hours. Two a days. Sometimes blood. Anticipating the moves of the person next to you. Leading. Staying back. Yelling encouragement. Lots more sweat. Now some attributes of athletes.

You get the idea. Great athletes like great musicians have great practice habits, a passion for excellence and with some minor exceptions of the ‘solo’ participant – all must work with, rely on and drive together to create an outcome that is comprised of many moving parts – and on high-performing teams, the whole is greater than the sum of the players.

Follow up:

I admit that I never played on the football team, I did play a bit of little league baseball but most of my youth, and in fact part of my early adult years were focused on music. I’ve played in symphony orchestras, marching bands, garage bands, rock bands, road bands, big band jazz bands – at all various levels of competence. At the same time, I’ve know many really great athletes over the years – and as I reflect on the ‘war stories’ – there are many common threads of excellence.

The best really practice hard. Routine, technique, repetition, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of those around you, anticipating the next move – all are common in musicians and athletes. As a musician, one of the most important skills is listening. I once had the privilege of playing in a jazz quartet for many years into my 30s – with the same guys. We were basically all about the same talent level, but over time, we began to appreciate the unique strengths that each of us brought to the group. In addition, as we worked together for an extended period of time, we could anticipate how someone might change a particular arrangement (while performing) and because each of us was so tuned into the other – we were able to anticipate the change as if it had been rehearsed multiple times before. We could hear and sense the subtle cues that we sent to each other – without our eyes – just our ears. We were able to perform at a much higher level.

In business, listening is sometime a lost art – and yet the best sales reps I know, the best product managers I know – in fact, the best employees I know – use their two ears and their one mouth in that ratio. It’s an amazing skill to watch – and is usually a cornerstone in high performers. When you work on a team in business – listening, questioning, listening, discussing, even arguing all drive towards team members who know how to work together. I’ve lived in the Boston metropolitan area off and on for 18 years and have had the great fortune to watch some amazing sports teams. I think the Celtics and the Patriots (like any great sports franchise) achieve their highest level of achievement when the teamwork is at an unbelievable level of competence. Sure, each person is an amazing athlete – but how many times do we see teams with better teamwork and hustle beat out stars who don’t work together. Like in music or sports, if you change out a player on a business team, that team has to re-form and work even harder to re-form new bonds, new standards, and new ways of working together.

As business leaders, we know that change is an every hour occurrence and those companies with the best teams (and certainly great products and customer focus), usually win. Being a great teammate means know your position, play your position to the best of your ability, seek to improve at every moment, listen, talk, and listen some more and drive towards the same business outcome.

Musician or athlete – I’ll take them both.