October 26, 2020 Need an Excuse to Get Out on the Golf Course?

Here’s how sports can improve your business.

Sport may feel like a break from work, but did you know the lessons you learn on the course, field, or court can translate to the office or boardroom?

If you needed an excuse to get out on the golf course or spend a couple of hours kicking or hitting a ball around with your colleagues, we’ve got 5 of them for you!

Here’s how sports can improve your business, from leadership to employee satisfaction.

#1 – Sport Encourages Teamwork

Team sports that employees can participate in encourage them to get to know one another, communicate effectively with each other, and it helps build trust between the team members.

This can help break down barriers and create a sense of belonging for employees. In turn, it creates a happy work environment, improves training, and can help staff retention. Bonus for employees and management!

By playing sports together, team members work towards achieving a common goal, and this camaraderie lingers in the office as well as outside of work.

When teams work together, they’re firing on all cylinders and this is where knowledge is transferred. By working together, each team member contributes to a successful result, which makes each team member feel that their work is valued.

Teams who play and work together function better and are more productive in the work environment.

#2 – Playing Sports Fosters Creativity

Football is a strategic game, with each play being planned and practiced in advance. While you can plan ahead and put strategies in place in business, you need your team to remain agile. This is where strategic thinking that’s so important in sports overlaps with business.

When your employees play sports with each other, there’s more than knowledge transfer that happens. Teams become more creative, come up with new ideas, and are able to think out the box. This helps them to leverage off of each other’s strengths to come up with new products or solutions to drive the company forward.

By teams getting to know each other outside of the office, they also discover hidden talents that can be used to achieve a successful result on a project. This also allows the team to adapt the strategy as they need to, while minimizing risk to the company.

#3 – It Can Help Clear Your Mind After A Rough Day

Sometimes the best ideas happen while you’re playing a round of golf. Playing a sport, be it running, swimming, or swinging your clubs at the driving range, helps to reduce stress and anxiety.

Stress doesn’t only affect a person’s memory, but it also affects their moods and other brain functions. When stress is reduced, you’re able to think clearly, be more productive and are able to come up with creative solutions.

Aside from clearing the mind and reducing stress, physical activity helps to improve both physical and mental health. This leads to happier and healthier employees and management who are more productive.

#4 – It Can Help You Relate Better to Colleagues

Depending on the size of the company, an employee may not get to interact with others from different divisions. By playing an office team sport such as soccer, netball, or creating a running club, employees are able to meet and get to know one another.

It can even help employees from the same department get to know each other better, especially if you have a shy employee who keeps to themselves. This gives each team member a better understanding of who their colleagues are, which helps to open the lines of communication.

When your team members communicate effectively with each other, they’ll collaborate better. This helps the team complete tasks effectively, and motivate each other while remaining focused on the end result that needs to be achieved.

#5 – Creates Healthy Competition

Healthy competition amongst employees can encourage collaboration while challenging the employees to perform at their best. Ping pong or foosball is a great way to create some friendly competition in the office.

Create a tournament where different departments get to play against each other. This will help team members to get to know one another, while co-workers get to support their fellow team mates. This will also add some fun to the workplace, which is great for keeping up employee morale.

Conclusion

Sports are a great way to build relationships, improve company culture, and learn lessons you might not be able to learn otherwise.

Ready to improve your business? Maybe it’s time to rethink the role of sports in your own life and in your workplace!

About the Author:
Jordan Fuller is a golf enthusiast who understands business (in particular, how it goes hand in hand with golf). You can find his advice, tips, and tricks on Golf Influence.

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