Team sports are about so much more than their physical benefits. This is especially so when group sports activities are incorporated into a young person’s life. Studies have shown a direct correlation between physical activity and academic performance. A University of Kansas study looking at the performance of students in grades 9 to 12 showed that more than 97% of student athletes graduated high school, 10% higher than those students who had never participated in sports. Athletes were also shown to have better G.P.A. outcomes than non-athletes.
This might have to do with the increased cognitive ability that comes from playing sports. Physical activity naturally increases blood flow to the brain and activates endorphins, chemicals that are released when you exercise. Endorphins can impact your mood and work performance, meaning athletes may be more willing and capable of tackling that next big problem.
Team sports can also help with emotional development. Research published by the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute states that exercise can lead to a unique state of short-term relaxation. That relaxation can promote increased concentration, better memory, enhanced creativity, more effective problem solving, and an improved mood — all benefits that will extend into the classroom.
Team athletes are constantly working with a slate of other people, many of whom can become positive role models along the way. Team sports foster mentorship between older players and younger players, coaches and athletes, and more. Coaches in particular can play an important role in a young athlete’s life. Players who have positive sports mentors when they’re young are also more likely to seek effective role models throughout their life.
Soft skills are personal attributes that allow people to build positive social relationships. Team sports are an excellent source of soft skills development, as they allow athletes to grow within a supportive environment. Here are just a few of the soft skills fostered through team sports:
Communication Skills
While it might not be as obvious as sitting down and discussing a group project, team sports take a lot of communication — both spoken and unspoken. Communication skills are key in maintaining a functioning sports team, whether it’s listening to locker room pep talk, picking up on nonverbal cues given by other players, or expressing a thought during a post-game debrief.
As Jill Prudden said in her book "Coaching Girl’s Basketball Successfully,” players are expected to express their concerns, hopes, and disappointments to their coaches and their teammates. She also encourages her players to seek feedback from coaches as well as their classroom teachers, as a result fostering communications skills that will help them succeed in their academic endeavors.
Decisive Action
Sports plays happen fast, and athletes develop the skills needed to make effective snap decisions. Whether it’s a basketball player deciding to shoot or a soccer player realizing his best move is to pass to a teammate for the assist, athletes learn critical decision-making skills that will benefit them both during and after game time.
Any athlete who has played in a championship game knows the meaning of pressure. Sports create an environment where athletes learn to conquer their natural “fight or flight” instinct to make consistent and difficult decisions under high pressure situations. This ability to function under pressure translates to person who is better at making deadlines and working in stressful situations in the future.
Teamwork
This is an obvious one. Teamwork is all about collaborating with others to reach a common goal. The diverse pairing of personalities and scenarios will help your athlete become adaptable, persistent, and patient. Team sports also teach a sense of group and individual responsibility.
Being on a team with a dozen or more of your peers is an excellent way to recognize the individual talents each person brings to the table. As the Janssen Sports Leadership Center says, working with teammates teaches athletes important life skills such as to respect one another, act in unselfish ways, make good decisions on behalf of the team, and not cut corners.
Time Management
The time commitment required by athletes can be comparable to that of a full-time job. Think of all the different commitments an athlete needs to juggle: competitions, strength and conditioning, team meetings, sports physiotherapy — and these are just the sports-related obligations!
Necessity demands that athletes learn valuable time management skills, otherwise they would never be able to keep up with academics and sport. Effective time management planning is part of why a recent article published by Fast Company argues employers should consider hiring a former student athlete.
Team athletes know that every second counts, and this value of time will translate to their everyday life. As Shannon Miller, a member of the 1992 and 1996 United States Olympic women’s gymnastics team told Forbes, she kept a schedule that was almost minute by minute when she was an athlete. This careful planning and precision helps athletes focus on reaching their goals sooner than non-athletes.
Build Self-Esteem and a Sense of Community
Team sports are said to bolster the five C’s: competence, confidence, connections, character, and caring. At the heart of this is self-esteem – an increased sense of self as a result of better social interactions, stronger relationships, and higher academic performance.
Team sports provide athletes with a natural community. A report from True Sport says that youth who play sports have higher levels of social support, and that the sense of community created with teammates, coaches, and family members incubates the perfect setting for critical self-esteem development.
In the end, the opportunity to participate in team sports provides athletes with valuable skills that will take them beyond the field, pitch, and court.
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."– Mahatma Gandhi
Have you ever been part of a highly motivated, high-morale team?
If you have, chances are that most days you were happy to come to work. You were focused and enthusiastic. You enjoyed collaborating with your colleagues and, together, you worked hard and came up with some great ideas.
Positive, highly motivated teams are fun to be a part of. And they can accomplish far more than teams that struggle with negativity and low morale.
That's why it's so important that, as a leader, you strive to build a positive team. In this article and video, we show you how!
The Benefits of a Positive Team
Research shows that positivity can make a real difference to our success and well-being.
One study found that happy individuals are more successful in many areas of their lives, especially at work, compared with those who struggle to find happiness or to think positively. [1]
Positivity increases our ability to think creatively, to progress in our careers, to cope with challenges, and to work with other people. It can reduce absenteeism and staff turnover, and lead to more satisfied and productive teams. In short, it's an essential ingredient for success.
Positivity brings longer-term benefits, too. Social psychologist Barbara Fredrickson developed the Broaden and Build Theory to explain how positive emotions can make us more creative and flexible over time. The more positive emotions we experience, Fredrickson says, the more likely we become to exhibit other positive behaviors, such as curiosity, awareness and innovation. And this applies to groups as well as individuals.
Click here to view a transcript of our video about building positive teams.
How to Build a Positive Team
With all of these benefits in mind, consider the following four steps for building a positive team:
1. Become a Positive Leader
Teams often become more motivated when they have a positive leader. This is why focusing on your own happiness, well-being and emotional intelligence is the first step toward creating a great team.
Martin Seligman, a leading positive psychologist, developed the PERMA model to highlight the five essential elements that we all need to make us happy. [2] PERMA stands for:
- Positive emotion.
- Engagement.
- Positive Relationships.
- Meaning.
- Accomplishment/achievement.
Start by thinking about how you can increase each of these elements in your life. Read our article on PERMA and then take action – the more of these things you can bring to your life, the happier you'll be!
Next, stop and think about the work you do. Do you know what your strengths are? And how often do you use them?
Our work is most satisfying when we can use our unique abilities in a way that makes a real difference to other people, or to our organization. So, conduct a Personal SWOT Analysis to discover your strengths.
Then, use the MPS Process (MPS stands for Meaning, Pleasure and Strengths) to see how you can use these strengths to bring more meaning and joy to your career.
Finally, work on your emotional intelligence (EI). This is a vital leadership skill, because it gives you a deeper awareness of your own emotions and how they affect other people.
If you're feeling stressed or angry, for example, you can learn how to avoid passing on these negative emotions to your team.
2. Remove Obstacles to Positivity
Before you can really boost positivity in your team, you need to remove the things that stand in its way. "Roadblocks" can quickly undermine your team members' progress and reduce their motivation.
Herzberg's Motivators and Hygiene Factors are a good starting point for identifying your roadblocks. Frederick Herzberg, a psychologist, discovered that employee satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not opposites. In other words, simply removing the causes of dissatisfaction will not, in itself, increase satisfaction.
Instead, for your team members to be truly happy in their jobs, you must first eliminate the causes of dissatisfaction (the "hygiene factors"), and then add the "motivators" that produce satisfaction.
Think about your organization's policies: what could be causing dissatisfaction for your team members? Is each person's salary competitive? Would your team be happier if you provided more training, coaching or mentoring, or flexible working hours, for example?
Your working environment is important, too. Take steps to create a healthy workplace for your team. Your offices should be comfortable, well-lit, clean, and safe. And try to minimize distractions, so that people can focus on their work.
Finally, support your people by making sure that they have all the tools, skills and resources that they need to do the job.
Read our article on Job Crafting to learn how you can shape your team members' roles to fit their strengths and interests. This can increase their job satisfaction.
3. Manage Positively
Once you've removed the roadblocks, it's time to start managing your team in a positive way. Here are some ways to do that:
- Create mission and vision statements. These are inspiring messages that express the deeper purpose of the work that you're doing. Teams and organizations that can rally around a shared sense of purpose often become more engaged and committed.
- Write a team charter that defines each person's role, the team's aims, and your own expectations. A charter provides focus, direction, and a mutually agreed benchmark for measuring a team's performance.
- Use Management by Objectives to make sure that your team's goals align with those of your organization. Motivation will likely increase when everyone understands what they need to do, and how their roles benefit the organization as a whole.
- Also, make sure that your team members' goals are realistic, and reward people appropriately when they achieve them. This doesn't always mean offering a bonus or other tangible reward. Simple things, like saying "thank you" for a job well done, can show people that you appreciate their efforts.
- Communicate effectively. Aim to create an environment that's open and nonjudgmental. Encourage people to voice their opinions, and don't censor discussions. Keep your team members informed about what's happening in the wider organization and how it affects them. The more open and transparent you are, the easier it will be to build trust and create good relationships.
- Meetings are a good opportunity to discuss important updates or changes, and for your team members to voice any concerns.
- Build positive relationships in your team. Encourage team members to spend time together outside of work. This might mean socializing at a restaurant to celebrate the end of a project, or organizing team-building days, for example.
Tip:
When you're allocating tasks and projects to your team members, The Inverted-U Model can help you to strike the right balance between pressure and performance.
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