Five Traits Both Managers and Coaches Want on Their Team

We can all understand the connection between the world of sports and successful living.

In the athletic world there are superstars, heroes, trainers, coaches, big organizations, little clubs, and many dedicated people working behind the scenes. The same is true for pursuing education, finding a career, and living life in general.

The traits managers look for as business leaders reflect those desired by coaches.

We can all agree that good managers are like reputable coaches, and bad managers are like the coaches we would like to forget. Just as a sport team can fail because of mismanagement, a business can fail because of the same. That being said, we would all like to consider ourselves as being valuable team members and potentially great managers.

It helps to fully study this sports and life analogy in order to design certain pathways to take. Many things like finding a good job, building a career, and establishing a professional reputation can be supported from skills learned in our previous experiences playing sports.

We can understand personal mental and physical development through practice. We can form fond memories of past successes, and train for successes in the future.

That being said, there are things all people can learn about the intrinsic connection between athletic coaches and business managers. They tend to look for the same desired qualities in team members, and deal with the ups and down of an organization constantly.

So, what do both good coaches and business managers want?



First and foremost, both coaches and managers want to recruit “players” who can positively boost any team's performance outlook. They also want people who can interact with a diverse set of individuals in the pursuit of a common goal.

All members of a sports team have different talents.

Some people are more adept at certain skills, and that is why they land in different team positions. In a company, people are chosen for their best skills to contribute to its goals.

All players and employees should present their best in order to be placed in the position where they can excel personally, and boost the organization cooperatively.



W. Clement Stone, the founder of a large insurance empire once said, “Do the right thing, because it's the right thing to do!”

Stone could have been a great professional coach. He was just this to millions of entrepreneurs in his lifetime. In his own business he only recruited individuals who could work well within a set of reasonable rules, maintain a hard work ethic, and carry the company's banner to all ends of the economic world.

Great coaches expect their players to sing the team's fight song, wear its uniform proudly, and watch fellow player's backs no matter the win-to-loss ratio in a season.

Managers of companies want the same things out of employees. They value commitment over most other employee qualities.



It's inevitable that every sports team will suffer loses.

These losses can be heartbreaking, but it is the job of a coach to put losses into perspective. It's also the job of the players to shake-off a hard defeat, and return to the field of play expecting to do better next time.

Business managers want to hire personnel who understand that troubles and trials are all aspects of being part of a corporate team. Just as if you are playing for your school’s golf team, and a thunderstorm approaches bringing torrential rain, your team, and coach, expect you to adapt and complete the round in good spirits.

When economic trends take a southward direction, it is up to the employees to respond vigorously and wholeheartedly to changes made on the executive level. Managers want to hire people who are flexible, and don't let bumps in the road affect their position as a valued team member.



We have all witnessed a team that is a severe underdog take the field of play in a burst of excitement. This is actually quite common, and it is one of the most telling signs of a team that has excellent leadership.

There are plenty of Cinderella stories out there that are the result of a team that is expected to lose taking the challenge of a statistically better team full force.

They never let assumption block the path to glory.

Corporate managers want the same fighting spirit in their employees. There are many times businesses face challenges from competition, or socio-economic conditions. Nothing is more pleasing to a manager than a team of employees who work to their potential even when the business suffers for a time.

Great employees can create great underdog stories in any corporate sector.



No coach expects an athlete to do well in competition if they do not instill fundamentals and hone specialty skills through adequate training and practice.

In fact, they expect a high degree of failure and even injury if an athlete is not prepared.

Managers who are tasked with improving the performance of a business expect employees to perform their due diligence in becoming professionals and improving on their skills. This includes having an educational background matching the type of position they expect to occupy, staying abreast in technological and interagency changes, satisfying continuing education credit requirements, and faithfully attending workshops and training seminars.

In short, we want to convey that the qualities that coaches look for in athletes intimately reflect the requirements and expectations of great business personnel management.

It's quite fortuitous that so many people destined for success in the corporate world also have vivid and diverse backgrounds in athletic training. The same performance qualities that it takes to record a win in a sporting event lasting only an hour, are the same qualities required to build a career and lifetime achievement in the business environment.

Study the habits of superstar athletes, and we guarantee you will have truthful insights into the traits managers look for in employees. Though you might not have won a championship in your playing days, the discipline and teamwork instilled back then could radically and positively affect your chance at an incredible work life and career.