How have you translated lessons on the field to managing teams?

I feel it’s a bit difficult to lead effectively without first making an impact on people’s lives and connecting. I’ve always been a collaborator so I like to make sure people feel comfortable speaking their minds with me. I also believe good team culture is the key to a successful team so I’m always trying to include people and make them feel valued.

That being said, I feel that the best thing I’ve learned from team sports that could translate to managing a professional team is developing and maintaining good interpersonal relationships with team members. Once you have a solid base for a good team culture, you can then build up to communicating urgently and learning how to give and receive feedback based on individual members’ personalities and communication styles. I’ve probably said this a million times since I started my career search, but I truly believe that a team’s culture determines its success. You could have all the best people for the job, but if the culture isn’t good, the team cannot reach its full potential. If all else fails, I go back to culture to see what underlying issues there may be.