Lynn Davies on the Parallels of Sport and Business

For the past few months Lynn has been involved with Eurobond as an ambassador and consultant. He has met with a range of people in the company and attended numerous managers’ seminars.

Here are some of his thoughts based on his experience with us and how our roles, applications and challenges match those in the world of sport and especially Lynn’s sport of Athletics where he is the President of UK Athletics – the governing body in this country.

Lynn’s Thoughts:
I have always believed that there are many similarities between the worlds of sporty and business. Essentially both are about teams of people who set goals, plan and prepare, compete and aim to be the best at what they do.

My meetings and discussions with people in Eurobond has given me insights into the aims and objectives of the company and confirmed my belief that the motivation involved to achieve success can be compared with top class sport.

At the highest level of sport is a tough uncompromising business, highly competitive with little room for error. it was interesting to hear a Eurobond manager say his was also an unforgiving industry where the challenge is to get it right first time and every time.

In sport we need a clear aim, a direction, a vision of success and it must be ambitious. My vision was to compete with the best in the world at the Olympic Games. With this in mind, I made the commitment to channel my energy and resources towards achieving my goal.

At a recent Eurobond managers seminar which I attended we discussed the importance of ambition and the aim of being number one in the industry and agreed this is vital to achieving success.

We also discussed the importance of coaching and mentoring talent to achieve your full potential and bring out the best in people. So the role of managers in business is the same as coaches in sport, to help maximise performance.

The aim of good coaching is to provide people with the basic skills and techniques of the tasks involved and then allow them the independence and responsibility to perform. Self motivation is the key and the phrase, my coach Ron Pickering often used the phrase “Roots to grow, Wings to fly”.

The coaching process must also involve mutual respect between managers and the people they work with. We agreed that the key is to create the right working relationship and a team commitment to training and development and also where success is recognised and reinforced.

A strong parallel between Eurobond and my sport of athletics at the moment is that of creating a safe and fair environment for our ‘consumers’. I know that Eurobond is working hard through education and information to ensure the build environment is safe for today’s occupants and for future generations. Nowhere is this more important than in the construction of school buildings!

In athletics we are equally concerned about a fair and level playing field and the safety of our current and future athletes. We are also working hard to ensure a drug free sport with strong messages to our stakeholders that we will not tolerate those who cheat and try to beat the system. Like Eurobond, we do this through a rigorous process of testing, education and legislation. Our ‘consumers’ in athletics expect us as the governing body of the sport in the UK – UK Athletics, to lead the way and set high standards in safety, quality of performance and delivery of services, as do the customers of Eurobond.

My experience in sport has taught me there are three main reasons why people excel at a high level. Firstly they wanted to win and set their sights high, secondly they developed a self belief that they could be the best, and finally they preserved until they were the best.

So my message to Eurobond is develop the talent which you have, be ambitious, believe in yourselves and keep at it!

Good Luck,

Lynn