As the regular season for the National Hockey League winds down this week and I think about how last night my favorite team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, will play their last regular season game ever in Mellon Arena, I started thinking about the leadership lessons you can learn from hockey.
Inspire passion. As a Penguins fan, I’ve seen the unbelievable difference a coaching change can make for a team. In February of last year, it didn’t look like my Penguins were even going to make the playoffs. They looked tired, and their hearts just weren’t in it. Then the head coach was let go, and Dan Bylsma took over. Bylsma was the head coach of the Penguins American Hockey League team affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, and had served as an assistant coach for the NHL’s NY Islanders, but had never been the head coach for an NHL team. As a fan, I was a bit nervous, but not for long. The change in the team was instantaneous. They had their passion back, and it showed. They started winning games, and ended up finishing fourth in their conference (the top eight teams from each conference go to the playoffs), and then they went on to win it all in the Stanley Cup finals. As a leader, you fulfill the same role as a coach by instilling passion into your team.
Build the right team. Penguins general manager Ray Shero decided to make a few changes to the team and the lines right before the trade deadline last year. They made trades to acquire forwards Chris Kunitz and Billy Guerin, who added unique strengths to the team. For example, overall the Penguins are a pretty young team, and Guerin’s experience and leadership elevated the team as a whole and visibly helped them during the playoffs. Putting both players on the same line with the already extremely talented Sidney Crosby just multiplied all of their talents. While it’s never fun to let go of people and it’s stressful to move people around, making sure you have the right people in the right spot will make everyone happier and more productive in the long run.
Get in a fight. Not literally, but know that conflict can be a good thing when handled correctly. In hockey, fights are often used to swing the momentum of the game and fire up the team and the fans. Before I became a hockey fan, I thought the fights were just boys being boys, but now I know they have a purpose. Max Talbot’s infamous fight with Philadelphia Flyer’s Daniel Carcillo and Talbot’s resulting “shhhh” to the Philly crowd in game six of the first round of the playoffs last year helped turn the game from a 3-0 Philly lead to a 5-3 Pens win. In business, conflict can lead to better ideas and results when handled constructively.
Be flexible. Hockey is a very fluid game, which is one of the reasons it’s so enjoyable to watch. While there are defensive and offensive positions, the team as a whole is constantly moving back and forth from defensive to offensive mode. Players also have to adjust to change, for example, when someone loses or breaks their stick and can’t get another one, another player may hand off their stick to whoever needs it most at that time. The coach also has to be flexible in changing up their lines to match the line up of the other team, and to move people around as necessary during the game depending on how people are playing and how the game is going. Leaders must stay flexible too, adjusting to interruptions and unexpected occurrences throughout their day.
Reward your support team. Another thing I like about hockey is that it’s not just about the goal scorers. Sure, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin get the most press for scoring goals, but assists are always recognized and rewarded as well. When a goal is scored, the last two people on that team that touched the puck receive credit for their assist. Teammates celebrate them as well, and sometimes the person with the primary assist is celebrated even more than the goal scorer for setting up an awesome play. Not everyone can be a goal scorer, and this gives other players an incentive to share the puck and get it to the best person to score instead of just trying to shoot it themselves. In business, it’s important to reward and recognize the support team as well as the project or team leader for the same reasons.
Even if you’re not a hockey fan like me, I hope you’re able to take some of these leadership lessons from the sport and apply them. And if you have any sports-related leadership tips, make sure to share them in the comments!
No comments yet.