RECOVER LIKE A PRO
Americans are obsessed with sports. Many of us can't imagine life without our favorite teams/athletes. Skeptical? Try announcing to your family/roommate/partner that you're cutting ESPN from your cable lineup when you go home today and see what kind of reaction you get.
Games can entertain us and can also offer great lessons for our business minds. What can we learn from sports? Plenty. Take how athletes come back from seemingly life threatening injuries to play in the next game. What's their secret? They don't go it alone.
On-field trainers take every precaution
At the time of an injury, athletes with adrenaline coursing through their veins will often underestimate the extent of their injuries. Only later, after the heat of competition has passed and pain sets in, can most athletes assess their own injuries. On-field trainers know this and factor the situation into how they address player injuries.
If you're running a business, you may be tempted to panic when you suffer a setback. Losing a big client or just suffering a bad month can set off alarm bells in your mind. It's this time when you're least likely to think rationally. This is when it's important to have a "trainer" who can have a more level head and help you figure out how to get through a bad situation. It can be a peer, a strong second-in-command, or even a spouse. Whoever it is, make sure you have a go-to person you can speak with when times get tough who can help you navigate the situation.
Specialists take swift action
In September and October specialty surgeons working on baseball players get very busy. Why? Players in need of surgery to repair injuries need to start preparing for their comebacks the following season as early as possible. So the players who suffer with nagging injuries schedule their surgeries as soon as the season draws to a close.
Businesses have to look ahead with the same level of planning. Address problems with a clear vision of the future of your business. Southwest Airlines exemplified this strategy when they locked in the price for fuel ahead of a rise that crippled their competitors. While other airlines struggled to keep up with the cost of fuel, Southwest's executives listened to their market analysts who were studying the price of fuel and shielded the company from rapidly rising costs.
Rehab is coached
Unlike when regular people suffer injuries, the pros have constant oversight to monitor and track their progress as they come back from injuries. Athletes work very hard to accelerate healing and recovery by working with people who know when to push them and when to dial back the rehab because they have mountains of research data from countless previous recoveries.
As your business recovers from the economic meltdown don't overlook monitoring your progress. When you start making money it's easy to think you've got it all figured out. But now is the time to chart your progress. Raising your business intelligence can be as simple as counting how many customers you get every week to full-on analytical programs that assess every decision your employees make. The simplest way to start learning from this data is to start collecting it. As you start to take note of statistics, you'll start to infer the reasons why things are working.
An auto dealer might find that they sell more sedans and fewer hot rods on weekday evenings when pressed-for-time shoppers make more practical car choices. Armed with that knowledge, they adjust their hours to stay open later, move family cars to the front of the lot, even schedule the older family-man salesman to work weekdays.
Whether you're a die-hard sports nut or you wouldn't know a basketball from a gift-basket, we can all learn a thing or two from the way elite athletes recover, rehab and rebuild after setbacks.
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