If you’re reading this, congratulations! You’ve just made your first step towards instilling a high-performance environment in your business culture by hiring an athlete. If you haven’t recently hired an athlete, but you’re considering it, then do yourself a favour and read our blogs on “Why You Should Hire Attitude Over Experience” and “5 Reasons Why Employers Love Athletes” to learn why you should.

Now let’s get to the good stuff. This blog post will give you an idea of what it’s like to work with athletes, provide you with some tips for the onboarding process, help you fulfil an athlete’s high-performance potential as soon as possible and ultimately ensure you, your business and the athlete are kicking goals and being successful.

The engine that drives athletes

We are of course talking about, feedback! Athletes love it, they crave it. They know that feedback, even though it’s sometimes hard to hear, is the fastest way they’re going to improve. They embrace it, seek it out, and apply it to adapt and overcome.

When you’re giving feedback as an employer, don’t hold back. Say it like it is, you’re not doing anyone favours by sugar coating it. Athletes won’t complain or quit because you gave them tough feedback, it’s likely they’ll thankyou because you’re helping them get one step close to success. They’re use to hearing feedback all the time from their coaches, “no”, “nope”, “again”, “almost, but..”, “again”, “that was better, but..”, so don’t be afraid to challenge them. From time to time, it will also be beneficial to give them some positive feedback on their performance regardless of how they’re doing, as this has been proven to increase motivation and create more positive work. 

Keep calm and follow the process

Through years of dedication in training, athletes are hardwired to chase and achieve KPI’s. Their mindset looks a little like “tell me what to do and I’ll do it”. Give them a process to follow and they’ll get it done. In the first 3-6 months, it’s possible they may make mistakes. Allow them to do this, as this is how they learn best. Know that with the right guidance and mentoring, they will likely never make that mistake again. Athletes are fearless and thrive under pressure, they’re not afraid to get after it so let them do things sooner rather than later, and mould them as you go. 

Let’s talk about acting

Some people may find this a little awkward, but that’s the whole point. One of the best and quickest ways you can bring athletes up to speed is, drumroll please….role plays! Most people learn best through inquiry-based learning, and the best way to replicate this in the office is simulating difficult situations such a taking a call with a customer who isn’t interested. We encourage you to conduct a variety of different sales role plays to challenge your employee and ask them questions that they are unfamiliar with. The purpose of this is to help your employee become comfortable with the uncomfortable and equip them with the skills to feel prepared for any situation.

In the sporting world athletes train every day to prepare for their match on the weekend. The purpose of training is to make it as close as possible to the real thing so that when the game comes around, everyone feels prepared. In the business world, role plays are the business professionals equivalent to training. Regardless of an employees experience, role plays are always beneficial.

Are you leading a champion team or a team of champions?

It’s important to have great employees, but we’d like to argue it’s even better if you can create a great team. When people feel valued, workplace engagement and performance improve. Athletes can achieve some great things individually, but the magic you can’t buy occurs when teams come together, and they feel like they’re working hard for something bigger than themselves. Never underestimate what is possible by simply showing you care and uniting your team.

Slow drip coffee is better

Honestly, I don’t believe this to be true and I don’t want to lie to you. But now that I have your attention, we do think it’s better to drip feed responsibilities!

Don’t overwhelm employees and give them 10 things to learn all at once, instead, drip feed them information. It will keep they engaged, focused, and excited because they’re always learning something new. It also increases the likelihood of them becoming masters of all 10 responsibilities over a 12 week period, rather than doing a couple of them well and neglecting the rest.

Avoid overwhelming new employees in the first 2 weeks. Instead teach them the absolute essentials and let them become familiar with concepts like your:

• CRM
• sales process
• clients
• prospects
• admin

Think about what the most important thing they need to learn is for the business to be successful, then take it from there. For example, if they learn how to generate their own leads, but don’t know CRM to its full capacity, have poor admin, or are not great at email etiquette, it is counterproductive to the success of the business. In time, they will learn everything eventually, but if you teach everything at once, you are teaching nothing. Less is more! 

If you have someone who has been working with you for a while or is a seasoned professional needing minor guidance but you’re unsure how to support them, focus on the 80/20 rule. What 20% of activities are going to lead to 80% of their success? Teach them more of that 20%.

Don’t forget to call in the professionals

Along with learning your sales process and strategy, it’s a great idea to outsource sales coaching as well. It saves you time and you know they are being taught by the best in the industry. 2 coaches we recommend are:

1. Luigi Prestinenzi from Sales IQ
2. Patrick Boucousis from The Sales Natural

Reach out to them directly or get in touch with your A2B representative if you would like us to make an intro.

Please feel free to reach out to your A2B representative too if you ever need more tips, helps or advice about onboarding and managing athletes. We are more than happy to help.