If you have everything under control, you’re not moving fast enough. -Mario Andretti
Character counts, which is one of the reasons why XPG Recruit built a division that focuses on former athletes. The experience athletes develop on the field of play is as important as the experience other workers develop in their industry. Our formula for developing talent is The Right Stuff + The Right Training. And former athletes have plenty of The Right Stuff.
It’s needed more than ever during times of crisis, a description that fits the last two years well. We’re hearing a lot from college students and recent graduates about uncertainty. They entered college with a set of expectations about their lives and their careers, and suddenly, everything changed. In a matter of weeks, their sports teams were dissolved; they were sent off campus. They had no way to predict what would happen next. Their families were probably as confused and anxious as they were. Suddenly, no one had definitive answers to any of the big questions.
We know from experience that student-athletes cope with uncertainty and risk better than most students. That’s because their athletic experience teaches them how to manage their fear of the unknown.
No one can know how a game or competition will turn out. You can be the best on the field but have an off night. You can bring your best game and be beaten by someone who had the game of his life. You could be heavily favored but get injured. The other team might get lucky. The ref might miss a call.
Any number of factors could influence the outcome of the game or the competition. Most are out of your control.
So athletes learn to focus intensely on what’s within their control. How hard they practice. How well they prepare. How they train, take care of their bodies, and how well they eat and sleep. They learn to shut out their worries about what they can’t control, knowing that they will only distract them from delivering their best performance when it counts.
They’re coached to stay in the moment during a game. What happened on the last volley, in the last inning or that last lap, is gone. Done. You can’t fix it and you can’t change it. You’re only in charge of what happens next, and you’ll need all your focus to make it your best effort.
Athletes also learn to trust their instincts. They stay in the moment so they can make a move the instant they get the opportunity. They act quickly and decisively. They move to the inside lane. They steal the ball. They take the shot.
These qualities: the ability to stay focused in the face of uncertainty, the ability to concentrate on what matters and what’s in their control, are part of what makes them uniquely well-adapted to stressful and uncertain conditions. They’re resilient and self-confident, the kind of workers you want on your side, especially when the future is uncertain and conditions on the ground are changing quickly.
Companies are always talking about becoming more agile, more flexible and more resilient. We believe that one of the best ways to build teams that have those qualities is to hire people who’ve spent the better part of their athletic careers working on – wait for it – agility, flexibility, and resilience.