“6 Goalies cannot create a great hockey team and 6 'Goalies' cannot create a great business team.”

Introduction:

Last week we talked about the importance of practice in youth sports AND in business. This week we are going to talk about diversity and the need for different skill sets.  

Sports:

Hockey, and every team sport, requires its players to have different skill sets. Hockey consists of multiple lines of skaters and a goalie. My daughter's youth hockey team has 11 players, which creates 2 lines of skaters and 1 goalie. The goalie plays the entire game. Each line of skaters consists of 5 skaters, who switch off with each other every 45-60 seconds. 

There are a wide range of skills on my daughter’s hockey team.  

Below are a few examples of those skills: 

1. The Heavy Hitter

My daughter is an excellent skater. She is solid and can handle the puck well. Players bounce off her when she skates by them. They do not have much of a chance getting the puck from her or pushing her over. She is strong and she is very good at stealing the puck from the other team!

2. The Scorer

One of her teammates is very focused on scoring. She is a very fast skater. She hustles and she is aggressive. All she wants to do is get the puck so she can score a goal and raise her hands in celebration!.

3. Defensive Minded

Another one of her teammates couldn’t care less about scoring. She loves playing defense. She is happiest when she is stopping the other team from scoring. She is great at getting in the other teams’ way and is happy to pass the puck up to her teammates so they can play offense.

4. Goalie

The goalie on my daughter’s team is amazing. She loves to stop the puck. She can execute a kick save in her sleep. She’s an amazing skater and can move up and down in the blink of an eye!

(Here is where you can think of the different skill sets in your preferred sport!) 

Each of these players has a unique set of skills. And combining these unique skills together is what makes their team great. 

They need each other. The “Scorer” needs the "Heavy Hitter” to get the puck from the other team, so that she can go score.  

The Goalie needs the Scorer to score goals, but just as important, she needs the “Defensive Minded” player to prevent the other team from easily skating down towards her! 

And, every single player needs the Goalie to stop the puck!!  

These different skill sets do an amazing job of complimenting each other. As their coach, I am very fortunate to have so many players with so many different skill sets.  

I can create a great team by combining each of my players' strengths in a way that compliments and supports the other.  

If my players' strengths were all the same, we would NOT have a great team! 

If my daughter’s team was full of “Scorers”, we would score a lot of goals, but the other team would also score a ton of goals, because the “Scorers” only want to play offense. There would be no defense in front of our goalie stopping the puck from getting to her. It would be breakaway after breakaway!!! 

Then on the contrary, if her team was full of only “Defensive Minded” players, the other team wouldn’t score a lot of goals; however, we wouldn’t either because all the players would be hanging back, focused on preventing the puck from getting to our goalie.  

Diverse skill sets create GREAT TEAMS! 

Business:  

This is not only true in sports. It is also true in business.  

Too often, we hire people who have the same skill set as us. Too often we end up with a team of only “Heavy Hitters” or a team of only “Scorers”, “Defensive Minded Players” or “Goalies”.  

How silly would it be to have 6 goalies skating around on the ice during a game? Goalies are amazing at stopping the puck, but have you ever seen one shoot?! Not good!!  

6 Goalies cannot create a great hockey team and 6 “Goalies” cannot create a great business team.  

A business full of only accountants sounds dangerous! Just like a business full of only Salespeople!! 

Remember, great teams consist of individuals with unique (and often drastically different) skill sets.  

And great teams understand that each other’s differences help win games! 

If you are a “Scorer”, are you hiring “Heavy Hitters” to work beside you? 

If you are a “Goalie”, do you have a teammate who is “Defensive Minded”?  

Do you have employees with different strengths and skill sets?  

AND are you helping each player see how their unique skill set fits into the success of the whole?  

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