CEOs can – and Should – Take a Lesson from a Soccer Coach

Everything I learned about business, I learned from coaching youth soccer.

I say this a lot and while it's a fairly large overstatement, I do learn business lessons from coaching soccer. And I often use these lessons when counseling or training (or boring) my clients and staff.

So it came as no surprise when I was sent the following:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/09/22/chris.brady.football.ferguson/

Here is my favorite part:

Another important lesson football management has to offer business is that the manager does not sit, isolated, in a huge office, which removes him from close contact with all levels of his staff. He is literally on the sidelines.

I would add that leaders should "coach from the sidelines…and only the players on the sidelines."

Sadly, most leaders don't get this. They phone down their edicts, keep performance metrics hidden, and mainly work with people on a one-to-one basis instead of building functional groups.

Winning takes a coordinated team. And a strong coach. And, apparently, lots and lots of soccer analogies.