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Being a Pro, On and Off Ice |
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When I retired as an active player from the NHL in 1993 I was named Director of Team and Business Development for the Ottawa Senators. That was a pretty fancy title and job description for someone who had never had a job that didn’t require lacing up a pair of hockey skates and putting on a uniform.
It was quite a learning curve, but I adapted very well. What I found was that the same character traits that made a successful athlete were the same traits that made a successful employee in the business world.
As a matter of fact, I soon found out that working in the real world wasn’t really that much different that being a professional athlete. I know what you are thinking: the pay is better as a pro athlete, which might be true (especially nowadays!).
Even so, the attitude and work ethic required for success are the same at their roots. The more work you put in, the better you will become.
The sweat that I used to put in at the rink was replaced by attending seminars, extra reading, attending meeting after meeting and listening and observing to my many mentors that I had in the front office.
I remember one of my very first sales meetings with the VP of Sales and the entire sales staff of the Ottawa Senators. The VP of Sales proceeded to rip into the staff – we didn’t close enough deals, we didn’t have enough leads in the pipeline, there weren’t enough presentations made. If things did not change, there would be changes!
If had closed my eyes, it could have any one of my former coaches. It could have been Mike Keenan yelling and screaming at players, going right for the jugular. It could have been John Brophy, veins popping out of his head, challenging us to be better or Ted Powers challenging players to get by him at the blue line. It could even have been my minor hockey coach, Bruce Stewart, simply saying "your effort was not good enough."
Instead, it was Mark Bonneau, VP of Sales: a great guy who is as competitive in his field as any player that I ever played with, and as good of a leader as many of the coaches I had. Mark is still there with the Sens and still doing a great job.
There are so many people that I have I met in my life after hockey that helped me realize that there were a number of similarities that existed in the structure of an athletic environment and the workplace environment. The office and the dressing room weren’t really all that different.
The following subject headings are a collection of “buzzwords” that I often speak about when I’m at various speaking engagements. It doesn’t matter who I’m speaking to, whether it is a group of athletes, business people, school age kids, males or females. The particulars are interchangeable. It is the message itself that resonates with any group.
PURPOSE
Everyday has to have a purpose or reason. You can’t just show up at work or practice and go through the motions. Believe me, far too many players do this and I will assume that it’s the same for any other work environment. I tell everyone – get something out of your day, improve yourself whether you are a professional athlete or an employee.
You need to ask yourself what are going to do with the time from when you open your eyes in the morning to the time when you close them again at night and you need to make that time count.
COMMITMENT
Are you committed to doing what it takes to make it? Most of us have been asked that question before. For me the answer was always a simple yes and I then went about my business of doing what it takes to make it.
In my decades around the rink, I have seen a lot of players come and go. All of them wanted to make it and play in the NHL. The difference between the guys that made it and the guys that didn’t was commitment. That was way more important, in fact, that natural-born talent.
When some players were asked to “do what it takes” they never went to work, they turned that simple task into a debate. Well, if I do that what will I get or I tried that and it didn’t work out.
No one can stand the employee that really does nothing to improve; they are just collecting a paycheque. Unfortunately I had several teammates that were just collecting a paycheque.
Those types of people do not last. You have to be committed to what you do, regardless of what it is. Commitment is tough, sometimes you do not want to do the extra but it is that extra that separates the professionals from the amateurs.
Watch any practice of any team at any level, are the players on the ice early or right on time when practice starts? Do they stay longer after practice to work on individual skills? Watch for the ones who show that extra commitment, because those of the ones who will be around for the long haul.
TEAMWORK
After leaving hockey, I went into the bar-and-grill business for a number of years. People would often ask me who was my most valuable employee. My answer quite often surprised people. I said it was the dishwasher or the young kid that stocked the beer fridge.
No matter how good the food was, if there wasn’t a clean plate to put it on, we couldn’t feed our customers. It didn’t matter how pretty the barmaid was, if the beer wasn’t cold, the customer would not come back.
Everybody, in any work environment, brings something to the table to help the team succeed. The casual hockey fan may look at my stats (23 goals, 175 assists, 198 total points in 1,086 regular season NHL games) and come to the conclusion that I didn’t bring too much to the table. I knew differently, as did my teammates.
I was a big part of any team that I played on; maybe in the NHL context, I was the dishwasher or the beer fridge stocker, but I did my job well and it made a difference.
DESIRE
I love this trait, because you either have it or you do not. It cannot be faked. Yes, you can develop desire, but you have to have the right leaders to follow.
It always amazes me that so many people do not have desire to get ahead. They are satisfied with being the same day after day.
Desire is a wonderful thing and it is great to have a locker room full of teammates that all want the same thing. Look at any successful person and they all have that one thing in common. They all have the desire to be the best at whatever they do.
COURAGE
Being someone who is courageous doesn’t have to mean that you are the toughest guy in the league or the guy with the corner office. Courage means you are someone who stand up for what you believe in, without worrying first about it being a winning or losing battle. It takes courage to ask others to follow you and it takes courage to be a leader not a follower.
The dressing room or office can be a very intimidating environment and it can take a heck a lot of courage to be strong and to do the things that you believe in, but without taking that step, you can never follow that desire to succeed.
HABITS
You can’t be a professional hockey player 82 times a year, when the arena lights come up and the puck drops. Being a professional is a 365 day year round job. The same goes in the workplace. You can’t just be a professional when your boss is watching you or the day that big presentation is coming up.
The work habits that you develop day after day determine your success and will help you become the best that you can be.
I’ve seen many examples of this in and out of hockey. Guys like Steve Yzerman, who I played with in Detroit. He wasn't just a star come game time. Steve was an elite player every practice, every workout, and every day of his career.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
I had many, many teammates over my many years of playing hockey. Iit always amazed me how some guys believed they never had a bad game, never made a mistake or never were directly at fault on any goals that were scored against our team.
Of course. this was their opinion. It was always someone else’s fault, never their own. Guess what, those players never improved. They just never got any better. In order to improve at anything, you need to be able to look at yourself in the mirror, realize your mistakes, learn from them and move on.
Take a look at NHL goalies. Sometimes they get hung out to dry or a sniper picks a corner and a goal isn’t their fault. Sometimes they weren’t square to the puck or they weren’t in position to move to make the save and they could’ve had it. The best goalies are the ones that realize the difference between the two, correct the mistake, and stop that shot the next time the situation presents itself.
OBLIGATION / RESPONSIBILITY
I put obligation and responsibility last, simply because I believe that it is the key in anyone’s individual success or the success of any team. Once everyone knows and understands this, the sooner success will come.
I believe that an individual has the obligation and responsibility to be the best that he or she can be at all times. I also believe that that individual has the obligation and responsibility to be the best for the team at all times. The team has to come first and individual success will follow.
A good example of a team-first approach is this: When the opposing net is empty, many players want to make that play to score the goal to seal the deal, but if making that play might backfire and give the other team the chance to tie it up, you’ve got to make that safe play to clear the zone.
The two points for the team win has to be more important than padding your individual stats, each and every time.
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