I’m often asked, “Which skill should Gen Z’s master before starting a career in sports?” TALK TO STRANGERS!
In today’s world of cell phone’s and tablets, we have a generation of people who spend the majority of their time looking down. Visualize the posture . You do not notice who is around you. You do not talk to people on the plane. You do not talk to people sitting next to you in your cue. You do not talk to people waiting in line for your coffee. You do not talk to people sitting next to you in a food court. You do not talk to strangers.
Talking to strangers is improvisation, spontaneity, serendipity, surprise, novelty … it’s an active engagement with the unknown. When you look at TRUST, trust is exactly that – active engagement with the unknown. In my opinion if you lack the skill to talk to strangers, you inhibit your ability to develop trust with others. Entering the workplace is engaging with strangers. Any first job is a series of interactions with strangers without really knowing what they want from you and for you. You do not know how they look at you or perceive you. When you find yourself in any new job, especially sports, it’s like moving to a foreign land.
Gen Z is locked in on performance and optimization … & that’s positive. But high performing low trust individuals can become cancers in the sports environment and in the work place in general. In fact, in many conversations with today’s sports industry leaders, they’d prefer to hire and promote the individual that might be less skilled but exhibits higher trust traits. Obviously the ultimate candidate is elite in both categories- performance and trust. If you’re a leader out there looking for more insight into developing and identifying high performing-high trust leaders I’d love to connect and share more. If you’re looking for your first job in sports reach out as well. I’d be happy to assist. DM me here or message me on our website
