Did you ever look around in amazement at people around you that don’t appear to be all that extraordinary yet have achieved extraordinary things? These are people who have greatly succeeded in business, in politics, in the arts, in sports, or in some other space, but in many respects seem pretty much on par with you (or even inferior to you) in terms of their core abilities and talents. How is it, you wonder, that they “made it” in such a robust manner while you continue to middle along in relative obscurity, earning a pedestrian income and feeling somewhat unfulfilled?

The Right Software Can Increase Collaboration

Recent years have witnessed a rise in software tools specifically designed to aid collaboration through video meetings, real-time messaging, and content sharing. Collaboration software, also known as groupware, can help any team, from the smallest startup to the largest enterprise, to share content quickly and easily, in the form of documents, messages, videos, and other formats. Collaboration tools offer, among other things:

Organize discussions into channels, making them easier to maintain and follow
Support voice and video calls, streamlining communication
Integrate with various popular apps (Google Drive, Trello, Dropbox, etc.)
Provide easy navigation through documents and other content

Leadership Lessons from the Ice

While hockey may not garner the same attention as the other sports, I believe that when it comes to leadership it has the most to offer, at least symbolically. The following is a partial list of leadership qualities that I have gleaned from observing how the game is played.

1. Balance and skill – Unlike games that are played on sure, foot-friendly surfaces, hockey is played on an unforgiving sheet of ice. A wrong move or a loss of balance can easily result in a hard, embarrassing fall or crash into the boards. Moreover, in order to succeed in the NHL, players must be able to skate well (backwards as well as forwards) at fast speeds while also handling a small puck with a long stick. No other sport consistently demands that level of skill and coordination from all of its players. Leaders, too, need to exercise great care and skill in their oft-perilous positions. The hazards can be real, and a misstep can easily result in a hard fall. They must maintain their balance, build speed and hit their goals as they avoid the oncoming rush. And they often must do so with equipment (or personnel) that may not be best served to push the objective reliably in the right direction.

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