Merging Sports Expertise with Business Strategy: How Elite Sports Consulting Can Transform Your Organisation
In any competitive market, organisations are looking for ways to improve results, strengthen leadership, and build teams that perform well together. Sometimes, the best lessons don’t come from the boardroom, they come from the sports field.
High-performance sport teaches us a lot about teamwork, accountability, and leadership, yet not many companies are aware of these proven techniques. These lessons translate perfectly into business, helping organisations unlock new levels of performance and cohesion in their teams.
Michael Redman, Sportify Founder, has spent years bridging high-performance sport and corporate leadership gaps which, when brought together, can deliver growth, performance improvements and success.
What is Sports Business Consulting?
Sports consulting is about helping athletes, teams, and sports organisations get the best out of themselves. Consultants work on areas like team dynamics, leadership structures, data analytics, and mental preparation.
Sports business consulting applies the same principles of elite and professional sport but to corporates, organisations and NGOs.
When you bring this approach into business, it can:
Improve how teams work together
Strengthen leadership across the organisation
Help decision-making feel clearer and more confident
“In my experience, if businesses applied even half the level of analysis, discipline and preparation into their performance as professional athletes and teams do, they would be consistently winning against their competitors”.
Lessons from sport that work in business
Sports teams operate under pressure constantly. Every game, every training session tests performance, preparation, skills and leadership. Businesses can borrow from some of these lessons.
For example:
Adopting a High-Performance mindset. Athletes are trained to stay calm and focus on processes, not the scoreboard when under pressure. Businesses can adopt the same approach to stay resilient when things get tough.
Ensure employees have clear roles and accountability. Every player knows their role on a team and how to execute the game plan. In business, clarity about responsibilities makes a huge difference in efficiency and collaboration.
Practice and improve skills. Outside of team training professional athletes spend hour upon hour honing their skills and working on their weaknesses. Make sure your staff practice the skills they need to do their job successfully.
Understand the competition. Game preparation requires meticulous scrutiny of the opposition to identify and exploit weaknesses. More often than not, businesses pay little to no real attention to their competition. Competitors don’t stand still and nor should your analysis of them.
Regular feedback for growth and improvement. Coaches provide ongoing feedback to improve player performance and understanding. In business, regular coaching and wellbeing check-ins keep teams engaged and performing well. This is often not done enough.
Make accountability a shared responsibility. In sport true accountability comes from within the team not just from the coaches. When there is genuine connection and commitment to each other, people perform for their team mates not their bosses.
These are just a few simple ideas to implement in the business environment to build stronger leaders, more cohesive teams, and a culture that is sustainable whether winning or losing.
Governance and Strategy: Getting it right
Good business governance isn’t just a compliance tick-box, it’s about creating a framework that actually supports decision-making, leadership, and performance. Sports teams know this well: clear leadership structures help teams make fast, smart decisions in real time to stay aligned on their goals.
For businesses, the benefits are similar:
The right decisions get made more quickly and confidently, by the right people
Leadership teams are aligned around a common purpose
Progress can be measured, and improvement and accountability become part of the culture
Michael Redman has seen businesses in all sectors make the same mistakes around the board table.
“Too often Boards and Directors are disconnected from or are not prepared to live by and apply the same level of discipline and commitment they expect of their executive leadership team. This kills trust, innovation and culture within an organisation. They simply have to do better”.
How a Sports Business Consultant can help your business
A sports business consultant isn’t a coach, they’re a strategic partner who helps leaders and teams perform at their best. They can:
Identify gaps in leadership or team culture and performance
Introduce governance and executive coaching and development programmes
Facilitate strategic planning sessions to align purpose and effort
Support measurement and continuous improvement as part of the culture
Bringing this high performance perspective into business gives you fresh insights, helps your teams work better together, and makes navigating change a lot smoother.
Why does it matter?
Applying lessons from professional sport to business isn’t just motivational, it’s incredibly practical. It’s about building resilient leadership, systems, and team structures that deliver results. Organisations that embrace these lessons can:
Strengthen leadership across all levels
Improve collaboration and alignment
Foster a culture of accountability and high performance
At Sportify, we help you turn these insights into real, measurable outcomes that improve how your business operates. Whether you’re looking to improve leadership, boost team performance, or sharpen strategy, we can help your organisation perform at its very best.
Are you ready to Sportify your business?
Get in touch today to see how we can transform your governance, leadership, strategy, and team performance.