The relationship between participation in high school sports and career success

Do former high school athletes make better employees than nonathletes? A group of researchers* set out to determine if participation in high school sports correlated with early and late career success, and the answer to the question was yes.

Those who participated in high school sports showed a number of traits consistent with business success. Building on studies from the military showing that sports participation was a strong predictor of future leadership among military cadets, they confirmed that student-athletes demonstrated self-respect and self-confidence, two traits that contributed to leadership effectiveness. Additionally, people who played high school sports showed more “pro-social” behaviors, such as volunteering for special assignments. Former student-athletes made more money and had more long-term career success than peers whose high school activities included band or yearbook. It didn’t matter what sport had been played, or whether it was a team or individual-based activity. They also found no differences based on gender.

The experience of high school athletics has a number of important developmental components. First, students learn to understand their own strengths and weaknesses, and often engage in specific activities to improve. They learn to be comfortable with how their personal skills contribute to those of the team. They know they are valuable players even when others are more physically talented. Each of these develops confidence, self-respect, and a corresponding level of humility. Second, students figure out that they can survive both winning and losing, and learn appropriate emotional reactions to each. Finally, student-athletes understand what it is like to be coached. They appreciate training and feedback as a mechanism to make them better, rather than a personal attack on their ability.

A couple of cautionary notes here. First, the study shows correlation…not causation. In other words, participating in high school athletics does not “cause” career success. In fact, it may be the case that people whose intellectual and emotional make-up is already primed for business success are drawn to competitive sports at an early age, and the same underlying factors are responsible for both. Second, the results are limited to high school athletics; the results are different for college participants. In fact, one study** found that NCAA Division 1 athletes had a slightly inferior quality of life as they got older, and this was worse if they sustained injuries during their college careers.

Additionally, making it a practice to hire only people who participated in high school sports has many problems – some strong candidates may have been physically or economically unable to play a sport, for example, and the practice would discriminate against women who still play sports at lower rates than do men. Still, this research offers a few suggestions:

1-Hire for self-respect and self-confidence. While interviewing, look for people who are comfortable with their experience and confident when explaining both what they know and what they don’t. You might point out ways their experience doesn’t match the job and ask how they would go about learning new skills – look for them to be non-defensive about their lack of experience and confident in their ability to learn.

2-Ask people to describe a time where they were coached. While athletics are the traditional field, high school and college students now find themselves being coached for academics, speech and debate competitions, band or drama performances, and show choir concerts. As school activities have evolved such that higher levels of performance are expected, students may have developed desirable personality traits across a variety of activities.

3-Use coaching models to develop your people. I typically recommend that leaders read books written by athletic coaches not just because of the authors’ positivity and enthusiasm, but because the simultaneous focus on leading the team and developing individual players provides an excellent basis for employee supervision. Talk with your employees about the overall goals of your work unit and how their skills fit help make your unit competitive. Think about ways your workers could develop skills and attitudes that would make the work group stronger, and help them see their position in the unit as a whole. And celebrate both group and individual wins. You may not have a cold vat of Gatorade dumped on you at the annual shareholders’ meeting, but you will find your “players” have a better idea of your expectations – and develop self-confidence and self-respect as well.

*Kniffin, K. M., Wansink, B., & Shimizu, M. (2015). Sports at work: Anticipated and persistent correlates of participation in high school athletics. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 22, 217-230.

**Simon, J. E., & Docherty, C. L. (2014). Current health-related quality of life is lower in former Division 1 collegiate athletes than in non-collegiate athletes. American Journal of Sports Medicine, 42, 423-429.