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Why winning streaks are vital in business and competitive sports

Winning Streaks Vital In Sports And Business Search Remotely
Tonight marks a great feat for the Eagles. This article seeks to determine the ways in which winning streaks are important in sports and how they can be applied in the corporate arena.

Winning streaks in competitive sports applied to business

Sports analysts writing for the Bleeding Green Nation said, this “ninth-straight victory ties an Eagles’ franchise record for the longest winning streak in franchise history with the 1949, 1960, 2003 and 2017 teams, three of four of which won NFL championships (1949, 1960 and 2017).”

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Competitive sports and professional athletes will play through excruciating pain and refuse to be sidelined; all because they want to be an integral part of keeping their team’s winning streak alive.

What’s so important about winning streaks and how can it be applied to business?

Winners are highly motivated to maintain record of wins

Professors at the University of Delaware found that winners are strongly motivated to maintain their record of winning. Even to the point when one’s chance to win a particular competitive game looks unlikely and someone says, “no worries chap. You will have the opportunity to re-do / change / repair your record, if you come in strong.”

Further, these same researchers argued that the idea of maintaining one’s winning record (over time)  is a far greater motivator than when thinking about one specific and immediate activity or goal.

The experiments confirmed that people are strongly motivated by streaks, even if the streak is a bit artificial (say, for example, Duolingo lets you “repair” a streak to enable you to brag to your friends that you performance is still going strong). In fact, people care about their record of wins. Not just the motivation to reach their original goal.

To experience a temporary loss after a long string of wins can be particularly devastating. Researchers say, when a person breaks their winning streak, they thing of two negative things.

First, they like tracking with statistics, their wins and can’t stand to see a data point, or statistical blip in a long line of successes,

Second, not only have they lost a game, or a top ranking / leading position on the Leaderboard, they internalize as failure, their inability to keep their long line of success(es) alive.

For these reasons, its easy to see why winners excel in winning. They have an added motivation to not only (a) win a specific one-time game or battle, (b) maintain their position and stature within the company for completing successfully demanding projects, achieving high productivity, and contributing greatly to corporate profits.

Demonstrated ‘wins’ are vital for job seekers to have

A record of winning is important for job seekers to demonstrate. This may be the one non-negotiable criteria hiring executives hold dear. On this fact alone, job seekers can now ascertain why employers and human resource professionals seek to hire corporate executives, remote team leaders and remote workers with stellar track records. Based upon this theory of human psychology and behavior; the individual may be far  internally motivated to achieve greatness than any financial bonus, incentive or promotion can offer. A picture of the perfect employee, right?

Winners are more optimistic and express a winning attitude

A second study bears this out. Humans are so internally driven to succeed. Once we set a goal and are making steady progress toward accomplishment, with optimism and self determination we persevere to see a positive outcome to the very end. On the other hand, if we trip or there is a glitch in our performance, we can become pessimistic, lowering our energy and determination to continue upon our original path to success.

You can imagine corporations, technology companies employ organizational psychologists and behavioral psychologists to help them design tools and computer applications to embed data collection, data points and statistics to help them help their employees reach an organizational goal.

Employers utilize leaderboards to engage employees

Researchers point to these programs:

  • Duolingo, tracks the streaks of learners of a new language to keep them motivated,
  • Peloton, broadcasts progress toward goals to keep users on their fitness goals.

To be honest, I have definitely been influenced by corporate and nonprofit Leaderboards that gamify project progress. So much so that I will force myself to complete a project well before a due date, just to see the star along side my name or to have my name, title and position posted first, followed by a long list of the names of my colleagues.

The researchers concluded two factors influencing the level by which a ‘winning streak’ may have on performance:

  • Commitment. Individuals on a streak of winning, have a stronger commitment to maintain their winning streak and stellar performance.
  • Self-perception. Individuals have levels of confidence and a better perception of themselves when they have experienced a long succession of wins.

Hot hand winning streaks can occur in business just as in sports

Further, Scientific American cites a study demonstrating that successive wins don’t have to amount to an entire season of multiple seasons of competitive games for instance. They found professional basketball players experienced a greater chance of making a basket when they successively made other baskets when playing the same game. This adage is similar to a famous politician who has said, “once you’ve got momentum, don’t let up!”

They say this phenomenon is the same for a day trader, stock picker or card player.  This understanding is dittoed for the batter who’s on a hitting streak, the poker player who’s drawing strong hands and the stock picker who has a run of soaring successes. In life, as in sports, it pays to go with the hot hand.  While the results of the study have been contentious, there is no doubt that positive self perception and commitment to win play a key role in winning. Perhaps more so that statistical anomalies.

What to do if you are on the losing end of a winning situation

These points are all good and well if you’re the team with the winning streak and you keep winning. What advice would we give to players, employees and leaders who always end up on the short end of a losing stick?

NFHS coaches recommend the following:

  • There is great value in preparation, practice leading up to a competitive event,
  • It takes high level of self-determination and will power to stay motivated when competing against a winning team, having done so, it is a mark of achievement just to be on the same field,
  • Take heed in recognizing some teams / individuals when faced with a top-ranked opponent loses by greater margins,
  • Skills are further developed when playing against a top tier team and/or adversary,
  • The importance of teamwork is emphasized; but there are times too when individual team members don’t carry their weight, when others strove to be their best; at the same time, there may have been just one or two members on the opposite side who had an extraordinary day of play.

10 Factors to cultivate to groom a winning company

Much like little leaguers, middle, high school, college and professional sports teams; corporations keep score too! Want to be listed on Forbes 100, Fortune 100? We all keep leaderboards. Businesses, for years, have studied best practices on how to create, organize or maintain a winning corporation.  Harvard Business School weighs in to offer these reasons why winning businesses continue to win:

  • Positive energy. All energy is contagious. Winners influence others to be their best, just by their presence.
  • Consistent presence. “Winners stick around.” Employers experiencing less absenteeism and tardiness have greater chance of organizational success.
  • Lifelong learning through instances of winning and losing.
  • Tenacity and single-minded focus. Distractions are not allowed to interrupt the process.
  • Mutual positive regard through active listening and refraining from assigning blame.
  • Strong support system.
  • Positive press, goodwill and more favorable perceptions from others.
  • Access to broader networks for inside information, better deals.
  • Self determination to practice and improve performance.
  • Business continuity and lower attrition rates.

 

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