How Engagement Can Help Hockey Teams Win More Games

Employee engagement is a concept sweeping at the American business landscape at the present moment. Companies are actively pursuing new ways to help employees feel more engaged and a deeper sense of belonging.

Why?

It works. Diverse perspectives produce more innovation which leads to better products and services, and better products and services increase profits. It works for businesses and it also works for athletic teams.

As a hockey player or coach, you know engaged players are essential to winning games. These players are more focused. They are more dedicated. They are more invested. In other words, they help you get results.

Engagement matters.

At GritBase, we believe that engagement starts with understanding three primary drivers: psychological meaningfulness, psychological safety, and psychological availability.

Let's explore how these drivers relate to hockey:

1. Psychological Meaningfulness

In hockey, meaningfulness revolves around having a reason to play. Players must find the game challenging, rewarding, and meaningful to them. Just like how employees must find their work meaningful, hockey players must find meaning and purpose in the game. If meaningfulness is found, engagement follows.

2. Psychological Safety

Assuming you can capture a player's willingness to engage, maintaining a culture and climate of safety is the next key driver. Employees want to feel safe at work. Players desire the same on and off the ice. Players must feel safe to express themselves. This includes practice, games, the locker room, and even outside events. They must feel comfortable sharing their ideas and opinions without fear of negative judgment from coaches or teammates.

3. Psychological Availability

Lastly, we have psychological availability, which represents having the capacity to engage. This includes players having the ability, confidence, desire, and skills to contribute and play the game to their full potential. At the core of availability, you will find energy - emotional and physical fuel to engage in the game. Just like employees need to have energy to perform at work, hockey players need to have energy to perform on the ice.

Final Thoughts

In hockey, engaged players are essential to winning games. All three drivers of engagement must be functioning properly, or players are vulnerable to disengagement. Disengagement leads to lower productivity - something no hockey team desires. On the other hand, engaged players lead to skyrocketing productivity and performance which leads to wins.