Gain the Advantage. Build a Winning Team. Sports

Transcription

1 Gain the Advantage. Build a Winning Team. Sports

2 Talent scouts and team managers have traditionally based their drafting selections on seemingly obvious and common-sense criteria: observable skills and individual performance records from college and junior leagues. However, with the use of analytics on the rise, professional and college sports teams are delving below the surface to find more quantifiable performance measures beyond he scored a lot of points in college or he has a high on-base percentage. Using our validated, psychometric testing tool, the Caliper Profile, General Managers and talent scouts can: Better predict athletic performance in ways that traditional performance data cannot Use that information to make data-driven draft choices Look at overall team dynamics to see potential areas for growth and improvement As the General Manager, you do not want to waste a precious draft pick on the wrong athlete. Using a personality assessment, like the Caliper Profile, will provide you with a more detailed picture of each player, so you can make an informed decision based on more than just performance records and physical attributes. NBA What is it about the 60 men who are chosen annually in the NBA draft that sets them apart from the rest? According to research conducted by Caliper, the difference is not so much physical gifts as personality traits. Caliper has been working with NBA teams for over 30 years to help them identify the intangibles that can determine whether a player has the ability to reach his full potential or if he will crack under pressure. Physical attributes become harder to differentiate later in the first round and into the second. That s when personality assessments become a more critical component of teams drafting decisions. Teams that are willing to invest a little more up front can often save a great deal of money and effort in the long run by building a predictive model that aligns personality traits with on-the-court skills. By using the Caliper Profile to measure personality scores against typical indicators of performance success, you can predict which players: Are less likely to panic and force plays when an opposing player is bearing down Are apt to effectively handle pressure Show the discipline needed to engage in repetitive drills and shooting practice Will tend to remain focused in stressful situations

3 NFL The National Football League currently includes approximately 1,700 players, with only about 260 new draftees making it every year out of the tens of thousands of college football players that are registered with the NCAA. It takes a truly amazing athlete to make it to the pros. College Teams Coaches and managers are continually looking for athletes who have the mental toughness to rise to a higher level of performance. Having assessed more than 30,000 athletes for both professional and college teams for over 30 years, Caliper can help you identify the psychological factors that separate the winners from those who may be talented but are unlikely to deliver peak performances over the long run. Using our validated psychometric assessment, the Caliper Profile, coaches and managers can gain insights into whether a college athlete: Possesses critical leadership qualities Is coachable and can overcome weaknesses when it s crunch time Has the inner fire to win Caliper Profile results can also be used to help teams develop better communications skills, problem-solving techniques, and team-building strategies so that they can resolve underlying conflicts and enhance the overall performance of the team. Caliper has worked with many universities, including the University of Nevada, William and Mary, the University of Tennessee, and Ohio State, as well as professional teams in the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL. But athletic ability isn t the only thing that makes a football star great it s also about attitude, personality, and motivation. Whether you are looking for a quarterback that will remain composed under pressure or want to support an ex-nfl star in finding his second love after football, psychometric testing provided by the Caliper Profile can help you uncover an athlete s potential that on-the-field performance might not show. By using the Caliper Profile to measure personality scores against typical indicators of performance success, you can predict which players: Possess the right attitude to work as team players and take the lead, when necessary Will remain focused in stressful situations and when under pressure Can take risks in order to make a positive impact on their team Succeeding in business, in sports, in your life, is a matter of pulling together people you can trust, who are honest, who have their priorities in line, who have the talent, ambition, and desire to reach beyond themselves and make something really big happen particularly when the pressure s on. Roger Staubach, former NFL quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys and executive chairman at Jones Lang LaSalle (from Succeed on Your Own Terms, 2006)

4 There is so much that goes into whether a player can fulfill the promise scouts see during the draft process. Things like aggressiveness, competitiveness, and reliance can be traits that make or break someone. Physical talent isn t always enough. Herb Greenberg, Ph.D., Founder and CEO, Caliper MLB Research shows that some individual performance measures in baseball are more predictive of team wins than others, particularly the on-base plus slugging (OPS) statistic. Michael Lewis s seminal book Moneyball (2004) documents how the application of these data helped the Oakland Athletics remain highly competitive despite their restrictive payroll budget relative to other teams. Caliper has worked with Major League Baseball teams to assess the potential of pitchers, catchers, and shortstops as well as identify which minor league players have what it takes to succeed in the majors. Caliper s data on MLB players show similar results in terms of linking personality dynamics to performance success. Caliper s research team reviewed and assessed the Caliper Profile results of 150 Major League Baseball players who had completed a minimum of 350 at-bats between the 2000 and 2012 seasons, with OPS as the key variable. The findings showed a highly significant relationship between strong OPS performance and the following Caliper Profile traits: Ego-Strength/Resilience Assertiveness Strong negative correlation with Venturesomeness (Risk-Taking) Above-average scores in Ego-Strength/Resilience and Assertiveness suggest a player s willingness to take criticism constructively and address concerns directly instead of allowing performance issues to fester and go uncorrected, while low Venturesomeness/Risk-Taking indicates a preference to think through decisions instead of acting on impulse. From a practical standpoint, when a professional baseball player with the aforementioned personality attributes is at bat, he is less likely than others to become flustered under the pressure of the spotlight, less likely to take an impulsive swing after a couple of strikes, and less likely to worry about previous at-bats that did not go well. In other words, he is apt to show emotional maturity that is supported by disciplined practice and skill development. A smaller but still statistically notable correlation was found between strong OPS performance and the following Caliper Profile traits: External Structure Self-Structure Level-Headedness A player with high measures of External Structure and Self- Structure is likely to align his efforts with the manager s instructions and coaching efforts and then work in a disciplined fashion to master the required skills and techniques. Level-Headedness further supports patient decision making as well as the capacity to remain calm under pressure.

5 Top OPS performers also score significantly higher than low OPS performers, as measured by the Caliper Profile, in six of the critical competency areas associated with athletic success in team sports: Confidence Self-Discipline Team Focus Rules Orientation Coachability Overall Position Fit Teams that are willing to invest a little more up front can often save a great deal of money and effort in the long run by building a predictive model that aligns personality traits with on-the-field skills. By using the Caliper Profile to measure personality scores against typical indicators of performance success, you can predict which players: Show a strong correlation between on-base percentage and the ability to be assertive, resilient, and willing to take risks Will remain focused in stressful situations and when under pressure Can take risks in order to make a positive impact on their team NHL National Hockey League coaches and managers look for both leaders and team players who will give their all during those three crucial 20-minute periods. But athletic ability alone won t bring a team to the Stanley Cup. The tendency to assume that tremendous talent equals leadership is as inaccurate in professional sports as it is in business. Poor position assignments lead to an erosion of individual contribution and, worst of all, the possible destruction of team performance. Caliper has helped the NHL decipher which draft candidates are innate leaders, second-in-commands, or foot soldiers. Using our validated psychometric assessment, the Caliper Profile, coaches and managers can gain insights into whether their draft picks: Possess the right attitude to work as team players and take the lead, when necessary Will remain focused in stressful situations and when under pressure Can take risks in order to make a positive impact on their team

6 When you can look beneath the surface to see what motivates an athlete, you can turn up the volume on the desirable qualities and accelerate that player s development. Ricardo Roman, Vice President of Strategic Alliances and Caliper Sports, Caliper In all the competency-mapping and performance validation studies I ve been part of, I don t think I ve found a stronger relationship between personality traits and on-field behavior as in this evaluation of our data on professional baseball players. Thomas Schoenfelder, Ph.D., SVP of Research and Development, Caliper For more information on Caliper Sports, please call us at or visit