Better employees: Athletes or Musicians?

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I came across a recent New York Times weekly column called Corner Office, which interviews high-level business executives about management style, leadership, and success.  In a recent interview on July 3, 2011, Kathy Button Bell, vice president and chief marketing officer of Emerson, was interviewed and shared her insights about endurance as an athlete and as a corporate employee.

Bell: I think everybody benefits from having played sports.  It makes you a good sharer, for one thing, in lots of ways.  And it makes you more empathetic in general.  I love to see sports in a résumé.  A woman who works for me right now was a Harvard swimmer, and I can tell that every time I talk to her about something.  She’s an endurance athlete.  She’s tough in a pinch.  She will get it done.  And I respect that enormously…

Q. Do you think people can get those qualities just as much from being in an orchestra, or in a dance troupe? 

Bell:There’s something about how hard sports are physically that’s helpful.

While I appreciate her thoughts on the similarities between athletes and effective employees, I wish she would address more directly the question on musicians and dancers, and see what her stand is on how musicians/artists compare to athletes.  In addition, I would have liked to see a more eloquent response to address the question, such as “I don’t know because I have never formally learned a musical instrument”, instead of implying that there’s something about the physical nature of sports that makes it more beneficial.  Nevertheless, in the end, I think almost all of the qualities she mentions (i.e., sharing, empathetic, endurance, getting things done, etc.) as helpful traits in athletes apply directly to musicians.

Eagerly awaiting a sequel interview addressing musicians..

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