Businesses Can and Should Learn from the Miami Heat's NBA Championship

Portland, ME, July 02, 2012 --(PR.com)-- While Miami Heat fans can spend the summer basking in the glory of an NBA championship, businesses can learn some very valuable lessons from the Heat's championship run and start putting them into practice to build their own internal championship team.

John Brubaker, a three time NCAA "Coach of the Year," who guided the St Andrew's College lacrosse program from 2001-2004 to the unparalleled success of Top 10 national rankings each year and an NCAA Final Four appearance, and author of a recently published book designed to help business leaders and their teams achieve peak performance, says there are three major lessons businesses can learn from the Miami Heat:

Lesson 1. High touch work environments enhance success and there is neuroscience to prove it. Miami built team chemistry and their 3 top players (James, Wade & Bosch) finally gelled and became high touch with one another. Corporate Takeaway: An environment of frequent interpersonal contact and open in person communication build an environment of trust which facilitates team synergy. Technology, while convenient, is not an effective substitute for a genuine human connection.

Lesson 2. Experience in the spotlight counts for a lot... Miami has championship game experience and learned a lot from their championship loss to Dallas last year as opposed to the Oklahoma Thunder which is a expansion franchise and lacks championship game experience on the biggest stage. Brubaker's team lacked championship game experience in 2002 when they lost in the NCAA Final Four to the eventual National Champions so he know from experience how important (and overlooked) this factor truly is. Corporate Takeaway: When the pressure is on with something like a new product launch or hitting the 4th quarter sales goals, having experience to reflect on and use as a learning tool enables you to tweak or adjust strategy and preparation to facilitate better results.

Lesson 3. Playing to win vs. Playing not to lose. LeBron James for perhaps the first time in his professional career was truly present in the moment, tuning out the critics and playing to win as opposed to worry about what the media and fans think which made him play not to lose in the past. Corporate takeaway= Distraction affects preparation and performance. Warren Buffet calls it his "internal scoreboard."

In his book, “The Coach Approach: Success Strategies From The Locker Room To The Board Room”, Brubaker applies his own coaching experience and knowledge as well as sharing techniques and strategies from some of the nation's elite sports coaches, executives and athletes and applies it to the sport of business.

He uses a multidisciplinary approach to help businesses develop their competitive edge and to focus on the process not the product.

“Coaching in the workplace is even more important than on the athletic field, because in the sport of business every day is game day,” he said.

Brubaker is a 1992 graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and he also earned a master’s degree in personnel psychology from FDU in 1993. He completed his doctoral level coursework in Sport Psychology at Temple University.

For more information or to arrange an interview, or a copy of "The Coach Approach: Success Strategies From The Locker Room To The Board Room,” please contact Valerie Paavonpera, on 631 871 3635 or vpaavonpera@maine.rr.com