Is sport the answer to young Singaporean’s lack of business drive?

There has been much intense debate in Singaporean about a recent speech by the Education Minister in which he said that many CEO’s had complained to him about the young Singaporean workforce. They were particularly scathing about young Singaporean’s lack of drive, confidence and ability to think outside the box and outside of their comfort zone apparently.

Although everyone acknowledged that Singaporean’s work hard senior business leaders were concerned that this wasn’t necessarily as effective as it could be, not imaginative enough and not above and beyond normal working.

To continue to be an exceptional country, to punch above their weight, to continuously be the envy of the world and to be able to drive businesses forward in Singapore the workers attitude needs to be more than that.

Creativity, ambition, going the extra mile and not taking the easy option are key to individual rewards as well as the knock on effect of benefitting a company and driving that forwards which in turn benefits the Singapore nation.

What’s the answer? The Minister didn’t know and the CEO’s didn’t know but is it staring in front of us.

Is it more sport but not individual sport, team sport.

Sport is by nature is competitive, you need to be driven to go beyond your comfort zone to think of innovative solutions to win, to beat your opponent. It also requires significant motivation to prepare, train and allocate time to sport.

Singapore is full of sporting events every week from the Standard Chartered Marathon to the OCBC Cycling Race from the SAFR Run to the Uathlon.

Every week there is some event on where Singaporeans and Singaporean residents are testing themselves, pushing themselves beyond their limits. All are sold out or very nearly and sponsors fall over themselves to be associated with the events.

Singapore also boasts some of the best public tennis, squash, cricket, hockey, netball, football, softball facilities in the world for everyone to enjoy (usually at night or first thing in the morning due to the heat and humidity). It’s cheap to take part and easy to start.

So why is there is a disconnect between clear drive and motivation on the sporting field and a lack of one at work? Young Singaporeans are very competitive in all sports, from under 5’s to teenagers I see them on tennis courts at 7am on a Sunday or running races at 6am or running the sun down/sunset 100km run.

So why doesn’t this translate into work?

The government clearly recognize that sport is good for everyone. They have just introduced a new directive that will mean that all Singaporean youths will be able to play at least three sports at a recreational level when they leave secondary school for 2014.

The reasons they give are all about making Singapore a more competitive and respectful place, the government believes that sport is a important part of holistic education which can embody the values of respect, teamwork, integrity, responsibility and resilience.

Is it that sport motivates them where work does not? In the sporting arena money doesn’t come into it, it’s a release from the day to day grind. Sport is all about playing for nothing but pride against friends/enemies.

Money does matter to Singaporeans but does status matter more? Being a VP or Director of a company matters but young Singaporeans want everything now as they are used to getting the latest Samsung or Apple product on launch date to show off to their friends. Sport can offer that.

Therefore when they can’t have that at work they usually leave for another company/better money because they know they can due to the full employment and they know that as they still live with mum and dad they will always have the safety net.

Is that why work is less of a motivation for them as they have no fear of failure as they are always protected? Whereas in sport it’s just you and your competitor, you and your team mates, you and the score, no hiding place, live and die by the result, status and prestige await the winner, the stench of failure and humiliation for the loser.

Is it that many Singaporean sports are individual and not team and the motivation is one’s own pride and status? Do young Singaporean’s love sport because it’s running from A to B and their needs no thinking about creative solutions or alternative routes, it’s just run as fast as you can from one point to another?

They are exceptional athletes but if there were more team events where more thought was needed and more solutions had to be collectively created would that then translate into better young Singaporean business people?

If you could combine the desire to succeed in sport as an individual and translate that to work in a team or leading a team or just individual performance and show that that too is all about status and being the best then maybe the young Singaporean’s would rise to the challenge. 

Chris Reed, Regional Partnerships Director - Asia Pacific, Partnership Marketing