Are you considering to hire a runner? If not you should, and I’ll explain you why.
I always liked running but I never fully committed to a serious training plan. This year, for the first time, I started running regularly with the goal of being able to complete a half-marathon (13.1 miles). After training for more than six months, I was able to successfully complete my first half-marathon, the CUS Parma Half-Marathon 2019. In those six months, while training for my first half-marathon, I learned a lot about my body, how to motivate myself, and how I’m different from and how I’m similar to other runners. I concluded that (half)marathoners are the kind of people companies should be looking for when hiring. Runners make better employees!
While training for my first half-marathon, I learned a lot about my body, how to motivate myself, how I’m similar but different from other runners.
Hire a runner!
Runners make better employees!
I made a list of 10 reasons why a runner is likely to be the best candidate for a new job and to become a member of your team:
Commitment
Preparing for a (half)marathon requires some serious dedication. In fact, unless you plan to walk for most of the 13.1 or 26.2 miles, you must train your body to run no-stop for 2 to 4 hours. If like me, you spend most of your day in front of a computer, running those distances doesn’t come naturally, it takes a long training, months training. Getting up early in the morning or leaving in the evening after work for a run takes commitment and determination. A runner is a person that knows what commitment is. You can count on that.
Planning
Preparing for a (half)marathon also requires planning, serious planning. Not every run in the weekly schedule should be the same. To increase speed and extend distances, a runner must alternate fast, slow, long, and short runs. He/she needs a plan. A (half-)marathoner knows how to make a plan and how to stick to it.
Resilience
I have been told that running is a natural activity. It seems that a long time ago, our ancestors were running after their prey. To leave the comfort of your house for a run every day challenges you, and can generate many small issues and problems. As a runner, you have to deal with some minor injury, some occasional pain, and indeed some discomfort. Running teaches you to be resilient, to overcome difficulties, and to evaluate each problem and issue in the context of your main goals. The runner’s secret is to be able to dismiss those small issues while taking the main matters seriously.
Perseverance
Even for the best runners, progress is never linear. There are days when, despite all our best effort and strong determination, our performances are not improving. It takes perseverance to stay positive, to keep going, to stick to the training schedule, and wait for the moment when our performance finally moves up a little bit toward the final goal.
Balance
Balance is a crucial ingredient in the life of a runner. Having a balanced life means doing your job, spending time with your family, having a social life, while finding the time to train for your running goals. Also, some balance is required to push your body enough to improve your performance without the risk of injuring yourself. A successful runner knows a lot about balance.
Positive attitude
Running is an activity that can give us back incredible psychological rewards, satisfaction, and happiness. At the same time, in every run, there are moments where we, the runners, have to fight against laziness, tiredness, discomfort, not to mention rain, wind, and cold. We know that in the long term, the benefits and the joy are massively superior to the small suffering of the moment. Only a calm attitude and a positive mindset keep the runner going.
Goal-based attitude
When training for a (half)marathon, a runner has to stay focused on his long term goal for months, sometimes years. Only a sincere and robust goal-based attitude keeps him on the path to complete the training as planned and reach the final goals.
Combine Tactic and Strategy
In a (half)marathon, there are always critical moments when the goal of the finishing line appears to be too far away. The master goal of completing the race line is not always enough to overcome the crisis, to keep us running. In those moments, the runner switches from strategy to tactics. Instead of focusing only on the distant main goal (strategy), the runner switches to a smaller but closer goal (tactic) such as keeping up with another runner, completing a lap, or merely moving forward another step. A runner knows how to balance tactics with strategy.
Teamwork
As runners, we know that running with a team can significantly improve our performance. Running with others, and in particular, running with friends makes many of us faster than when we run alone. A team of runners is the best example of a healthy mix of competitiveness and mutual support. Group performance is generally better than a solo performance. A runner knows that training with a team can help him become a better runner.
Accomplishments
A runner career is a sequence of accomplishments. Some accomplishments are very private, like weight loss, persistence, etc., while others are more public, such as completing a race, reaching or maintaining a certain speed, and running certain distances. As runners, we know how to select a goal, how to make a plan to reach that goal, and how to reorganize our life to make sure to accomplish it. And finally, as runners, we know how to celebrate each and every result properly.
You might have noticed that while explaining why you should hire a runner I didn’t talk about physical strength or any other physical trait of runners. I only spoke about skills and (positive) attitudes. Next time you interview a candidate for a job position in your company, ask him/her if he/she is a runner. Runners make better employees!
Parma CUS Half-Marathon
September 8, 2019
Redwood Trail Run Half-Marathon
August 10, 2019
Franco Folini lives and works in the eCommerce territory, a wild area between the Kingdom of Technology and the Kingdom of Marketing. He speaks fluently the language of both realms. For many years, Franco has been helping people bridge the divide and successfully collaborate.
If you want to find out more about Franco, visit his LinkedIn profile or send him an email folini[at]gmail.com
Franco Folini 
Completamente d’accordo con te, forse perché sono una sportiva, lo sono sempre stata e al lavoro sono stata sempre produttiva, veloce, attenta, precisa e soprattutto concentrata sull’obiettivo. Su un solo punto non mi ritrovo, il 9. Io nel teamwork ho spesso sofferto, non riuscivo a trovare la dimensione giusta perché quando non puoi scegliere con chi correre e ti capitano i corridori lenti senza ambizioni che stanchi pensano che non valga la pena di impegnarsi e tu sei comunque costretta a continuare a correre con loro allora la situazione diventa frustrante e per niente produttiva. Ho sempre preferito correre da sola :-).
Interessante la tua nota sul teamwork. Io mi trovo un po’ nel mezzo. Mi piace correre da solo, in particolare nei posti che non conosco ancora, ma al tempo stesso apprezzo molto la corsetta del sabato mattina con i soliti amici.