Top job skills of 2025 (World Economic Forum) — Athletes have them

Why athletes will be employees and managers of the future

Athlete personalities stand for 9 of the top 10 job skills of the future identified by the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report. They have been able to hone most of these skills for over 20 years at the highest level, under extreme conditions.

Based on our experience at Patparius in working with athletes, we have seen the abilities, skills and determination of this still untapped talent pool of elite athletes and we strongly recommend that every company takes a look at these individuals when it comes to hiring their next candidates.

In a recent article in the Handelsblatt (“Talentpool Leistungssportler” > more information), former athletes were portrayed in their new roles in companies. Based on their experiences as athletes, they bring a new perspective to companies, create added value through their skillset and can make a special contribution to successfully developing the company and the organization.

The analysis below is based on our learnings and knowledge transfer work with athletes (from sports to business in the course of their career alongside/after sports). Many are competing or have competed for medals in various individual and team sports at the European, World Championships and/or Olympic Game levels. In addition, it is based on the exchange of experiences with employees, managers and entrepreneurs from different areas with backgrounds of success, but also of failure.

The following is our analysis on the “top 10 job skills of tomorrow” (World Economic Forum) and our findings on competitive sports as a school for future success:

Analytical thinking and innovation

In order to win or to be better than the opponent in competition, it is necessary to analyze one’s own performance and behavior as well as the performance and behavior of the opponent. In finding innovative solutions for one’s own further development and also to get a head start on the opponent’s challenge with innovative solutions, athletes have years of experience over most other candidates of their age. Innovations from sports often find their way into everyday life. Apart from the area of health, there are technological innovations that are first tested in professional sports before they become accessible to a broad public. However, innovations in sport are always viewed very critically, as they must first and foremost lead to an improvement in performance. For this reason too, athletes are naturally used to dealing with innovations in a very analytical way.

Active learning and learning strategies

Athletes strive to perform better tomorrow than they do today. Athletes want to be a better athlete tomorrow than they were yesterday. It is their ambition and motivation to constantly improve and learn from past experiences. To achieve this, every aspect of life and training will be examined at a constant level and is always subject to improvement. Design thinking approaches have been taught and are implemented on a daily basis since the earliest childhood. For them it is the basis for future success. This will and this intense internal motivation to learn is one of the most outstanding traits or characteristics of athlete-personalities.

Complex problem-solving

Of course, the complexity in sports is often different from the challenges in business. But, athletes still have to deal with the challenge of ambiguity constantly. However, if one wants to draw a distinction between eSports athletes and other athletes, eAthletes certainly have the skill of identifying complex solutions in an instant. Basically, athletes have this openness and courage to face complex problems and revel in solving them. Athletes want success and are willing to take the necessary steps to achieve it.

Critical thinking and analysis

Even if athletes enter competitions with clear plans and ideas, often times provided by their coaches, these guidelines are always based on previous joint team analyses. Athletes must always be convinced that these are the right base assumptions and that the right conclusions are drawn for promising future strategies. If athletes lose confidence in their coaches, the basis for future success is destroyed. Since success is the goal of every athlete, guidelines, training contents etc. are always questioned and reexamined.

Creativity, originality and initiative

This skill is the basis for extraordinary athletes to find extraordinary solutions in special moments of competition. Although athletes go into the match/in competition with a clear plan and idea, they are often confronted with extraordinary situations in competitions that require them to find creative individual solutions on their own. Outstanding athletes also recognize when the moment has come to take the initiative to get a team going and/or to give an impulse in the interest of their own team (not forgetting that individual athletes are also part of a team).

Leadership and social influence

Athletes are used to lead and to take responsibility. As children they learn from the very beginning that they are ultimately responsible for their performance (which includes strong self-management and self-leadership) and that they have to accept this responsibility in order to be a responsible member of a team. The goal of an athlete is to be successful. To achieve this success, athletes often go ahead as leaders. In addition, athletes who become successful later on have of course already learned as young people what role they play in society and what social influence they can have.

Technology use, monitoring and control

The usage of technology in training has seen huge increases over the past years and peak physical performance has become almost impossible without the help of technology. Athletes are learning to harness technology to gain an advantage over competitors and are therefore used to dealing with technology on a daily basis. They are naturally subject to constant monitoring and controlling and therefore handle technical aids very naturally. For athletes, technology is part of their everyday life, with the goal of using technology to become better.

Technology design and programming

A skill that athletes should develop, possibly through external input. Programming skills in particular could provide them with an additional benefit. Athletes who are active in eSports naturally have a great affinity to issues concerning digitalization. For many of these athletes, skills in this area are very well developed. They are involved in technological developments at a young age and are constantly developing their skills.

Resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility

Any professional athlete who has competed at the highest level, at European and World Championships or the Olympic Games, simply has a high tolerance for stress. Competing under extreme conditions in front of large audiences and often in high public interest — in addition to the personal/individual aspects that lead to additional pressure and stress — allows athletes to mature into personalities who are very stable, resilient, flexible and focused. They are used to dealing with challenges and finding solutions to overcome them. Athletes possess a high level of perceptiveness and have learned to implement what they have learned quickly and flexibly — even under great pressure.

Reasoning, problem-solving and ideation

Athletes have the openness to think laterally in the course of finding success and in order to reach their goals. The plan with which they enter a competition provides a framework. Within this framework the most successful athletes are able to find their own ideas and solutions to unforeseeable challenges. Athletes at the highest level can make the difference in special situations by finding solutions that were not anticipated by the opponent. New solutions and ideas often arise under framework conditions that exist in elite sports. This enables athletes not only to create these conditions for themselves in a business context, but also to create ideas and solutions under great pressure.

Further thoughts on athletes and companies

Our conclusion is that if athletes successfully make the transition from sport to business, they will have the personality and many important skills learned through their careers as athletes that will enable them to be employees, managers and entrepreneurs of the future.

For this reason, decision-makers in the business world today should develop a clear picture of which skills in which areas/teams are sought in their companies in order to meet the challenges of the future. We are convinced that (former) athletes are a group of personalities who can have an impact in the business world. They can not only be role models, managers and leaders but they can be an inspiration to everyone for the future. Therefore, our advice to elite athletes: Start as soon as possible #thinkingbeyondsports, prepare yourself and find interest in subjects other than sports — or find people/mentors who can give you important impulses.