Abstract
Over the last decade, the management literature has been flooded with books by prominent sports figures, promising to share the secrets of building a winning team. Managers often look to sports for inspirational examples and useful models of teamwork. The purpose of this article is to help managers derive maximum value from sports-team comparisons. It identifies seven lessons on how to motivate the members of a team and how to structure a team and its work. Managers also need to be aware, however, of the liabilities of drawing on sports references. When used inappropriately, sports comparisons can lead managers and their employees astray. A discussion is presented of four critical liabilities and suggestions are provided for avoiding these risks.