It’s part of Australian folklore, the hard but valuable lessons playing football at school taught our male leaders of business and government. But what about the women?
Ahead of the weekend’s Netball World Cup, which the Australians won, we asked four senior female leaders in business what impact playing junior netball had on them.
Kate McKenzie is the Chief Operating Officer of Telstra and started playing netball at 7 with Sydney’s Ryde-Eastwood Club. She played mostly Centre and Goal Attack until she was 30, when netball knees and pregnancy made her hang up her bib.
Karen Stocks is Managing Director of Twitter Australia and started playing at 7 at Souths in Coffs Harbour. She played Goal Shooter and Goal Keeper until a few years ago when a back injury sent her out.
Raelene Castle is the CEO of the Canterbury Bulldogs and started playing at age 9 at New Zealand’s Buckland’s Beach Primary School. She played Goal Attack, Wing Attack and Centre until injury and time stopped her playing at 25.
Marne Fechner is the CEO of the Netball World Cup 2015, bringing 16 teams from around the world to Sydney to battle out netball’s biggest contest. She started playing with Melbourne’s Williamstown Tigers at 12, the Club of which she is now President, a Coach and a netball Mum. She played until a knee injury stopped her at 29.
What did you learn playing junior netball that influences the way you lead now?
KM – Firstly it’s about having the right people in the right place and being able to work across a diverse group, but it’s also about the competitive spirit. You learn that to win, you need to want to win and be willing to make sacrifices to do that.
KS – It’s such a fast-paced game, that you need to be able to adapt in the moment. That’s critical in the technology industry. One of the things we’re very deliberate about at Twitter is celebrating the wins and learning from the losses and that’s definitely something I got from sport.
RC – In every team you’re going to have people with mixed levels of capabilities. You need to learn how to turn that to your advantage. I also learned that while some people are instinctively better performers than others, dedication, hard work and tolerance can make those differences narrow to the point they almost disappear. Almost.
MF – Sounds too simple, but it’s about knowing your place in the team. As CEO sometimes that means you offer the leadership but sometimes it means accepting leadership from others in your team. And learning how to win and especially how to lose. There are so many learnings from losing when you’re part of a team, you just need to be willing to see them.
Do you think team sport prepares people better for leadership than individual sports?
KM – Absolutely, any leadership position is about building, nurturing and nourishing a team, usually with very diverse personalities and abilities. I think team sport – any team sport – genuinely prepares people for the rigours of leadership better than an individual pursuit.
KS – Definitely. Team sports are about building trust and creating human connections, working together for a common cause. In netball, no one player can get from the Centre pass to shooting a goal, so there is no way to win a game without working together. I think that is a great metaphor for leadership.
People love being part of a team too. We’re seeing on Twitter where people use the platform to congregate more around teams and back the team, rather than singling out individuals within the team.
RC – When you’re looking at people early in their careers, it’s easy to see the ones who played team sports – or were part of a drama group or orchestra – their approach to the team environment is different and they tend to be more resilient. They also tend to be more appreciative of the differences in the people around them. People who played an individual sport tend to operate more as pace-setters and wonder why everyone can’t do what they can.
MF – There are very few times in life when you are solely responsible for delivering something. People who played an individual sport tend to be great about managing themselves, but leadership is about encouraging, influencing and communicating to achieve an outcome. That said, I think you’ll often find someone from an individual sport within high-performing teams.
What netball position do you think best prepares someone for leadership?
KM – Centre – they distribute the ball and are constantly adjusting to deal with what’s happening in the moment.
KS – None really. I do think the Wing Defence is under-valued though, if your WD is on song, you can change a game.
RC – I think the attacking positions have a slight edge there, because it’s all about thinking forward and creating opportunities, as opposed to defending from threats.
MF – It’s a small court, you can make enough noise to lead from any position. We had had plenty of successful national captains who have played in one-third of the court. Leaders will find a way to communicate no matter the restraints.