Diversity Discussions: How sport is helping women to get ahead in business

What qualities do women with sporting experience have which makes them successful in the boardroom, and why should business leaders care?

• Women who have a history in sports tend to be more confident and take bigger risks

Female athletes unanimously agree: taking risks and projecting confidence (even if you don’t always feel it inside) are critical success factors in sports and business.

• Female athletes are results driven

A common thread for women who play sports is that they lead through trust and collaboration, with an eye on measurable objectives and key results. Anecdotally, almost all entrepreneurs with athletic training set short and long-term goals. They are driven by a clear understanding of where they need to be, and break their goals down into smaller measurable achievements that led them to the team’s goal.

• Women who play sports are effective team players

One US-based study has shown that people who participated in sports were more effective leaders in the workplace. University athletes scored significantly higher than non-athletes in transformational leadership, particularly in two indicators of transformational leadership: management of self (including attitudes toward oneself and consideration for others’ well-being) and management of feelings (including motivating co-workers to elicit feelings of competence and meaning from their work).

•  Sports women are resilient

In my experience, playing sport is one of the best mechanisms for building resilience. Playing sports teaches you how to push yourself beyond physical and mental blocks, how to compete, how to fail, and the importance of bouncing back. The best athletes are the people who learn from their failures and bounce back fighting. Truly learning from your inevitable mistakes or losses means you can be better and wiser than before.

• Women who play sports are more motivated

Female athletes can push themselves outside their comfort zone. They possess intrinsic motivation to be their best, which translates directly to life off the field, court, pool or piste.

Despite this, girls are leaving sports in their droves, and this may have a real dent in bridging, not only the gender gap in the C-suite, but the wider gender pay gap. 

So, how can we stop girls dropping out of sport?

64% of girls will have quit sports during their teenage years and often develop deep-rooted negative attitudes towards it, which act as barriers throughout life.

Studies have found the main reason girls leave sport at this age is lack of self-worth and feeling like a failure. A survey in the UK found that 80% of girls perceived that sport was for boys and they didn’t belong.

Furthermore, despite the powerful influence parents and peers can play in supporting youth sports participation, gendered stereotypes about sports inhibit girls’ participation are still prominent. Alarmingly, a third of parents (32.2%) endorsed the belief that boys are better at sports than girls.

Personally, I believe the solution is two-fold. Firstly, a change in mindset is necessary to keep girls in sport through their childhood and beyond. In my experience as a youth rugby coach, I have seen a shift in priorities for girls between 14-18. Typically, this is the age when they become torn between friends and sport. As parents and coaches we need to encourage girls to see friends and sport as one in the same, as sport helps people build robust relationships at a young age. This can help maintain their engagement in sport throughout those tough teen years.

Secondly, we can keep girls in sport longer by improving parental engagement in their participation. Parental support is essential to retaining female athletes in their formative years. Parents can help by establishing positive sentiments and attitudes about sport, and by offering exposure to role models and contributing tangible resources e.g. buying equipment and providing transportation etc.

How businesses can help create female leaders

Besides empowering employees to keep their daughters, sisters and nieces in sport for longer, businesses can offer commercial support to youth sports teams. Women’s sport, across all levels, is woefully underfunded.

There have been some incredible performances by female Irish athletes over the past few months, from Katie Taylor and her immense achievement of being the first female main card event in Madison Square Garden to the TikTok Six Nations, when we saw Ireland beat Scotland at home, in front of a record crowd in the Kingspan Stadium. None of these achievements would be possible if it was not for big name brands sponsoring athletes and women’s sporting events. However, businesses do not need to generate millions of euros in revenue to get involved. It can be as simple as sponsoring a player to help them get to games and buy kit.

How we’re helping Irish businesses become truly diverse and inclusive businesses

Organisations partner with Marks Sattin in Dublin, not only to tap into the expertise we’ve built over the last 30 years, but also because of our commitment to diversity and inclusion.

It’s more difficult than ever to attract the best finance talent, and that challenge is only exemplified when trying to recruit diverse talent. This is where we step in. As specialists in finance recruitment, we have grown an extensive network of clients who trust us to help them build a diverse team.

If you’re looking to hire your next CFO, finance consultant, change manager, group financial controller, finance manager, or investment executive, then submit a brief and we’ll be in touch for a chat.

Or if it’s time for a career change, find out more about our live opportunities in Ireland at Marks Sattin.