Things Athletes Learn Without Realizing It

At the T100 High Performance Leadership Forum in Vancouver, Julie Smulders and Michelle Collens joined a conversation about female leadership, business success and why sport is such a powerful training ground for both.

For Julie, the conversation got at something we believe deeply at SHE’S GOT NEXT: athletes make great leaders.

Sport teaches teamwork, resilience, accountability, preparation and how to perform when other people are counting on you. It also builds habits that can seem so basic to athletes, they may not realize how valuable they are.

Being on time, for example. Practice starts when practice starts. The game isn’t waiting for you. If you were late, chances are you ran lines. You learn pretty quickly to show up early, prepared and ready for your team.

It sounds small. But being someone others can rely on — someone who shows up, does what they said they would do and is ready when it matters — goes a long way in sport, work and life.

Held alongside the Vancouver T100 women’s professional race, the High Performance Leadership Forum brought together leaders from sport, business and the Vancouver community. Julie and Michelle joined professional triathlete Hannah Berry on a panel moderated by PTO Chairman Peter Hutton.

Michelle brought her own perspective as a former UBC varsity athlete and now Director of Tourism & Destination Events for the City of Vancouver, where she plays a leading role in bringing major sporting events to the city.

The conversation also looked at the bigger opportunity: keeping more girls and young women in sport and recognizing participation in sport as an investment not only in healthier communities, but in the next generation of women leaders.

Because the skills and habits being built on courts, fields, tracks, pools and courses today are the same ones that will help women succeed — and lead — tomorrow.