The 2024 Paris Olympics have started in grand fashion and the event is shaping up to be a memorable one. As the world shifts from the pandemic’s shadow and tackles pressing issues like employee engagement, finding sustainable success, and driving innovation with AI, learning from past champions is a crucial factor. So, we thought let’s look at some of the biggest names in Olympic sporting history and how they are bringing their sport’s insights into the business world. We found that the best ones always take adversity on with team collaboration and drive towards success. Here are our top picks and their biggest insights:
Allyson Fenix
Key Takeaways:
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Women face several challenges that men do not in achieving their professional goals.
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Facilitating fair support for venture funding or mentorship helps in developing groundbreaking ideas like Saysh’s shoes designed with women first in mind.
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Changemakers like Fenix are a force for social development through team collaboration without an overt DEI agenda and deserve support.
11-time Olympic medal winner Allyson Fenix has made a stellar start in sporting footwear. Her brand, Saysh, is a fast-growing sporting footwear brand with some impressive accolades to put behind it. These include becoming one of Oprah Winfrey’s ‘Favorite Things’, ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange via the brand’s CEO, and retailing with sporting gear giant REI’s stores. However, Fenix is not just an entrepreneur but also a mentor and changemaker who had one of the most extraordinary journeys with Nike.
Double-Standards
She was dropped by the sporting brand during her pregnancy in 2019. She had to either take a 70 percent drop in her pay with no guarantees of payments if she failed to be on top after her pregnancy or failed to make appearances.
Fenix made the sporting giant backtrack on its decision after walking away from the brand when it refused to reconsider terms. This was particularly questionable since Nike had brought in. Fenix has the vision to nurture sporting ambitions in adolescent girls. So, when Fenix was dropped during her pregnancy she chose to raise her voice via a scathing NYT article which brought universal criticism to Nike and forced them to change their policies to include coverage during pregnancy.
Changing Women’s Sports Fundamentally
Aside from that, Fenix has made Saysh into a women athlete-first brand with footwear designed specifically for women. The reason here is that most women’s footwear including those of athletes is still made using measures from men. According to this article in the CEO Magazine,
The mentality is what Felix calls “shrink it and pink it” where no allowance is made for a woman’s narrower heel and wider forefoot.“Women’s bodies are built differently, so why shouldn’t our shoes be built differently as well? It’s about shifting the conversation and empowering women through footwear that actually meets their needs,” she says.
When she faced problems related to funding, instead of backing down, Fenix doubled down on her efforts and secured the funds she needed. On this, she said:
“That highlights the systemic barriers that exist, but it also fuels my determination to break down those barriers and create opportunities for others. The journey has taught me that resilience is key and that our collective efforts can drive meaningful change in the industry.”
Allyson Fenix is just at the start of her journey as an entrepreneur. Yet in the time since she began, she has taken on some of the biggest and most pressing challenges that women in ports and business face today. Her insights serve as a reminder of what is essential to give the best and most holistic support to aspiring women of all colors and ethnic backgrounds.
3 Former Olympians on Using Team Collaboration Insights in Business
Lydia Lassila
Key Takeaways:
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Injuries and hurdles turn into opportunities with the right application of an entrepreneurial mindset and team collaboration.
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Striking a work-life balance offers the best chance to live life to the best in all areas.
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Finding one’s sense of place or zone is the best way to capitalize on one’s talents and facilitating that as a business leader and a professional is of the greatest importance.
The summer Olympics overshadow their winter counterpart, Yet when you hold three world records and are a veteran of four Winter Olympics, your name deserves a mention in any consideration. Lydia Lassila is a champion aerial skier whose accomplishments and intelligence have made her one of the most recognized Olympians in Australia and Oceania.
From Star Athlete to Business Leader
Lydia overcame a slew of injuries to achieve her sporting glory and these experiences also led here to create her own business, Body Ice, which offers a no-fuss ice and compression system that molds around injured joints and body parts. Sometime later, she also created a range of environmentally-conscious yoga gear and clothing called ZONE by Lydia. She speaks of her entrepreneurial experience in detail in this LinkedIn article:
“To be able to be where you are and stay in that moment is a really important skill,” Lydia notes. “I had to work really hard on staying present as an athlete because you have to be in the moment to perform at your best … and that’s where you’re most productive, too. That’s why present-moment techniques are really, really important.
She further adds:
“Because I’ve always been remote and nomadic [as an athlete], I get to achieve one of my biggest values, which is lifestyle,” she says. “My husband runs an IT company as well, so we’ve never had a nine-to-five setup and we’ve always been flexible with what we choose to do, whether it’s holidays or enjoying life! Sometimes we work really hard and sometimes we back off a bit, but it seems to balance.”
Lydia brings the blended approach of striking a balance between one’s life goals, work goals, and family goals together into one funnel. Companies who have been juggling remote working and return-to-office mandates will recognize how important it is to create that work-life scenario. Her philosophy is best summed up in her own words:
For Lydia, high performance at work looks the same as it does in sport: it’s about finding her zone so she can stay present.
3 Former Olympians on Using Team Collaboration Insights in Business
Mike Dawson
Key Takeaways:
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Losing funding is not the end of a journey and it might turn into new opportunities for growth, especially via team collaboration.
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Using one’s life experience to support one’s ongoing purposes helps realize present goals through past experiences.
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Success at enterprising may lead to mentoring opportunities later and open up new career paths.
When the taste for competing is true, no obstacle is too big to overcome. This is the nutshell story of Mike Dawson, a canoeist from New Zealand. Dawson’s funding was cut short after he finished 28th at the 2015 World Kayaking Championships. However, this did not stop Dawson from finding his own way to fund his Olympic dreams and securing a bronze at the 2017 ICF canoe slalom. To accomplish this, Dawson and his girlfriend put together a cookbook of recipes from all the places Dawson had traveled. He collaborated with a local kayaker in Brazil when he found his funding had been pulled whole also working up a steady supply line of food for local vulnerable families. Here’s the experience in his own words from a NZ digital newsprint,
“My cookbook was a way to self-fund my campaign and get me as much time on the Rio course as possible and it was successful beyond my wildest dreams,” Dawson said. “I’ve loved coming to Rio and the city is incredible but just around the corner from this massive Olympic production are people living in absolute poverty. That was pretty eye-opening, coming from New Zealand, with whole families living on the streets and kids with nothing. So many people from New Zealand supported me and I thought it would be kind of cool to share that support.”
Dawson’s story is one of the rare hard-to-stop epic sporting narratives that define all odds. This story is something a lot of professionals including startup entrepreneurs resonate with. Much like in the business world. The supporting world is highly competitive. But with the right will and perseverance, even the most unyielding of odds may be turned to victory. At present, Mike Dawson is training the prodigious kayaking team of China for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
How Can You Enhance Your Team Collaboration and Turn Work into Success like These Olympians?
Turning opportunities to advantages is a team process even if you play solo. Similarly, using the talents available to you requires good communication, great insights and a clear development path to success. This is where employee engagement, team collaboration and mentorship matter the most for business leaders. Apps like LEAD bot help business leaders and entrepreneurs develop a strong working culture that not only fosters growth and innovation but turns employees into changemakers in their own right.
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