Video Transcript: Women in High Performance Leadership

Spotlighting women for have been the ‘bright spots’ in HP Leadership in Australia.

Leaders: Anne Marie Harrison, ex-Victorian Institute of Sport CEO;  Matti Clements, Executive General Manager of AIS Performance, Kim Crane, CEO, Paddle Australia.

Other speakers: Bill Tait, General Manager, Performance Systems and Paralympic Pathways, AIS.

00:01 Anne Marie Harrison

If I think about the early days of my career, I don't remember female coaches being an issue. I saw plenty of them and then for whatever happened that, and I genuinely don't know the answer to this, it became more difficult and we did find ourselves in a situation where our coaching population doesn't represent the Australian population.

00:25 Anne Marie Harrison

Fortunately, we've kind of grabbed that problem and said we need to resolve it. We need to resolve it for everyone because a more diverse coaching population is better for the system and better for performances at all levels. It's equally as important at club land and at state association level for there to be great female coaches and a diversified coaching group as there is at the high performance area.

00:49 Matti Clements

I think one of the things I am most proud of is the entire industry signing their collective agreement to get behind the win -well strategy. On December the 15th, 2022, it is seared in my memory at the time. Probably I didn't realise how exciting it was until we got through it and I saw everyone standing up signing. It was pretty cool.

01:11 Kim Crane

One of the transformational change elements was ensuring that we had a really healthy thriving culture. So, Win Well was a real call out for me around being able to label exactly what it is that we're aspiring for. So that required some pretty courageous work for us, and you know our performance plan, our high performance strategic plan also really calls out the winning well culture.

01:37 Bill Tait

It'll be absolutely true to say that Anne Marie’s been probably my biggest professional mentor in my career. The strongest thing that I learned from Anne Marie is that it's important to be able to hold the space to maintain a hard line in terms of thinking about what needs to be delivered with the care and kindness to ensure that the people who were delivering it felt like they had the tools that they needed and the support to get on with it. And I think that that's Definitely a strong philosophy of mine, whether that was when I was coaching or certainly now into leadership and management.  I often think about those, the way that Anne Marie would approach a problem and try and apply it to a difficult context I might be facing at that time and often what I come back to is that clear is kind and trying to make sure that at the end of the day we're really focused on supporting the individual to be and get the best out of the situation. –

02:32 Matti Clements

My husband is a coach here. The fact that he, during school holidays, has had the children at training, that environment that has been set up by Anne Marie's leader, that actually we're a family, that infiltrates through the industry because the athletes saw a male there looking after his two 13 -year -old daughters, still running the program, program etc and explaining that that's happening because I'm away for my work that infiltrates the industry so the athletes see there's a whole heap of different ways to be part of this industry. The broader impact is that we can all benefit from that.

03:10 Bill Tait

Once we get to the point of critical mass then change happens and I think that's what we've seen in the high -performance sport system as it relates to opening and creating much much better small supported pathways for women. At the end of the day when everybody feels as though they're benefiting from improvement in culture and improvement in voice then I think it's very easy for a team approach to be adopted and for everyone to embrace that just as the norm and we are heading towards a point where I think it will just be an ordinary part of the everyday, day -to -day business as usual in our system.

03:45 Kim Crane

I think in the context of when I was leading the high performance program, what the Win Well strategy really appealed to me was not only just the messaging, but the methodology about how we actually got there was a fairly ambitious process by bringing all the stakeholders and all the games partners to really have a call to action for actually increasing our aspiration for how we worked as a system.

04:10 Anne Marie

It's an old phrase but the culture is a product of the people that lead the organisation. You do have to lead with a sense of empathy and understanding and ensuring that people feel valued and appreciated and have a role to play, irrespective of what it is in the organisation, but you equally have to make tough decisions and you have to show leadership that people feel confident and comfortable that the organisation has a strategy, it's adhering to that strategy and it's putting in place the things that will enable it to achieve the strategy.

04:42 Matti Clements

We've got a great opportunity now and there has been a huge amount of work done already but we have an opportunity now as a country to say we believe coaching is critical to our sustainable performance and I think we've always known that, but we've called it out in the Win Well strategy and coaches are an enabler in that strategy.

04:59 Matti Clements

So, in order to do that, we need to change. We need to think about how do we make it an industry that female coaches want to be part of and feel like they can contribute to. Because we also know that that will value add for the athlete's performance, leadership, etc. So, the value add of having diversity in coaching and absolutely the focus of having female coaches is important, but the broader impact is that we can all benefit from that.

Transcript: Video: Women in High Performance Coaching, The Changemakers

The first in a series of videos that features two of Australia’s Paris 2024 Olympic Coaches who are leading change at a National and International level.

Coaches: Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi, National Slalom Coach, Paddle Australia; Bec Rippon, Stingers Head Coach, Water Polo Australia.

Other speakers: Keesja Gofers, Australian Water Polo Athlete; Sara Latham, Manager of Performance Operation, Canoe Slalom, Water Polo Australia.

00:00 Keesja Gofers

Bec is a change maker in high performance coaching. I think there's the obvious things, there's the real tangible things. You know, she's the first female coach in women's water polo to win an Olympic medal. So, you know, that's an incredible achievement. She's also won Olympic medal as an athlete.

00:20 Keesja Gofers

For me, what makes her a change maker is really her approach. People are looking into our teams that she was so calm, and she was so composed. That was really a contagious calm for our team and something that our team really needed.

00:33 Bec Rippon

There's a few things that have, you know, motivated me and inspired me to be a coach. I wasn't 100 % sure what I wanted to do, but one thing as an athlete was, I always wanted to understand the why behind what was going on. And I think that intrigue around training and then how to put that into our performance was something that I had as a kid.

So, there's something there that just really, I don't know, motivates me to work hard every day and to help others try and achieve that as well.

What I had as an athlete and the thing that inspired me and the thing that motivated me is what I want to be able to provide and help and give back to the athletes coming through now.

01:05 Keesja Gofers

So Bec was my Olympic coach for the Paris Olympics but our connection dates much further back when she was a member of the Stingers, and I was a young athlete trying to get my foot in the door.

01:18 Keesja Gofers

I think as well Bec did an amazing job of really communicating her vision for our team that was something that she did really early on when she took over as a coach and that vision I think was what we wanted to be not necessarily the outcome we wanted to achieve and she really embraced everyone's different personalities and she knew that when we were that authentic self that was how we could get the best out of each individual.

That's really her superpower was getting the best out of each of us.

01:47 Bec Rippon

Being the first Olympic head coach of the Aussie Stingers is a bit of a pinch me moment. Again, if I think back that was never my goal and it was never something I even thought about as a kid and I didn't think it was really an option I suppose.

Now that I'm in there I realise what a what a privilege it is first of all but also how important it is maybe when I was younger, I underestimated how important having female role models out there showing you what was possible was because I just wasn't aware that there were limits on things.

02:15 Bec Rippon

I hadn't quite experienced that yet so I see it as an opportunity to inspire others who have maybe thought there are blocks in the road that they can't do it. The legacy that I'd like to leave is that you can achieve success. So, I think yeah, it's just around showing that care and vulnerability is strength.

02:32 Sara Latham

I think what makes Myriam a change maker in sports is she pushes boundaries. She won't accept the status quo. She always wants to be able to improve the sport, make it more accessible, but also make sure that we're doing the right thing for our athletes. It is always the athlete at the center of this and the equal opportunity that they get to represent the country and put their best out there.

02:56: Myriam Fox

I started as a paddler, as an elite athlete for France. And when I moved to Australia, ahead of the 2000 Olympics to follow my husband, I was asked if I could help in doing some coaching with helping the national team and the Olympic boats preparing here. For years, for many years, the girls We're only allowed to do the character class and it's only in 2020 at the Tokyo Olympics that we have the gender equality into that and of course Australia have been leading the way of why not have the woman, when are we going to have the woman, it's inevitable that gender equality is happening in other sport, we need to make that happened.

03:45 Myriam Fox

The coaches in Australia, and the team Australia were the leaders in that and I'm very proud of having been part of that journey that leads to the women now and in our sport, we have gender

equality.

03:59 Sara Latham

Working alongside Myriam has been for me a massive growth journey for me personally. I started my position with Paddle Australia, and she was one of our senior coaches and really taught me everything about Slalom, but also about the challenges in the space of women in Canoe Slalom. It is a very male -dominated sport. When I went to my first World Cup as team leader, I was one of the only females in the room there. All men would represent the other nations. Myriam’s really bought me on that journey, and she's made me find my voice as a representative of the Canoe Slalom team went in those environments to make sure that we challenge the system and that we make sure that women are heard and that women are equal in this sport.

04:45 Myriam Fox

In sport at the Olympics, you know there's not enough women coaches but there's still room for more women in sport and that's things we need to create you know the opportunities for women to get there so, after it's on each organisation to make it work. I was a female coach so that means you know it's possible to become a coach when you're a female you just need to make sure you speak for your right, you are honest, sport is we also judge as you know medallists are we a successful sport and I think canoeing now is a successful sport and I think yeah if I have contributed for that it's not just me it's also the team behind us you know that would be great!

Creating System Changes Through Effective Interventions

Coaches: Stacey Marinkovich (Diamonds Head Coach), Stacey Peters (Women & Girls Pathway Manager, Golf Australia), Lauren Arnell (Port Adelaide Football Club, AFLW Head Coach)

Other speakers: Tony Meyer, High Performance Director, Golf Australia

00:02 Lauren Arnell

I think, you know, there are barriers without family barriers for women in coaching

so, I think about women who are already in the high -performance space who want to

explore having a family and postpone that or women who have a family and aren't

sure, whether this is the right space for them. It is certainly very challenging but

to have some policies in place which support that I think is so important.

00:22 Stacey Marinkovich

I had incredible support when I had Matthew. I was head coach of the West Coast Fever at the time and then I also took on a dual role being the Diamonds head coach. For me it was being able to still stay around the court.

I didn't take the parental leave that was there, but we had a really good structure that enabled me to be able to continue to be around the team because it was in the lead -in to seasons so a really important time of bringing the girls together

00:50 Stacey Marinkovich

…..really through the management through my high performance team we were able to find a really good balance that enabled me to still thrive as a coach but also find my feet as a new mum.

01:03 Lauren Arnell

I think parental leave policies similar to this are so important in high performance sport because we know there are so many barriers to women coaching in high performance level particularly in Australia and so to break down one of those key barriers is crucial and to have some policies in place which support that I think is so important.

01:20 Tony Meyer

I think you know everyone needs different things to do their job well. Some people need a computer, some people need a vehicle, whereas for often for those returning to work, caring for young children need to be able to have flexible working arrangements, the ability to be able to sometimes take their children with them on the road or have the ability to have a carer travel with them and that was something that we identified to be really important and to be able to keep our best female staff but also to attract the best female staff we saw that as a really important thing to do.

01:57 Stacey Marinkovich

I think the thing that probably my experience influenced in terms of having a family was that the high performance environment was no longer closed off to being just this professional environment that no one could infiltrate. And I think that also gave way to say to players that you can be a mum and you can return to the sport and that our environment can make it one that your family can be involved, but you can also be professional at the same time. And it was just setting those boundaries that worked. So it's about building the plan that works for the families, but also that maximises the performance for the group that you're with.

02:36 Stacey Peters

Yeah, I think I've been very fortunate with working at Golf Australia, the flexibility that they have given me throughout going on maternity leave, returning to work and the juggle of the mum and work life, I guess. They've given me the flexibility on how can we make this work for you Stace, your family and us as well.

02:56 Stacey Peters

Like, I know that within high performance there has to be some give and take. It's not the general nine to five job, which makes it difficult when we're talking daycare, hours, things like that. But I think the flexibility that work have given me, you know, I need to understand that, that it's gotta come from my end too. I need to be prepared to drop things at last minute. My husband's very supportive.

03:19 Tony Meyer

You know, they always say you can't do what you don't see and I think so it's critical to have both male and female leaders that our young people can aspire and and look up to I know Since we've had the addition of more female support staff more of our ex -athletes are coming forward and saying You know, I want to be involved and how can I be involved? And I think that's largely because They're seeing more female staff that are traveling with our athletes and supporting our athletes and they're like, hey, I'd love to do that. So that is going to be critical.

03:53 Stacey Peters

Yeah, I've been very fortunate to have a good friend in Lauren Arnell going through, I guess, a similar thing at Port Adelaide Football Club. And I think it's just been great to have somebody on the phone to share what you're going through. She knows exactly what I feel like I'm going through both in you know high -performance sport so I've been able just to lean on her for some advice on how she's you know managing the juggle at work but and at home too you know sometimes I feel like you're you're treading water at times as a working mum.

04:26 Stacey PetersI returned to work first and so then she was leaning on me for you know even how did you have conversations with your workplace even just throwing those ideas I think I think even gives you that little bit more confidence to go to your workplace and to ask for maybe it seems like extra things but this is what I need to be able to do my job and do my job the best that I can.

04:48 Lauren Arnell

Again I think the really simple conversations that sit outside of policy were the most important and to sit down with my boss and for him to say there will come a time when you may not want to be talking baby to your baby and there may be a time when you want to talk football that's when you need to pick up the phone to me.

05:00 Lauren Arnell

Like that's true flexibility right and so to have that meant that I may have wanted to talk football sooner than maybe I would have otherwise.