Lessons Learned from Lisa Borders - WNBA President

One of the unique learning opportunities that Duke University's Fuqua School of Business offers to students is the Distinguished Speaker Series (DSS). The DSS brings business executives from various industries to campus where they participate in an hour-long Q&A with Dean Bill Boulding and Fuqua students. Recently Lisa Borders made her way to Durham.

Lisa holds my dream job, so I made sure to snag a front-row seat to try to glean some insight that will help me travel down a similar path. The lessons learned and emotions felt during that hour with her went much deeper than running a professional sports league. Below are a few of my takeaways (paraphrased from what Lisa said):

Inter-personal communication:

1. Can't put out fire with more fire. You must defuse emotional confrontations.

Professional life:

1. Do what you do best and outsource the rest.
2. Being President of the WNBA has been the most fulfilling role in her life (amazing statement considering the tremendous things she has done). She attributed this in part to the fact that SPORTS is one of two international languages (the other being MUSIC), so she has been able to impact people around the world.
3. When job searching/interviewing, toot your own horn or else there won't be any music.

Failure:

1. Failure isn't fatal. It is feedback. You learn more about yourself through failure than through successes.

Work/Life Balance:

1. Really no such thing as balance. But there is rhythm. You should learn to move in the moment.

The WNBA seems to be in good hands! Looking forward to what Lisa and the WNBA will be doing in the years to come.

#WNBA #Fuqua #Duke