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Something Sounds Different

leadership practicing leadership Mar 25, 2023

I didn’t think it was a big deal and quite honestly I wasn’t sure why anyone else did either.

Being part of a TV broadcast is nothing new for me and something that happens every single day during the baseball season. Being part of an all-female broadcast team during Spring Training this season was a new experience.

Heading into the broadcast I was most excited to work alongside very talented women I call friends. At dinner the night before the game I expressed my dismay that people were making a big deal out of it. After all, I pointed out, we go to work every day and do the same thing we’ll be doing tomorrow. It shouldn’t be a big deal that we’re on a broadcast together. Except it was. And here’s what drove that point home the day of the game – every single voice I heard, both on the air and behind the scenes, was female.

Here's why that was so significant, in college I was told that men don’t want to hear women talking about sports. Most women were discouraged from even trying.

I thought that was a tired narrative that didn't exist anymore, until some yahoo on Twitter proved me wrong. There's a value in having different voices in the room both in broadcasting and business.

As I mention in the video, having “different voices in the room” is a catch-all phrase in business that usually refers to diversity of thoughts and ideas, but I want you to think about it differently.

Listening to the actual voice of the person speaking is an important part of practicing leadership and encouraging others to speak up.

Something Sounds Different

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