Rugby legend and inspiring female speaker, Maggie Alphonsi, joined PA Life Magazine to share her aspirations for equality in sport in this exclusive interview. She also revealed her proudest achievement and the key qualities of a high-performance team, insight from her career as a world champion athlete.
Who better to kick off our series of exclusive interviews with inspirational women to mark Women’s History Month, which is March, and International Women’s Day on March 8th.
What is your proudest achievement on and off the pitch?
I would say… winning a rugby World Cup is incredibly special.
In 2014, my England team won a World Cup. That was a huge achievement, because the England women’s team hadn’t done it for 20 years!
I’d say my real proudest achievement has to be the change in the perception of women’s rugby. Where I play, people say that the women’s game is more physical and aggressive. Being a part of that change, and getting people to respect and acknowledge women’s rugby…
Plus, also getting a Bachelor’s degree and a Masters later… There’s been plenty of things, but I would say those are the key things that stand out to me.
What are the key qualities of a high-performing team?
The key attributes of a high performing team include, from my perspective, collaboration. The best teams are able to work together and utilize every member or every person’s strength in that team.
The next key thing would be to create emotional connection. And by that, I mean understanding every team member – what drives them, what their motivation is. If you can build up that emotional connection, all of a sudden you build trust within your team.
Collaboration, emotional connection, and then to add on to that, trust.
“I would also say the best teams that I’ve been a part of are teams that are not afraid to check and challenge. What they say creates good conflict. If you’ve got good conflict and you’ve got it from a safe space, all of a sudden, you’re not afraid to push each other – but you’re pushing each other in a way that creates improvement.
“I would say that another high performing trait would be accountability. Being able to recognize when things have gone well, but also when things haven’t gone so well. Actually, have team members that own their mistakes, but not in a way that’s going to create negativity.
“It’s easier said than done, it does take time, and it’s important to have that shared goal, that shared vision that makes everyone feels like they’re moving in the right direction.”
What advice would you give women in a male dominated sports and in business industries?
“The advice I would give to a woman in a male dominated industry or environment would be… to be authentic. Be yourself.
“One of the biggest challenges that I had when I first came into a male-dominated environment, was when I was working in broadcasting. I tried to be like the men around me… I lost myself if I’m honest and that was really evident.
“I wasn’t being myself; I wasn’t enjoying my experiences working in that environment. So, I’d encourage women to back themselves as well, have confidence. For some reason, when we’re in that environment, we feel like we shouldn’t speak up or, feel like our voice shouldn’t be heard.
“I think it’s important to recognise that it’s not necessarily the person who is the issue, it’s the environment that is causing the problem.
“Those are the key bits of advice that I would give to them. I’m not gonna say it’s easy because it isn’t, but I have found an environment that I work in. I’m part of the team and my gender or my race is not a conversation anymore.”
This exclusive interview with Maggie Alphonsi was conducted by Megan Lupton, courtesy of The Female Motivational Speakers Agency.
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