ESPNW
Charlotte Gibson, ESPN 3y

Duke's Kara Lawson on leadership and women occupying more spaces in sports

Golf

Duke women's basketball coach Kara Lawson still gets intimidated. But not for reasons you'd imagine.

Last week, Lawson joined LPGA player Stacy Lewis at the annual KPMG Women's Leadership Summit to discuss what it means to break barriers and empower change. Despite Lawson's list of accomplishments, including being a former WNBA and Olympic champion and first woman assistant coach in Boston Celtics history, she admitted to espnW after the panel discussion that she was intimidated by Lewis, a former World No. 1 and KPMG ambassador.

"It was a little intimidating because I just started playing golf," Lawson said. "She's obviously one of the best in the world. And for me, just having started the game, I have a lot of respect and admiration for her ability on the course and for her mental toughness."

When it comes to mental toughness and succeeding in her craft, Lawson knows a thing or two. Before getting hired by Duke, Lawson served as an assistant coach for the Celtics during the 2019-2020 season. Recently, Lawson was deemed a "prime candidate" by various media outlets for the Celtics' head-coaching position. (Last week, the Celtics hired Brooklyn Nets assistant Ime Udoka as head coach.) Before her coaching career, and while still playing in the WNBA, Lawson became the first woman to serve as a broadcast analyst for an NBA game. This summer, Lawson will serve as the U.S. women's team head coach for the inaugural 3x3 basketball competition at the Tokyo Olympics.

Lawson talked with espnW about leadership positions for women in sports, the importance of being mentally prepared in order to achieve success and the best advice she ever received from Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

On what she wants to see when it comes to women being leaders in sports world:

"I hope to see women occupying every powerful position in sports. We have some amazing female owners, GMs and presidents in professional sports. We don't have any head coaches in male professional sports. I think sports would be awesome if every one of those positions was filled by women, it'd be pretty good. But that's what I hope we're moving towards, and I hope it doesn't take too much longer."

On preparation and capitalizing on opportunities:

"We've all been in situations where we've waited on someone else to affirm that we're good enough for something or someone. We've all done that. If you spend large portions of your life doing that, you're going to miss out on these incredible opportunities, and you're going to miss out on realizing your potential because you're waiting on something else.

"When I say, 'Don't wait in your head,' I'm talking about the times when we might want a promotion or we might want to accomplish something right now, and it's not maybe attainable right now or it's not something we can control right now. But that doesn't mean that we're not thinking about it. That doesn't mean that we're not preparing for it. It doesn't mean that we're not waiting so that we can capitalize.

"I'm a big believer in preparation, and I'm a big believer in thought preparation. I'm a big believer in mental reps. I take a lot of mental reps. I think through scenarios. I think through things, and I say, 'Well, if this happens, then I think I would do this. Or if this happens, I think I would do that.' So, whenever that opportunity comes, I've already thought through it in my head a hundred times. I know what to do. I can play off my instinct now instead of trying to decipher something or come up with a solution right there in the moment. I don't wait on anybody in my head. I'm already 100 steps past that."

On fostering close relationships with players:

"Having close bonds with other human beings is what makes life enjoyable to me. If you're going to coach a player and you're not going to have a close connection with them, then how can you expect to be able to motivate them in tough times, motivate them in good times, motivate them in pressure situations, motivate them when they're fatigued? How can you expect to do that if there's nothing that's tying you to each other?

"I'm not perfect, but it's something I work on daily. I try to spend time with my players. I know they're busy. They know I'm busy, but we try to spend time with one another. And I think in your life, people that you have a close bond with, you do the same. You work to spend time with the people that you care about. You work to get to know them. You work to connect with them. And I think as a leader, as a coach, the more you connect with people, the more that you can help them reach their potential because they'll give you everything. And that's ultimately the type of coach I hope to be, I aspire to be. I probably don't do that every day, but it's certainly the goal of every day when I get to work, is to connect in meaningful ways with my players."

On the importance of diversifying your experiences:

"Diversifying your experiences allows you to be a better leader. Some people would say it's helpful. I disagree. I think it's more than helpful. I think it's essential in order to be a leader to lead people. Generally, you're leading a group that encompasses a lot of diversity. And even if there's not a lot of diversity gender-wise or racial-wise or whatever it is, they still are coming from different places. They're coming from different upbringings. They're coming from different families.

"The more that you have experienced diversity as a leader, the better and more flexible and more of a wide range of a group of people that you can lead, that you can be tasked with leading. I think it's essential. And I think you're lowering the ceiling on yourself as a leader if you don't have it, because now there's only so many groups of people you can lead if you don't have those different experiences. I want to be the best leader I can be, and I want to be the most impactful leader I can be. And I'm going to always try to make sure that I have a diverse set of experiences that will allow me to do that for my players."

On how Pat Summitt impacted her life and taught her importance of communication:

"I think communication is vital in every area of your life. She [Summitt] taught me the importance of communication. I thought if you just showed up, did your job, didn't say much to anybody, but you did a good job, that you're going to be fine. And she tried to explain to me that that wasn't going to be the most impactful way to help lead people and to help get the best out of yourself because you have to communicate, be able to communicate with people.

"She challenged me in that area. It was not comfortable, especially off the court, because I was pretty shy and introverted off the court. On the court, I had no problem with communication. I was trying to win, so I wanted to communicate, and I wanted to get things done. But off the court, I was definitely more reserved and introverted. So she helped me see that in order to reach my potential, I needed to learn how to communicate better.

"I think I've improved in that area a lot since I was in college. I'm not always comfortable. I get nervous, just like everybody else, speaking in front of people or having to have a hard conversation. That never goes away when you have to have hard conversations. But you have to have them because if you don't, it's worse, right? If you just say, "OK, I'm going to avoid this hard conversation," well, now the outcome down the road's way worse. Have the hard conversation. They're not fun when you have to have them, but I think they're essential if you strive to be a great communicator."

On why she doesn't reflect much on the past, but focuses on future dreams:

"I rarely take a moment to take a step back and sit with all of my accomplishments. It goes back to what I was saying about being in your head and what you're preparing for. I have so many things I want to do still, and so that's kind of more where my brain drifts to when I'm in a quiet moment, is what can I be a part of next? What can I help achieve? What can I help someone achieve next? For me, that is the Olympics in Tokyo and trying to help my players win a gold medal. That's what's next. That's what I'm focused on. So I think my mind drifts to that more than... I'm a dreamer. I'm a dreamer. I've always been since I was a kid, and so my mind drifts more to that than it does reflecting or looking back."

^ Back to Top ^