The three session Netball Victoria Leadership Series dove into what it takes to create great leaders and enabled members of the netball community to build on their existing capabilities to empower them to become inspirational leaders.
The Series provided newly appointed President of the Bendigo Strathdale Netball Association Ben Dillon with an opportunity to enhance his leadership skills, not only in the netball world but in his wider community.
“There were some powerful insights and perspectives from some very experienced and powerful leaders. It was a pretty cool experience and definitely not what I expected it to be,” he said.
“What I took away from it was more than just netball, whether it was my personal life or how I show up as a dad or a husband, whether it was my workplace in the hospital and obviously having to show up as a leader here or the stuff I do in the netball world as a coach or an administrator.”
Still coming to grips with the presidency role, Dillon took a deep look inside to see what was driving him and prompting him to take on the role.
“I found it challenging jumping into the president role, because all the politics and the governance and the constitution and the bylaws, at times I felt they were getting in the way of what prompted me to do those roles in the first instance,” he said.
“My purpose, the reason I keep putting my hand up for all these volunteer roles, is for the kids. I want to be able to create a safe, welcoming and inclusive space for what is a thousand kids at our association, and the 10 kids in each of the teams I coach, and create a space where they can have the courage to be vulnerable and have a go, and just try their best.”
Hearing from the likes of Netball Victoria CEO Rosie King, former AFL premiership captain Cameron Ling and other notable names gave Dillon not only an insight into what leadership can look like, but also the courage and tools to overcome the obstacles he was facing to forge ahead at Bendigo Strathdale Netball Association.
“When I got to this leadership conference, one of the things that was spoken about was actually that change management process of how you get people on board and moving forward. Rosie King spoke about how looking in the rear view mirror can be quite confronting, which I think it was for our association, and my job was to navigate through that,” he said.
“The biggest insight that I took out was another one that Rosie said - ‘don't let perfect get in the way of good’. It was that quote that I referred to quite a lot of times, we just need to make it better than it was yesterday. We don't need to make it perfect yet. So that was a really, really helpful insight.
“This conference gave me the confidence to think, I’m actually on the right track. As long as I can start to define that for myself, that will help me show up in a more constructive way.”
Through implementing their Association’s own Youth Advisory Committee, Dillon highlighted the positive impact the Leadership Series has had on his outlook when it comes to filtering down his leadership to the next generation, with a focus on equipping them with the knowledge and tools to take on leadership roles in their future endeavours.
“We were already looking at a youth advisory committee inspired by what Netball Victoria had set up, and it came through in the child safety stuff as well with the new standards around setting up a committee for young people, players, umpires,” he said.
“The end goal is to create a space for those future leaders in the netball world that are currently just playing with us or just umpiring with us, but to give them the platform to start to dabble in that leadership realm, and then play a mentor role to encourage or coach them to do that.”
Another key theme that Dillon took away from the course was the importance of vulnerability and the various ways that can be used to galvanise a leader.
“I left the last session with Cameron Schwab with a lot of synergies from my story from a mental health perspective,” he said.
“It was very good timing in a sense to hear Cameron’s story. He was exceptionally vulnerable, and that was quite powerful and almost comforting in a way to see that role vulnerability played and it inspired me to take the same steps and share my story.”
With vulnerability at the forefront of his mind, Dillon emphasised the importance of backing yourself in as a leader to ensure that you are constantly moving forward.
“I reckon almost everybody at the conference said something along the lines of, ‘if you don't take the risk, you're not going to get anything’. You miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take. So that part of the conference inspired me to just have a go - as long as you're trying to move forward, then get on with it,” he said.
Would you or someone in your netball community benefit from the Netball Victoria Leadership Series? Express your interest in the 2023 program here.
