Many lessons in business resilience from Lionesses and Sarina Wiegman: Rashmi Dubé

This leader also has the respect of the team and the faith to be guided by her - and that is what happens sometimes in business too.

You can have all the right components and great leadership, but it’s just not your moment. There are many things that stood out to me during and after the game. The first was the persistent use of the word “resilient,” and discussions around how the England team is and has been resilient.

The other word was “momentum” and breaks in momentum making it harder each time for the England team to recover. Every organisation needs to be resilient and be aware of capitalising on the momentum around them, but they should also know when to act and not hesitate too long in making decisions.

The England team took each opportunity that presented itself to them. The game for women globally is changing, but the equity between it and the men’s game is still glaring. This disparity stems from history and the changing perception of sports and business.

The support on and off field has been slow and, still to me, it has felt lacking.

I am not just talking about sponsors, but also from the academies and broadcasters. It took until June 2023 to finalise the broadcasting deals, which impacts the sponsorship deals.

In the world of business we can see businesses or entrepreneurs suddenly gain some limelight where they have seemingly become overnight successes. But we all know that there is no such thing.

It takes dedication, hard work, and not just great leadership, but also the “cheerleader” effect. That is to say, to have both internal and external support from others. and especially with women, it helps shine a light on them but also sends an external message that says we believe in them enough to turn up.

The thing is, if all stakeholders keep investing in women’s sport, the economic impact is felt in the local community. The thing is in businesses we can all learn from the England Women team is indeed resilience despite the lack of support, the struggle women in business have had to contend with and still are on many levels. I disagree with those who say “this success of the women’s game means that women deserve and should get support.” Why does success mean that women deserve support? Surely, that support should be provided earlier. But we are where we are, and hopefully, the momentum of support will continue.

England Women can still say they are the European Champions, and let’s take pride in their accomplishments as we learn from them that success and failure can be wrapped up into one result but will always bring us closer to our goals and make us better than we were yesterday.

The Lionesses were successful and should take pride in making it to the final of the World Cup.

Rashmi Dubé is a partner at gunnercooke