A six-month leadership and competency development training cycle, seminars with Lithuanian sports and business women leaders, useful acquaintances and solid steps towards improvement were all experienced by eighteen representatives of various Lithuanian sports organizations participating in the women’s leadership project “Let’s start the change!”
The participants of the project were greeted by the LNOC’s President Daina Gudzinevičiūtė, TV3 General Director Laura Blaževičiūtė, General manager at JCDecaux Žaneta Fomova, and active public figure and sports promoter Ona Babonienė.
Laura Blaževičiūtė encouraged the project’s participants to employ five qualities that female leaders have: the ability to focus on several tasks at once, endurance, flexibility, empathy, and intuition. “Business and sports require very similar qualities: pursuing goals, perseverance, discipline, teamwork and, most importantly, faith in what you do. This brings self confidence”, emphasized Ž. Fomova.
D. Gudzinevičiūtė wished the participants to never give in to public pressure and to never feel inferior to men.
During the project funded by the International Olympic Committee and the LNOC, 18 famous former female athletes, currently employees of sports federations, public institutions, towns sports divisions or centers, improved their professional skills. Participants were delegated by Europos Centro Golf Club, Kaunas swimming pool “Vilija”, Kaunas Swimming School, Department of Physical Education and Sports, Lithuanian Athletics Federation, Lithuanian Automobile Sport Federation, Lithuanian Canoeing Federation, Lithuanian Fencing Federation, Lithuanian Basketball Federation, Lithuanian Students Non-formal Education Center, Lithuanian Women’s Football Association, Lithuanian Olympic Academy, Lithuanian Olympic Sports Center, Lithuanian Swimming Federation, Lithuanian Shooting Sport Union, and Visaginas Sports Center.
They enhanced their competences in the areas of project, finance, internal and external communication management, organizing teamwork, leadership and management, influence and persuasion management.
LNOC carried out the project “Let’s start the change” together with the active public figure and sports promoter Ona Babonienė. In 2013, Ona Babonienė won the IOC Women and Sports Trophy.
Project duration: 2014