Sector leaders play a pivotal role in understanding the communities they represent and uniting people to drive change from the grassroots to policy-making level. We spoke to Jeanette Bain-Burnett, Executive Director of Policy and Integrity at Sport England, to explore her leadership journey, motivations, challenges, successes and tips for other leaders.
Jeanette's story
Jeanette grew up in Jamaica, in a family, faith and service-oriented community. These foundations have profoundly shaped her values, motivations, and view of the world and her role in it. They also underpin Jeanette’s others-first, servant leadership style.
”I grew up caring for people and understanding that what I have is not just for me. I learned that we [Jamaicans] are ‘likkle but tallawah’. We might be small, in the context of the world, but we are strong, never shy away from a challenge and can punch above our weight. I believe that wherever you come from, there’s a potential for you to make a significant impact that can ripple way beyond your inner circle.”
Jeanette’s life-long passion for dance has fundamentally shaped her career. After graduating, teaching dance and working for a faith organisation that supported young leaders, Jeanette moved to the UK to further her studies in performance dance and choreography.
Jeanette reflects that she’s always had her “eyes wide open to effects of oppression and global and societal imbalances. They exist, they’re factual realities, and for inclusion to happen we need to take them seriously, act differently and bring about structural change.”
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Jeanette’s been drawn to leadership roles that align with her values and focus on people, policy and change in the contexts of tackling inequalities, sport and physical activity, health, arts and culture and human rights.
Her career history spans lecturing, events and project coordination, community engagement, strategy, policy, advisory and senior leadership roles for several organisations. These include the Association of Dance of the African Diaspora (ADAD), BBC, Greater London Authority and Trussell Trust, to name just a few. Jeanette also has a strong volunteering ethic, supporting schools and arts charities and venues in trustee and governor roles. She also runs her own charity.
Jeanette’s career and learning opportunities have built her confidence, enabled reflective learning and continued to fuel her passion and commitment to tackle inequalities in ways that put people first, engender solidarity, empowerment and structural change and distribute power.
In this segment, we asked the last leader we spoke to to leave a question for the next, they said: What was the pivotal moment that gave you the confidence to be a leader?
As a post-graduate, Jeanette was inspired by two openings at ADAD, a junior role and a Director post. ADAD combined her passion for dance with her lived experience and was an organisation where she could "visibly see people like me doing the things I’d dreamt of".
Jeanette applied for the junior role but was encouraged to go for the Director role instead. She recalls being “flabbergasted that ADAD had seen something in me that I hadn’t seen in myself. Until this point, I’d only regarded myself as a ‘youth leader’ with the potential to grow into a leadership role someday. ADAD opened the door for me. So, I thought I better burst through! If they think I can do it, then I can! I kept all my senses open to feedback and learnt from my successes and mistakes. People soon started to look to me for leadership and there was quite quickly an expectation that I’d create the conditions for success. I realised that if I stepped forward confidently, with a vision, people would pay attention and follow. I realised then that I was a leader.”
Challenges
“Working to tackle inequalities can be confrontational. When we start talking about inclusion, equity and culture change, people’s backs can go up, and it becomes a debate. As leaders, we have the challenge of needing to prepare the ground, have difficult conversations and find ways of moving forward together.”
Jeanette’s approach to leading in this space is to try and work collaboratively to harmonise the needs of everyone, so that everyone has the chance to thrive.
“It’s important to support the people, organisations and cultures around you to think differently about what tackling inequalities actually means. Using different language, stories, paradigms and facts can help others see that progress isn’t a zero-sum game, it’s good for everyone. Moving away from a cancel culture to an approach that focuses on humanity, by opening the circle and calling people in, can also be successful."
Jeanette’s experienced some professional settings that haven’t been inclusive and her voice has been muted. She’s felt a strong sense of harm because of this and has given herself space to process them.
“As a leader working to tackle inequalities, it’s important to show up with authenticity and lead as yourself. If you experience bias, discrimination, or someone tries to mute you, it’s important to name it and speak out. This can be challenging; it takes time to learn and grow into being able to do it. It’s important to remind yourself why you’re there and that’s usually to push forward the agenda for an inclusive culture.”
In these moments, Jeanette’s surrounded herself and held space with trusted friends, allies, peers and line managers. "To tackle inequalities, we need to move away from stereotypes, treat people well, humanise other people’s experiences, ask real questions and do things differently”.
Successes
Jeanette’s proud of the breadth of contexts she’s been able to lead in and her ability to see past silos, sectors and boundaries to stay focused on people and universal benefits. Her most satisfying leadership moments have involved connecting people’s real-life experiences with large-scale policy and strategic change.
“Real progress comes when you get the right people in the room, have clarity of understanding and can quickly (but not too quickly!) translate your intentions into a reality for people. This comes from laying great relational foundations.”
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Leader wellbeing
Jeanette’s experienced highs and lows throughout her career, including a difficult period of intense burn out. Prioritising her wellbeing has been a huge learning curve.
Jeanette’s reflective about her experiences and has used them as a tool for personal and professional growth. She’s learnt that she thrives on working and leading in environments that create lots of possibilities and supports new ideas. She’s also learnt that her natural leadership style puts the needs of others first and that this can sometimes be a risk to her wellbeing. To sustain her quality and impact as a leader, Jeanette‘s intentional and reflective about catering for her own needs alongside those of others.
Jeanette manages her full-time job alongside her caring responsibilities, volunteering commitments and running her own charity, so getting the right balance can be challenging. Taking time to plan ahead enables her to fully show up for her work, family and friends and herself. To look after her own well-being, Jeanette also:
- Accepts that she can’t be all things to all people.
- Deliberately protects her own time.
- Acknowledges the ebbs and flows of her energy and makes time and space to rest and fully recharge. As an introvert, she finds this particularly important.
- Leans into the support of trusted allies, her community, close friends and relations.
- Accesses therapeutic support if she needs to.
Top tips
Reflecting on her own successes, challenges and learning, Jeanette's tips for other leaders working to tackle inequalities are:
We're all learning, don't give up!
Tackling inequalities is hard work. You’ll make mistakes and get things wrong but don’t give up. When things don’t work or go to plan, accept that you’re doing your best. Be reflective and invite feedback from others. Learn from every experience and adjust your approach. Bring your best self back every time and move on quickly so you can get to the good stuff!
Don't assume you know the answers, work collaboratively
When leaders are faced with a challenge or problem, they often enter the room feeling confident that they’ve got something to add. They usually do, but it’s important to remember that real change is most likely to happen when egos are left at the door. It’s essential to put people with lived experience, from the communities you’re looking to serve, at the centre, excavate and listen to every perspective in the room. Asking the right questions, really listening and combining everyone’s collective experience is so worth it.
Look after yourself
Don’t neglect your most important asset, you! Take time to look after your physical and mental health. Surround yourself with people who bring you joy and make you feel seen, safe and supported.
Be authentic and true to yourself
Be true to yourself. Show up as you. Challenge bias and stereotypes and treat people well. Choose to work for organisations that match your values, share your desire to tackle inequalities and have a genuine appetite for change.
Find common ground
Tackling inequalities is all about equity and putting people first. When working with partners and communities, it’s important to make sure everyone’s voice is heard to help you find unifying themes and common ground. Removing barriers and achieving change is good for everyone.
Utilise evidence
Evidence can cut through debate. By using data and insight leaders can better understand the real barriers people face and shift how they make decisions and use resources. Doing this can also create more opportunities for people to be active. Tools like Sport England’s Inequalities Metric can help leaders explore exciting, evidence-based ways of targeting the deep inequalities which show up when an individual or community experiences multiple forms of exclusion. They’re based on the truth that no one experiences life in just one dimension.
Know when to listen and when to speak
The dynamics of every room are different. Leaders need to have a vision and be able to stand in front of it, with confidence. They also need the strength to challenge and encourage others. But they need to be great listeners too. It’s a powerful asset to be able to read the room, understand when’s best to listen, digest and be silent, and when to deliberately step in and use your voice.
Do you have a leadership story you'd like to share? We'd love to hear from you, email us at leadingthemovement@sportengland.org and we'll be in touch!
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