Kristina Johnson reflects on athletic disappointment and what she learned about team roles, from supporting stars to leading. She shares founding a women's lacrosse program and emphasizes why communication skills, written and spoken, matter for everyone on a team.
Chapters
It's funny, when you asked what was my failure, the one that was the most difficult to get over really was my athletic one. So I played field hockey here and was on the varsity team. Didn't play as much as I would have liked because truth be known, I wasn't that talented. Having said that, it's taken me a long time to admit, but it's true. What I realized was that, and I realized at the time, and it's important about knowing your role. So in different times and different places, you either will carry the water or you'll be the star. And what's important is to do each one of those jobs very well. And so I knew what my role was, and it was to make the kids that were Olympians better. And so I did. And I worked hard. And I made sure that every practice, those kids didn't dog it. Because they couldn't be shown up by someone who wasn't as good. And so I think that was a lesson that the athletics taught me. And then I founded the— women's lacrosse program here, co-founded it. So, and that was a sport I actually could play better. So, and that where I was a little bit more a leader there. I had to learn how to lead in other ways in a sport that I was not as gifted at. So I think that's one thing I'd recommend everyone to do. And going back to your question again, is leadership also is having persuasive oral and written skills, being able to communicate your ideas. And I wish— one of the things I wish I would have done is written for the Stanford Daily or blog or— I was writing for newspaper then, that's so 20th century. But just to start writing, write, just get it published, get it written, do blog because that really will be something that will serve you well.
