What Serena Williams Can Teach Us About Resilience & Leadership

On August 9th, one of the best athletes to ever grace the world of sports talked about Evolution. An Evolution away from the game of tennis and onto so many more things. Tennis superstar Serena Williams has began her farewell tour with tennis. 

Serena became a professional tennis player in 1995, at the age of 14. Three years later, she won her first grand slam title at 17, at the US Open. Since then, Serena Williams has won more Grand Slam singles titles (23!) than any other man or woman in the open era. It’s easy to forget she has always won 14 grand slam doubles titles with her prolific tennis star sister along with 3 gold medals in Olympic doubles.  

Not to mention she’s won nearly $100 million in prize money and has taken her tennis success into Venture Capitalism with Serena Ventures, a small VC firm with investments in MasterClass, Impossible Foods, and Noom, among many others. 

With such a CV, there is so much leadership wisdom to explore. What philosophies guided her on way to success? How is she going to lead Serena Ventures? How is she going to lead the other ventures of Serena through her family and her children?  

In this episode, part profile, part exploration, Allison and Ren discuss all things Serena Williams and encourage listeners to lead with that.

Related Resources: 

Leadership Resilience: Handling Stress, Uncertainty, and Setbacks: https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/leadership-resiliency-handling-stress-uncertainty-and-setbacks/

The Power of Positive Self-Talk When Leading in Uncertainty: https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/the-power-of-positive-self-talk-when-leading-through-difficult-times/

The Core Leadership Skills You Need in Every Role: https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/fundamental-4-core-leadership-skills-for-every-career-stage/

How to Be a Leader That Everyone Admires at Work: https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/6-ways-leader-everyone-wants-work/ 

Resilience-Building Solutions: https://www.ccl.org/leadership-solutions/leadership-topics/resilience-building/ 

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About the Center for Creative Leadership:

Leadership is all we do. But our approach is distinct. We work with you to discover your priorities and customize our unique leadership solutions to best fit your needs. We create leaders who move their worlds. Our innovative solutions are steeped in extensive research and experience gained from tens of thousands of organizations, a million+ leaders at all levels, and leaders in more than 130 countries, across 6 continents. We deliver results that matter – sustained impact for you, your business and the world. www.ccl.org