MIAMI (United States) - FIBA's mission to develop women basketball leaders is underway with New Zealand's first female Prime Minister, Jenny Shipley, and Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynthia Marshall having delivered inspirational and informative talks as part of the new ADELANTE program developed by FIBA's Regional Office in the Americas.

The six-week virtual program that commenced at beginning of May takes place weekly and is designed to identify, educate, motivate, develop and unleash the next generation of female leaders in the Americas. It has been developed by the Regional Office and the two most senior female representatives of Americas in FIBA, first-ever woman FIBA Americas President Carol Callan and Central Board member Michele O'Keefe.

One of the strategic pillars for FIBA in the 2019-2023 cycle is to develop and grow the participation of Women in Basketball. Two of the strategies for this priority are to develop future female basketball administrators and increase gender diversity in FIBA and National Federations.

ADELANTE will help put qualified women in the pipeline so that when FIBA and/or a National Federation looks for a staff or volunteer leader, they will have numerous qualified choices from both genders.

Headlining the opening session of ADELANTE, Shipley,  New Zealand's 36th overall Prime Minister who served from 1997 to 1999, spoke on the topic of "How To Lead And Succeed In Today's World."

"Leadership is not a random thing. It's the action of deciding you will make a difference, getting people to coalesce around you who can help you make that difference, but then step by step, purposefully, learning, filling your toolbox, developing your skill set, developing allies who will work with you, looking for sponsors," she said.

"So some of you, I understand, have decided that you will either set a program, or a project, or a pathway, that may at the initial high level be your sense of purpose in this wider mission of increasing the number of women in basketball, either in your area or locally. Once you've got that sense of purpose, I want to encourage you to share that with key people."

Shipley encouraged ADELANTE participants to be bold.

"Have a big idea," she said. "Don't be afraid to be audacious. The FIBA team have said, 'Women in basketball matter.' If it sounds like it's a very hard task, don't be afraid to articulate it. For example, 'I know this will be a big change for some of you. But the time is now right to consider these changes."

Shipley also made it very clear that titles themselves do not make great leaders.

"It's fun when someone says to you, 'You're the Prime Minister, or you're the President' - they give you an exciting executive name," she said. "That's not how leaders are judged. It's not the title that makes the difference. It's the difference you make while you have that title or while you work your way forward to achieve in other roles that can make a difference."

Marshall, meanwhile, is well known in basketball circles after being hired by Dallas Mavericks in 2018,

In the second ADELANTE session, she revealed that following her arrival at Dallas, the Mavs made it a priority to setting the standard for inclusion and diversity in the NBA. Soon after joining the Mavs, Marshall implemented a 100-day plan to turn things around, to create a better work environment.

"We put it up on big boards. We wanted everyone to see what I call this 100-day plan that we laid out, things we were going to focus on," she said in her virtual talk that had 130 participants. 

"The big priorities were zero tolerance for inappropriate behavior. We wanted it to be a place where, if you worked there, you wouldn't have to be subjected to anything inappropriate."

"One of the things that we focused on in terms of our values was fairness, a big, big thing for us. Gender pay equity - gender pay was the first thing I looked at. We didn't have a lot of women in high leadership positions but I wanted to see what it looked like for the other women in the organization."

Marshall explained: "My boss, Mark Cuban, gave me a blank slate and said, 'Do what you need to do to help transform this culture. I love these people, I want to see about these people, (...) do what you need to do.'

"We needed to develop a women's agenda. We didn't have women in permanent leadership positions. We needed to institutionalize an inclusive culture."

Marshall said to the aspiring leaders organizations that genuinely care about its people are better.

"What I have learned is it is all about people," she said. "If you treat people right, you can get good results.

"If you just have a bottom-line focus on results, on shoving a product out the door, a focus on winning without really cultivating relationships and embracing people, it won't work. It's all about people. You got to get to know who they are, you got to invest in them, listen to them, learn them and love them."

The first two ADELANTE sessions are available on FIBA's YouTube channel: 
Session 1: Jenny Shipley
Session 2: Cynthia Marshall

Future speakers for the ADELANTE program include sportscaster Maria Antonieta Collins, ESPN Sr. VP – Marketing  Laura Gentile,  Monserrat Jimenez of  CONMEBOL and numerous speakers in the areas of basketball development, youth development, coaching education, professional national league development, finance and law plus other business professionals

FIBA