KC鈥檚 Sports Leaders Talk About 2020 Experience
The next full-scale 射精视频 Leaders Series event, with national speakers, will have to wait for another time as the world continues to recover from the pandemic.
But following a year in which many were asked to go above and beyond in guiding their organizations and everyday lives through the COVID-19 pandemic, there are plenty of fresh lessons to learn. On Thursday, the 射精视频 Leaders Council brought some of the Kansas City community鈥檚 sports leaders to the Arrupe Hall auditorium stage for 鈥淟eadership 聽Lessons from the Toughest Competition in 2020,鈥 featuring Clark Hunt, CEO of the Kansas City Chiefs; John Sherman, owner of the Kansas City Royals; and Kathy Nelson, president and CEO of the Kansas City Sports Commission.
In a discussion moderated by Lisa Ginter, 鈥87, CEO of CommunityAmerica Credit Union, those three leaders shared their own experience of pushing through the COVID-19 pandemic and how they adjusted to changes and challenges that came up along the way.
For Hunt, the global shutdowns came, ironically, shortly after one of the biggest collective celebrations in Kansas City鈥檚 history 鈥斅爐he Chiefs鈥 Super Bowl parade in February 2020. The team was in the midst of planning a celebration tour, he said, as concerns about spread of the disease swept across the U.S. and the NFL.
Sherman said he was a newly minted franchise owner at the Royals鈥 Surprise, Arizona, spring training facility when he heard that the season would be shut down before it even began.
鈥淚 looked down at the field, we were taking the tarp off the field, fans were coming through the turnstiles, and vendors were putting things out,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t was a kick in the gut 鈥 certainly something you didn鈥檛 see coming 鈥斅燽ut even in that moment, you could see that leaders were emerging. And over the course of the process I was really impressed and inspired by our leaders.鈥
For Nelson, the realization came several games into the Big 12 tournament. At first, games would be played without fans. Then, she said, officials decided to cancel the tournament altogether 鈥斅燼 heartbreaking moment.
鈥淚鈥檒l never forget the emotion of those players, those Texas players, coming off the floor. A few of them, they鈥檙e all two feet taller than me, had tears dripping off of their cheeks.
All three said they relied on those around them 鈥斅爌layers, staff, health care leaders, other executives and trusted peers 鈥斅爐o help make the decisions necessary to get them sports back on the field or keep the community engaged with athletics. The same could be said as professional sports grappled with last summer鈥檚 protests calling for racial justice. Hunt said responding meant listening to players not only express raw emotion but share ideas about how to act.
鈥淢y dad had always encouraged the players to be active in the community, and every year when the rookies come in, at training camp, I make a point of telling the players, 鈥楲ook, if you make this team, you鈥檙e going to have a tremendous platform, and you need to use that platform to make Kansas City better,鈥欌 Hunt said.
All three agreed that the sometimes grueling pace at which things changed over the past 12 months was difficult but were optimistic that Kansas City could come out stronger on the other side.
鈥淏illie Jean King said champions adjust,鈥 Nelson said. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 all we did, every day, every hour, we were adjusting and we had to have that championship mentality.鈥