156. Finding Collaboration with Pitt Athletic Director Heather Lyke

156. Finding Collaboration with Pitt Athletic Director Heather Lyke

 

 

Introducing Heather Lyke

Today I’m talking to the Director of Athletics at Pitt, Heather Lyke, about building collaboration.

Her Career Journey

Heather earned her bachelor’s in education from the University of Michigan, where she also played softball. She went on to law school, earning her JD from the University of Akron, before returning to the world of college sports when she interned at the NCAA. Heather has worked in multiple administrative roles, first at the University of Cincinnati and then at Ohio State before assuming the role of Director of Athletics at Eastern Michigan. She has been the Director of Athletics at the University of Pittsburgh since 2017 and is one of just six women leading athletic departments in Power Five conferences.

Finding Collaboration

While at Ohio State, Heather and five others who shared her aspirations of becoming Athletic Directors, banded together to form what they called the group of six. Rather than feeling like they were in competition, they shared opportunities to help each other build skills, setting them all up for long-term success.

Inside this episode:

  • Heather had an incredible experience as a student-athlete at Michigan and wanted to find a career where she could facilitate that experience for other student-athletes. She also recognized her coaches’ love of their jobs and wanted to find something that she could enjoy that much.
  • She realized during her last year of law school that working in a traditional firm probably wasn’t for her. Rather than falling into the sunk cost fallacy, she took a chance by taking an internship with the NCAA, laying the foundation for the rest of her career. 
  • Seeing her potential, her boss at Ohio State pushed her to consider her long-term career goals and encouraged her to consider aiming for an athletics director role. She loved her job, but he saw something else in her.
  • Heather initially thought that setting a big goal, like becoming an AD, and not achieving it would be a failure. With time, she could see that the real failure would be not even attempting to get after it.
  • When building a team, Heather focuses on four attributes: selflessness, relentlessness, competency, and the ability to be transformative. As AD, she’s the one with the vision and ideas, but she relies on her team to execute the necessary actions every day.

Resources

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