Meg Lanning, who retired from international cricket in November 2023, has opened up how her captaincy and leadership-style has evolved since leaving the Australia captaincy.
Speaking on the Wisden Women’s Cricket Weekly podcast, Lanning spoke about the differences between captaining Australia for almost a decade, and becoming an in-demmand captain on the women's franchise circuit. Across her time in charge, Australia won four T20 World Cups, a 50-over World Cup and a Commonwealth Games gold medal, in an era of dominance which made one of the most successful national sports teams in history.
As a leader, Lanning was known for her winning mentality, and level-headedness in tough situations.
“I always used to do like 360-degree reviews and stuff like that on your personality, and I was always very low on empathy,” Lanning said. “That was always very low. I think with more experience and stuff like that, I think you you get better at understanding those situations. I think just even just organizing social activities and like stuff like trying to get that get the people who love that sort of stuff to to really run that.”
After taking a break from cricket after Australia won the World Cup in 2023, Lanning announced her retirement, having been battling with her mental health in private.
“I think it probably just came down to me being a little bit more open with people around me,” said Lanning.“Like I was obviously like and still am in a lot of respects like quite a private person and trying to keep my cards very close to my chest.
“I think you sort of work out that if you can be a little bit more open and honest and upfront and actually around things that aren't going well or you haven't done as well as you would have liked, then I think that that sort of opens the door a little bit more and it just helps to sort of build those connections and relationships a little bit better, which I think is where sort of like that empathy sort of grows from. So that's probably been something that I've had to consciously think about.”
After stepping away from the Australia team, she has become a regular in franchise competitions around the world, and will captain Manchester Super Giants in this year's Hundred.
“I think one of my strengths is actually being open to delegating and letting other people help out rather than feeling like I need to do everything,” Lanning said. “I think that actually makes the group run a lot better because people are invested and really buying into what you're trying to do because they're having some control over what that looks like. So that's something that I think I got a lot better at, and it really is one of my strengths in that regard.”
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