Pitching in: How nonprofits can support your community

Get ready as we explore the journey of cricket superstar Isa Guha, who is dedicated to fostering a more inclusive environment for women and girls in cricket. After excelling on the field, Isa has made a significant impact in the non-profit sector with her charity, Take Her Lead.

Isa offers invaluable business advice and leadership insights, demonstrating how the skills she honed on the cricket pitch have propelled her success in the non-profit world. She underscores the importance of resilience, emphasizing that while setbacks are inevitable, your response to them is what truly counts.

Isa also advocates for kind leadership, fostering a positive and supportive culture that leads to greater success and allows everyone to thrive.

This episode highlights the importance of staying true to your purpose and values, even when the journey becomes challenging.

Here is her unfiltered advice below:

• Paving the way for girls in cricket with Take Her Lead
• Starting a business is a marathon, not a sprint
• Bringing resilience from the cricket pitch into the business world
• Create an environment where everyone can thrive
• Learn that you don’t have to do everything all at once
• Highlights from running Take Her Lead
• Has woman’s cricket progressed in recent years?
• Adversity can be a motivator and a deterrent
• Having a backup plan and finding a new purpose

Paving the way for girls in cricket with Take Her Lead

Bex Burn-Callander:

Can you tell us a bit about when you first got the idea for Take Her Lead? Was it something that happened all at once, a lightning bolt or over time you realized there was a need?

Isa Guha:

I basically started Take Her Lead in my mom’s honour. So we lost her in 2019 and I knew that I wanted to do something to remember her, to recognize her.

She was a teacher herself and she worked with disadvantaged communities and with young people to help give them the confidence to go out into the wider world and go on their journeys of discovery—but in inclusive spaces.

And I knew that I also wanted to do something in cricket. And through my journey of playing, I recognized that there was still some challenges and things that needed to be addressed.

I was very fortunate that I had the support from my parents growing up to allow me to go on this journey. But I guess through COVID and when you come to the end of your playing career, you start to think of why you were one of the few.

So there’s only been 5 people from an ethnically diverse background that have played for the England Women’s Cricket team, and I was 1 of them.

So I looked back and I thought, well, actually no, there’s a strong pool of talent from a South Asian diaspora, who want to play cricket, who are girls. But they weren’t necessarily making that transition into the pathway.

And so there was still a real disconnect there. And I just kind of wanted to drill down into why that was happening and really speaking to those on the ground and in the local communities.

And it’s something my mom talked a lot to me about, around inclusivity and creating better spaces for inclusion. And one thing she did, she would learn about lots of different cultures to try and make sure that environment was as good as it could be.

And so, I basically went on this journey of trying to understand what the barriers still were. I found someone to work with to help me set this vision and basically bring it to life, which we did. And it was an amazing experience to be able to do that.

And now we have Take Her Lead, where the mission is to try and create a more inclusive environment for women and girls in cricket. But that’s bringing everyone with us on that journey. And the way we do it is through our mentorship program.

So we have a champions program, we have elite player champions who work with young girls in disadvantaged communities to help accelerate their growth and about the retention.

So they’re engaged already. And we work with charity partners to go to these different locations and where they’re playing cricket. But then we’re adding the kind of extra on top, which is that support system and that mentorship.

Bex Burn-Callander:

The sparkle.

Isa Guha:

The sparkle, the extra bit of magic, which hopefully gets them staying in cricket because what we learned was girls are coming to cricket for many different reasons, more so than boys. And so you’ve really got to try and create the best space for them to want to keep coming back and providing them with opportunities in the game that isn’t necessarily just playing.

It could be administration, it could be coaching. So that’s what we’re trying to tackle. And just help that transition become a lot smoother so that eventually we have more women in the game that feel included.

Starting a business is a marathon, not a sprint

Bex Burn-Callander:

It’s such a big mission and you did it in your mom’s name, which I imagine puts more pressure on. It must be very motivating, but a lot of pressure.

So tell me about what it felt like setting up the business. How challenging was it for you in those early months?

Isa Guha:

We’ve been a part of the Sage Business 11 competition and have just been speaking to the business owners, small business owners, and we all face similar challenges.

Which is I guess when you are the one who set it up, you feel like you need to overwork, or you need to be working at all hours of the day to make sure you’re getting to the next step.

And also, around the fact that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. So early days, I wanted it to be recognized for what it was. I wanted the branding sorted as quickly as possible so that we could go out there and tell people what we were doing.

And it has been shaped over time. It has taken time to get to where we’re at and the people we’re influencing. But really trying to get that message across and getting people to understand what we are doing, that’s been the hardest thing, I think.

Because I know what it is in my head, but it’s really that communication and sometimes you have to go around engaging the other charities or the sponsors and the people to want to donate to us.

So yeah, that has been tricky. It’s been a tricky journey.

And also what’s been, I guess fortunate from my side is that I’ve been able to meet a lot of people along the way through my sport that I’ve been able to access.

But then once you get those relationships, you can be overloaded with information. So it’s a bit like how I was when I was playing. You have lots of different coaches that you go to.

They’re all trying to change different things about you, offer you advice and you have to know what advice to take to be able to move forwards. And I think you can only do that if you have your values in place.

So we have a board and we set our values and then every decision we make is based on those values. So we might say no to a potential sponsor because it doesn’t necessarily align with our values, but we have to take that to board to make sure that everyone is on the same page with that.

And effectively there’s a vote. It does feel like more pressure because it is in my mom’s honour. And whenever I talk about it, I definitely feel a lot more vulnerable talking about it because you want it to work so much. And I think because of that there comes a pressure.

And so also that need and that impatience, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but you have to manage your own relationship with it.

And I’ve got to that place now where I was putting all of my time into it outside of my normal day job, but I’ve got to a place now where I’ve got a much better relationship with it and that everything doesn’t need to happen at once.

You are making changes, incremental changes that will help the overall picture, but that might not come for another 3 or 4 years.

Bringing resilience from the cricket pitch into the business world

Bex Burn-Callander:

And you mentioned there the fact that building partnerships, it reminded you of having all these coaches all telling you how to change different parts and you had to cherry-pick what worked.

And I love that you’ve brought one skill from cricket into your business life. Can you tell me any other skills, any other kind of soft skills or kind of competitive skills that you learned that you have found really useful in the world of business?

Isa Guha:

I think resilience comes with it because there are going to be days when you have a setback, you have a chat to someone, and they might not want to donate or invest in what you are doing. And that’s okay and you’ve got to accept that that hasn’t happened.

You can’t take it too personally and you just have to move forwards. There might be days where you haven’t quite, I don’t know, described what you want to do properly.

And then I will always evaluate that and then be able to move forward. So I did the same when I was playing as well.

I would evaluate my performance. I do it in broadcast. If I’ve had a bad day, I have to watch it back just to kind of see how bad it was. I know it’s horrible-

Bex Burn-Callander:

That’s so cruel.

Isa Guha:

It is. Stuart Broad was saying the opposite. So he was talking about a significant moment in his life where he got hit for six sixes in one over. Everyone remembers it. Yuvraj Singh took him to the cleaners.

And he said that set him on his path to becoming a greater bowler because he never watched it back. But he basically assessed why that had happened and that he wasn’t as prepared as he could have been.

And then that set him in motion to make sure he was going forwards.

When I’ve done something bad, I try and analyze it and then I’m like, okay, put it to one side and move forwards.

But you generally have a rule of 24 hours, 48 hours to just really push it to one side. Take it in, push it to one side and then go forward. So I think you’re always learning in anything that you do.

This has been a massive learning for me around charity. I mean, I’ve never worked in the charity space before. I’ve obviously been an ambassador for many, but never have I worked so acutely with one particular thing.

And it is effectively like a small business, there’s no question of that. You’re trying to build up your resources, but you can’t scale up until you have that funding.

But you can’t get that funding until you have recognized your purpose and have your branding and marketing aligned to make sure you can go out and sell whatever you’re trying to sell.

Takes good people, takes the right people.

So it’s really important to try and empower the people that you have with you but also not overwhelm them. And that’s something that I’ve learned on this journey is working as part of a team.

Everyone has different motivations and mindsets and different capabilities. How do you try and empower them to be on the journey with you and excel as a result of it?

Create an environment where everyone can thrive

Bex Burn-Callander:

It sounds almost like you’ve had to unlearn some of the things that you learn in cricket, like the impatience, the desire to win, to keep moving forward all the time.

And in fact, and especially in not-for-profit, you have to learn to be patient, take a step back, let events unfold, give someone else the chance to shine. So it feels almost like an unlearning.

Isa Guha:

That’s probably the biggest thing I’ve learned is everyone’s got a different mindset. Everyone’s got a different motivation to what makes them tick.

And when you are playing for England, you’re at a level already where you’ve had a group of people that have all come through competitive cricket and you’re all quite similarly aligned around that competitive high functioning attitude.

And actually, you have to recognize that isn’t everyone. And providing an atmosphere where people can thrive, I think is hugely important.

And just because we’re working in charity doesn’t mean that it doesn’t become competitive.

Bex Burn-Callander:

You still want to win, but you want to win the right way.

Isa Guha:

Exactly. And you have to really make sure everyone’s on board with that. And if someone is struggling, then you have to recognize it first of all, and then try and figure out ways of managing it from a support perspective.

But also, like I said, when you are a small business, everyone is taking on more than they should be and it’s making sure you’re checking in with that person.

And it’s quite easy in cricket when you’re playing at that level. You want to check in with your mates, but also they’re taking care of business and that’s all fine and you know that they will speak up if they’re struggling.

Some might not. And so again, it’s just recognizing that in a person and having that awareness to be able to kind of move it, but also maintaining that high level of intensity.

Some people can manage more than others and so again, you’ve got to recognize how that shapes and fits with what you are doing.

Because I definitely got to a point where it was intense for a long period of time along with working full-time job. And it sent me to a place where I was like, no, I need to back off now and try and find that balance.

It’s finding the right people to take it to that next level and that’s always what you’re trying to learn and be better at.

Learn that you don’t have to do everything all at once

Bex Burn-Callander:

That’s interesting that you found yourself actually building Take Her Lead and doing a full-time job at the same time. And you reached a place where it was like, this can’t go on.

Can you tell me a bit more about that and what state you were in mentally and how you came back from there? Because a lot of people talk about burnout these days. That sounds a lot like burnout.

Isa Guha:

There’s a lot of people around me who would know what that looks like. I mean, I had one of my busiest summers in work last year. I was off doing Wimbledon and a lot of cricket as well, and I had a lot of engagements around that.

But then in my spare time, I was trying to make sure the charity was being heard for what we were doing. Because it was such an important time in cricket around the release of the independent commission into equity and cricket.

And we’d learned so much from the young girls that we’d spoken to that we felt we needed to provide the message but also provide solutions, which we’d already had thoughts about, but it was being able to put it in a way that we thought, right, we can help here.

And so it just kind of all came at once. And then when you’re running a charity, you recognize that actually fundraising is very important as well.

And so when you’re trying to do both, I mean I did a fundraiser just before I went to Australia and I basically put everything I could into it because you’re trying to share responsibilities as well. A lot was driven because I wanted to do it.

And so then you take it on yourself and you have support from friends around you. But really it was a 24-hour thing. I was working around the clock for 2 weeks straight to try and bring the money in to then go, right, we can pay for this now to then move us forwards.

And I realized after that that to try and check that impatience at the door and say your health and your balance is more important for people to get the best out of you.

I went into my Australia trip being completely frazzled. Yeah, that’s exactly right. I went into that and because you’re frazzled, your job might suffer as a result of that.

And I learned that I couldn’t do that again. So I came back, took a step back, and now we have a very happy, balanced relationship with it and I think that’s great.

You don’t have to do everything at once. And that’s what I learned. It can take 3 years, it can take 5 years. As long as you’ve got a long-term strategy, you’ve got the right people around you, you can make it work.

Highlights from running Take Her Lead

Bex Burn-Callander:

It sounds like the lows when you’re building a charity can almost be as low as your experiences when things go wrong in cricket, but are the highs the same? Is there a moment, a highlight with Take Her Lead where you felt as good as like a highlight from your cricketing career?

Isa Guha:

For me, it’s just seeing the young girls that we speak to just being so invigorated and empowered by the champions coming in and speaking to them.

And you can see the smiles on their faces, you can hear it in their voices when they’re asked a question, and they get to talk about their experiences confidently and in an environment that they feel safe and included.

That for me is the best part of what we do. And when you see that, you kind of see that vision of everyone coming together. It’s really important for me to have male patrons and ambassadors as well, because they have the power to influence young women as well and for the better.

And I just feel like if everyone’s working together to get the women’s game to a place where everyone’s thriving, then I think everything will happen a lot quicker.

But also, from a South Asian point of view, I mean I was just at the Olympics and only 2% of the GB team was from a South Asian background. I know that cricket has 30% playing population of South Asians who are involved in the game.

For the women, it’s a lot less, but there isn’t that transition happening on the pathway. And so, if we could see that grow, if we could see that improve, then that would make me really, really happy.

Similar to what Ace are doing with the black community, I think there’s a greater pool of talent for young South Asian girls. Because I think they were already introduced to cricket quite early on through their backgrounds and watching in on the telly.

But having that retention and then increasing the number of young girls playing in the black community I think would be incredible.

Has woman’s cricket progressed in recent years?

Bex Burn-Callander:

Do you feel like women’s cricket has changed a lot since you were playing though? I know it might be quite hard because you’ve been involved so closely all this time, but when you look at how women are perceived or the interest in the game, do you feel that there’s been a shift already?

Isa Guha:

Yeah, there’s been a massive shift. I talk about all these things as a journey.

So when I was playing for England 2009, we were playing in the final at Lord’s and I remember being on the bus and the England men had been knocked out, but we were driving past a pub and they were promoting the men’s Pakistan-Sri Lanka game, but there was no mention of us.

And we were on before the men. And I was like, but we are an England team in the final of a World Cup.

Bex Burn-Callander:

Come on.

Isa Guha:

And we were going to be on television, and it was nowhere to be seen. And that’s when I knew that we still had a long way to go.

So that was in 2009. I would never imagine that we would have turned professional in 2014, which we did, which was brilliant.

And now we see the women’s games have gone to a whole different level. Women can get paid up to $300,000 in the IPL. It’s a 3-week competition, so things are moving forward massively at the top level. Same with the investment in England, in Australia, in India.

And that domestic standard has improved as well because of the focus on the domestic structure. Where we haven’t seen much of a change is a bit lower down. So a grassroots and first century level.

So that’s what we did with the charity in the first kind of year or so when we were forming, was speaking to lots of young girls about their experiences.

And we’re still hearing the same things that I faced, and my teammates faced 20 years ago. Being the only girl at the club, which for us, we didn’t mind it because we knew that we were part of a select few that were trying to make our way in the game.

And actually, it built our resilience by doing that and being out of our comfort zone.

But for a lot of girls, that might turn them away because they are the only girl.

Being at a club and not having any changing facilities for women, that’s still the case massively around the country.

Being made to feel other. I was lucky, I was part of a team at the High Wycombe cricket club.

I was in a boys team at 8 years old and the thing that I was worried about most was being the only girl, but the boys really supported me, and they really celebrated me.

And there would be teams that came down that we played against, the parents would be like, “I don’t want my son to play against a girl.”

And that would just kind of gee me up even more. I’d want to get their boys out. So it made me feel a lot better.

But I know that experience for a young girl might be the experience that turns them off cricket forever.

And so trying to create better environments where it’s encouraging girls to be involved I think is important. And I think there’s still a lot of work to be done in that space.

Adversity can be a motivator and a deterrent

Bex Burn-Callander:

It’s tricky though, isn’t it? Because your experiences of feeling other or kids from the other teams taking the mickey out of you, that is awful. No one should have to go through that.

But on the flip side, that’s made you a lot more resilient. It could be one of the reasons why you’ve been so successful in everything that you’ve turned your hand to. Because you were able to deal almost with other people’s expectations and just shrugged them off.

And that was a skill that you learned.

So there’s a tension there, isn’t there? Because sometimes you think a bit of adversity is good, but then at what point does too much adversity end up destroying someone’s chances or opportunities?

Isa Guha:

Yeah, absolutely. At the same time, I think it would increase the numbers of girls who want to come and play cricket if it was more inclusive. And that’s what I’ve had to learn as well since playing.

I think we all live in our bubble where we say yes, it needs to be competitive, you need to have setbacks to be able to be on your journey and be able to survive. But to increase the numbers of girls coming to the sport, I think it does need to be more inclusive.

And so I was part of that team and it was more about being the only girl rather than being the only girl of British Indian origin. We had British Pakistanis and British white boys on the team.

 And because my parents didn’t see any problems with that, no one else did. And I think, so that level of support was really important for me.

Because I do wonder sometimes why I’ve been one of the few to get through. And for a lot of British Indian girls, sometimes it might be a cultural barrier that their parents don’t want them to be getting involved playing with the boys.

So then there needs to be an area or a place where they can go, where they feel included, where they can go with their mates, and they feel supported.

And then it’s how do we take that next step? And that’s a 2-way thing. You need the coaches to be really supportive and understanding and the environment to be as good as it can be.

Having a backup plan and finding a new purpose

Bex Burn-Callander:

And cricket careers are notoriously quite short. So at what point when you were playing and smashing it, I mean, your whole attention must’ve been on the game, but was there a point where you were thinking, I need to start planning for what comes next.

I need to start thinking about my plan B.

Obviously, you settled on this amazing idea and mission and Take Her Lead was born, but was there stuff kind of going on along before that where you were thinking what next?

Isa Guha:

I think I’ve always been someone who really enjoys different experiences. And when I was on this journey with England, it was honestly the most incredible journey to people.

People always ask me, do you wish you played in this era? I’m like, no, I didn’t have any of this social media to deal with. We could make all our mistakes and everything off TV and off camera. And it was a really special team.

We went from being pretty average in 2002. We couldn’t beat Australia, sometimes beat New Zealand to becoming the best team in the world in 2009.

And that was the most incredible experience I could have been part of, to do that with that group of people. That will last forever. It was something that stuck with me.

And whenever we’re in the room together, it’s like, we did that. That’s amazing. But that was always the focus was just making ourselves a better team.

I was still at uni then. I was at school when I first started playing for England. I then went to uni. Because I knew I needed a backup. Because I was only amateur or we were only semi-professional back then.

So I kind of knew I needed to have a backup. So I did that, did the thesis, and then I had a decision to make.

After 2009, we became the best team in the world, achieved everything, One Day World Cup, T-20 World Cup, whitewash the Aussies in the Ashes. Literally couldn’t have gone any better.

And at that point I was like, okay, we’ve completed it, what’s next?

And I just finished uni and I was like, okay, what am I going to do in my life? I’m not earning money playing cricket. What do I want to do?

And I decided at that point that I wanted to keep making myself a better cricketer and to be part of a team, to become like an Australian team that had been dominant for a good 5, 6 years.

And winning after winning is hard. So that was the challenge that I set myself, but I also still needed a backup. So I decided to do a part-time PhD, and that kind of set me on my next journey.

And then it got to a point when I was retiring that I was ready for the next step. So I’d started to do a bit of broadcasting, that was giving me a different experience and I was earning money from it. And it felt like a natural progression for me.

So in life, there were some people that live and breathe cricket, Jimmy Anderson being one of them. Charlotte Edwards, who’s gone on to become a coach for really successful teams, they would live and breathe cricket.

But I always needed something else just as a backup. I never wanted to have all my eggs in one basket. And so yeah, that’s why I guess I’ve gone into broadcast.

But now I’m being challenged in different ways with the charity, which is what I really wanted to do. That was my purpose because losing your mom or losing anyone in your life, is quite significant and it can have a huge impact on your mental headspace and what you think life is for.

And so that became my next purpose.

Inspired by this business story?

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You can find out more about Isa on her Instagram or LinkedIn.

You can learn more about Take Her Lead on their website and Instagram.