What Do Women Need to Thrive in High-Performance Environments?
- 7 hours ago
- 6 min read
Written by Dawn Sanders, Performance Coach
Dawn Sanders, Director of WinWell, is a trusted and respected Performance lifestyle. Wellbeing, career, and transition coach, having worked in elite sport for over 20 years.
Having worked across multiple high-performance systems over the past two decades, supporting everyone from elite athletes to senior leaders, I am often asked whether women have different needs in these environments.
While many of the themes discussed here transcend gender, it feels to me that certain patterns consistently emerge when I have supported women striving to perform and succeed at the highest level. I know that creating this understanding of these patterns has helped me as a manager, leader, and coach, and I hope it can help other organisations and teams create environments where women can truly thrive.
A vision bigger than performance
Women in elite environments often carry a vision that extends beyond personal success. Many are driven by the desire to grow their sport, profession, or industry in ways that create lasting impact for future generations.
In sport, particularly, women frequently talk about legacy: inspiring young girls, creating pathways that did not exist before them, and building environments where families feel welcome and safe. The atmosphere at women’s sporting events often reflects this, with community-focused, inclusive, and designed to be accessible to a wide audience.
This broader sense of purpose can be an enormous strength. When women believe their work contributes to something bigger than themselves, their commitment and drive can be extraordinary. Having women around the table to establish this vision means this wider view and more sustainable lens to performance can be far more effectively explored.
The “selfishness” paradox of high performance
High performance often requires an intense level of focus. Long hours, demanding schedules, travel commitments, and mental energy can leave little room for anything else. For some women, I have supported this, which can create an internal conflict. Society has historically positioned women in caring roles, looking after children, family members, pets and loved ones. Pursuing excellence can therefore sometimes feel selfish, even when it is necessary for success. Many women wrestle with questions such as “Am I neglecting people who rely on me?” “Is it OK to prioritise my own ambitions?” “How do I balance ambition with responsibility?”, or “Should I be travelling around the world still when I have a family to care for?” Creating spaces where these tensions can be openly discussed is critical. When women feel safe to explore these complexities without judgement, they can navigate them and put strategies to manage it with greater confidence and clarity.
The need to be heard and valued
A recurring theme across high-performing women is the desire to feel heard, valued, and connected. Women often want to talk about their experiences, challenges, and perspectives not simply as performers but as whole people. They want environments where their voices are respected and their contributions acknowledged. Creating psychological safety plays a vital role here. In environments where women feel safe to celebrate successes, express concerns, share ideas, and speak honestly about their experiences, trust grows. With trust comes stronger teams, deeper collaboration, and better performance outcomes.
The power of connection
Connection is a fundamental part of thriving in high-performance teams. Women often emphasise the importance of trusting the people around them, their coaches, managers, teammates, and colleagues. Knowing that others have their back can make the difference between surviving in a high-pressure environment and flourishing within it. Strong relationships also enable better communication, improved problem-solving, and more effective support during challenging periods. Usually, the points are when cultures depend on women to step in and step up to meet these challenges.
The reality of financial inequality
Despite the rapid growth of women’s sport with record attendance figures, rising broadcast audiences, and huge social media engagement, financial parity has not yet been achieved.
For example, in England’s Women’s Super League (WSL), a new salary structure introduced in recent seasons ensures a minimum salary of around £40,000 for players aged 23 and over, though many players still earn less depending on age and contract structure.
This means that even elite athletes breaking ground with professional contracts often cannot sustain a long-term lifestyle solely on their sporting income. As a result, women need to think about life beyond sport much earlier in their careers than many of their male counterparts. Encouraging career development conversations and plans to action alongside performance is therefore essential. When athletes are supported in developing future career pathways during their playing careers, the benefits to wellbeing, confidence, and performance can be profound and the ability to transition beyond performance teams is enhanced.
Recognising and articulating strengths
One challenge I have seen, and personally faced, by many elite performers, especially women, is recognising and articulating their own strengths. You might expect that individuals who have competed on the world stage would easily be able to explain their value in a CV or interview. Yet many struggle with exactly this. A common mindset is "I just get on and do it, it’s nothing special." Qualities such as empathy, kindness, emotional intelligence, and the ability to manage complex interpersonal dynamics are sometimes overlooked as strengths. Yet these capabilities are enormously valuable in leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving. Helping women recognise and articulate these strengths is transformative. When women truly understand and can express the value they bring, their confidence and impact can grow significantly, personally and within teams.
When women commit, they commit wholeheartedly
Once women decide that a high-performance career is the path they want to pursue, their commitment is often total. Historically, women have had to overcome social expectations and structural barriers to reach elite environments. As a result, many arrive with an extraordinary level of determination. When women choose to pursue excellence, they often bring deep passion, lived resilience, a relentless work ethic, and a strong commitment to improvement for people, performance, and cultures. Harnessing this energy and pointing it in the right direction requires environments that nurture, support, and sustain these superpowers.
The risk of burnout
High-performing women are often generous with their time and energy. They mentor others, contribute to community initiatives, and frequently say yes to opportunities that allow them to give back. This generosity, whilst genuine and meaningful, can increase the risk of burnout. Olympic champion Lizzie Yarnold has spoken about this challenge among high-performing women in my podcast with her: “High performers often want to give back, to mentor, inspire, and support others, but if you’re not careful, constantly saying yes can stretch you to the point of burnout.”
Without strong self-care structures and supportive leadership, the pressure to perform, contribute, and lead can, for some, become overwhelming when managing all of this alongside life and career commitments, so regular coaching conversations are imperative to facilitate discussions around life and career load.
Leadership that enables women to thrive
The most effective high-performance environments recognise that people do not operate in isolation. Work impacts life, and life impacts work. Leaders who truly support women in these environments tend to care about the whole person, encourage open conversations about challenges, support career development and aspirations beyond current roles, help individuals recognise their strengths, create psychologically safe cultures, promote sustainable performance, not burnout. Great leaders also act as advocates and cheerleaders, helping women see strengths they may struggle to recognise themselves. I know I have personally gained and valued having amazing women as my boss during my time in high performance who’s positive impact will live with me for a lifetime.
Finding a voice in high-performance spaces
Early in my own career, finding my voice in high-performance environments was not always easy. There were moments as the only woman in a room when my contribution was questioned, and it required reflection, courage, and conversation to truly understand what impact looked like. Over time, I learned that my strengths lie in building relationships, truly listening, developing people, being the best coach and person I can be, and communicating people and performance insight in ways that connect people to meaning. And from that, I knew I had the need to represent a voice that wasn’t yet around the table and needed to be heard. That journey reinforced an important lesson that environments must actively create space for women to speak, share ideas, and contribute with confidence. When women feel respected and heard, their perspectives can significantly strengthen performance systems.
Supporting women to thrive
Women in high-performance environments do not necessarily need fundamentally different systems. But they do benefit from environments that recognise the realities they navigate.
They need:
Leaders who care about the whole person
Opportunities to talk openly about challenges
Inspirational and aspiration planning alongside performance development
Recognition of their strengths and contributions
Psychological safety within teams
Sustainable approaches to performance and wellbeing
When these structures exist, the results can be extraordinary. Because when women feel supported, valued, and empowered in high-performance environments, they don’t just succeed, they help redefine what excellence looks like. If you would like any further information on how you can enhance the power of women in your high-performance environment, please contact Dawn Sanders.
Read more from Dawn Sanders
Dawn Sanders, Performance Coach
Dawn Sanders is a leader in coaching the lifestyle, wellbeing, career development, and transitions needs of elite performers, having supported Great Britain's Olympic and Paralympic athletes for over 20 years. She is passionate about developing the person behind the performer to enable them to thrive in high-pressure, high-risk, high-reward environments.
