From Deloitte CEO to WNBA commissioner: Inside Cathy Engelbert’s daily routine

Fortune

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert doesn’t rely on caffeine to get her through an often action-packed day–like the WNBA playoffs happening right now.

Transcript

00:00I got a call from a former colleague at Deloitte who's now the head of the NBA

00:03basketball league operations and he said I have the perfect job for you

00:07commissioner of the WNBA and you know what I said to him? No. I said I know

00:11nothing about running a sports league and this is what we as women in the

00:15workforce cannot do is like automatically assume we can't do

00:18something. So as I thought about it he kept on me for like three months and

00:22he's like Kathy you don't understand this is the job for you. So he said just

00:26come over and talk with people at the league office for one hour and I walked

00:30over got off the elevator basketballs everywhere my father was actually

00:34drafted into the NBA in 1957 played against Wilt Chamberlain there were

00:38pictures of Wilt Chamberlain and of course I grew up Michael Jordan and

00:41Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and there were pictures and basketballs and logos of

00:45both WNBA teams and NBA teams everywhere and I was mesmerized so that's how I

00:49ended up as the commissioner of the WNBA. Hi I'm Kathy Engelbert commissioner of

00:54the WNBA. 59 years old and this is my daily routine. I typically wake up

00:59around 7 a.m. I think the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning a lot

01:02of people say look at their phone. I try to have that not be the first thing I do

01:07in the morning. Honestly probably brush my teeth and then jump in the shower

01:10and then I come out and look at my phone so kind of gives me this little respite

01:14in the morning when I wake up and then it's like okay now let me look at

01:17everything that happened overnight. No one day is the same. I have two kids so

01:21spend some time with the kids sometimes have breakfast sometimes not. I used to

01:25be a big breakfast person oatmeal, dried cherries, raisins, things like that, brown

01:30sugar and now I kind of just have a protein bar in the morning on a banana

01:34and then have a big lunch and obviously I have a lot of lunches and dinners in

01:38this role so I focus more on a big lunch than than a big breakfast these days. One

01:42thing people don't know about me never had a cup of coffee so I do not drink

01:45caffeine in the morning. I am a huge water consumer. A lot of water keeps me

01:50going. We're based in New York City. I live in northern New Jersey so I have

01:53quite the commute in the morning. Sometimes I commute into New York City

01:56with my son who just joined the workforce in September. In the morning

02:00the commute into New York City from northern New Jersey can take about an

02:04hour and a half some days to way home. 45 minutes, 50 minutes so much easier to

02:10get home than to get in. The time of day I usually get to the office is usually

02:13somewhere between 830 and 9. That was one thing that coming from the corporate

02:17world the first day of work you got in really early when you were in the

02:20corporate world you were trying to beat the traffic the commute and you had

02:22meetings. Sports because there's so many games and so many things at nights and

02:26weekends. First day that I started I think I got in at 730 and no one got

02:30into about nine o'clock so so now I get in usually I aim to get in 839 if I

02:35don't otherwise have a meeting scheduled early morning. And then it's really just

02:39meetings all day meeting with potential corporate partners meeting with my team.

02:43We're embarking on a huge transformation of the WNBA so we have a lot going on

02:49globalization expansion getting ready for our all-star game is a very busy

02:54time as well as we prepare to celebrate the best athletes in the world in women's

02:58basketball at our all-star game but actually preparing already for next

03:02year's all-star game so we're having meetings on a variety of things like

03:05that meeting with our owners our Board of Governors so that's all jam-packed in

03:09the day so I'm kind of just you know always focused on lunch whether it's

03:14with one of my team members whether it's with a potential corporate partner

03:17whether it's with just a it gives me the opportunity to network I usually take a

03:21couple block walk from our office and go to lunch. I actually put on my calendar

03:26SMOR small moments of recovery usually over the lunch hour I need to get out

03:32and whether I'm if I'm working from home I go for a walk and then have lunch when

03:35I get back. The afternoons are usually filled with meetings with my team on

03:38emerging issues again planning for tentpole events like our all-star game

03:43our Commissioner Cup championship also you know every once in a while I have

03:47calls with media partners corporate partners you know a lot of zoom

03:51definitely post pandemic a lot of zoom calls but also a lot of meetings in the

03:55office our office is very cool it's got a lot of background with basketballs and

04:00players and current players and our retired players murals on the wall so

04:03it's cool people love to come in our office and see all the basketball

04:07related themes. Usually I try to leave six-ish because I know I'm gonna be

04:13watching games and the interesting thing about sports to me after 30 plus

04:17years in the business corporate world you work nights and weekends because all

04:20your games are nights and weekends I try to get home at a reasonable hour so I

04:24leave at 6 get home 7 730 have dinner with the kids. My thoughts on work-life

04:28balance I used to call it work-life integration because when you have the

04:32career I had before I got to the WNBA as the CEO of Deloitte and I had two kids

04:36and raising two kids it was integrating them into part of my work because

04:41especially with technology today following us everywhere and our devices

04:45it was important to me to call it work-life integration I included my kids

04:48in a lot of things one of my kids is coming to the WNBA all-star game and

04:52we'll have a ton of fun you know interacting there but it is important

04:57and it's important to be a role model for young women and men in the workforce

05:00today to make sure they're seeing some of that balance and that integration and

05:04how you can turn some work things into fun things with the family as well.

05:08I wind down routine right before I'm about to go to bed is disconnect from

05:12devices because we're always looking at our devices whether I'm big you know

05:16whether it's my iPad whether it's my iPhone I'm usually watching some

05:20business show you know when I first get home then sports and then at the very

05:24end of the night I turn on friends so every night I set the sleep timer on my

05:29TV whether I'm on the road in a hotel or whether I'm at home I actually like

05:32like the ambient noise of a TV in the background to get me to fall asleep.

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