In operation since 2014, Pendulum Summit is a world-class business and self-empowerment summit that invites some of the best and brightest minds of business, leadership, and culture to share their greatest learnings and insights under one roof.
Taking place at Dublin's Convention Centre, this year's event boasts a number of high-profile keynote speakers including Olympic champion Michael Johnson, performance guru Dr. Joe Vitale, race car driver Susie Wolff, and renowned football coach and expert Lisa Fallon.
After her talk, we caught up with Fallon to discuss being the odd one out, normalising change and overcoming biases.
As the first ever female to be a head coach in professional men's football, in Ireland and the UK, as well as the first female football panelist on national TV to cover men's international and champions league matches and a number of other "firsts" in sport, Fallon has grown accustomed to being the figure that either creates or represents change.
In her talk, she recalled being mistaken for a team's physio or the travel agent on an overseas trip, biases she said were challenges to be overcome in their own right.
"The first thing is to have the self awareness and understand the environment that you're in because there can be subconscious biases people have just based on the fact that people haven't had a female in that environment before", she said.
"I think you have to respect that too. At the end of the day you're dealing with people and you need to make sure that your integration doesn't affect the performance environment."
Aside from these unconscious biases, Fallon said she was "also conscious that sometimes the comments or the little challenges you got, they were designed to actually derail you or put you off", instances that she had to learn to navigate differently.
While on the Pendulum stage, she said "being different is uncomfortable". When asked how she persevered through those moments of isolation, she said: "It's the belief that you get from the people around you.
Great to chat sport, and women in sport with @Susie_Wolff @clancylisa at @PendulumSummit https://t.co/jkgUEP5WBo
— Lisa Fallon (@lisafallonsport) January 25, 2023
"You're just focusing on doing your job. You've a job to do, do it! That can often be a really good way of steering yourself and not worrying about the side issues."
She also said to lean into the vulnerability of it, especially when you're the catalyst for change in an environment that's new to you.
"In order to have growth in any environment, whether it's for yourself, for your team, for the people you're working with in your business, wherever it is, growth always needs a level of vulnerability because it needs something new or something different.
"If you can understand that as a leader ... you also learn for yourself you need to experience it at times for yourself, but that very quickly it will change and it becomes normal."
Seismic change comes from small actions repeated over time, she said, adding that "those little 1% margins" are what eventually stack up.
"You might not feel them or see the change or the difference of the results at the start but committing to it every day, over time it does create a seismic shift and not just in you or your teams, the players you work with or your staff that you work with. It can affect society as well.
"The more people see women in sport, the more it will change and the more normal it'll become."
As for what unique skills she feels she brings to coaching and sport leadership as a woman, Fallon said "empathy".
"I think caring about your players. It's not a weakness, because you have to reach your players as people first. I think it's really important to be who you are, be authentic.
"I'm not afraid of being a woman and I know I have slight differences to men. And it's not to say that male coaches aren't caring because they absolutely are. I do feel that sometimes players will come and confide in you and talk to you about things that they might not feel comfortable speaking to one of the lads about, because it can be quite a macho environment.
"You do bring something different and, as I say, something different can be a strength."
To find out how we can create change through perseverance and small changes, watch our interview with Lisa Fallon back above.
