Be scared and do it anyway

Creating belonging in the unknown

When leadership demands you build what doesn't exist

This conversation with Marne Fechner, CEO of AusCycling, speaks to one of leadership's fundamental truths: it meets you exactly where you are, and then it doesn't leave you where it found you.

It will reveal who you are and then ask you to choose who it is you wish to become.

Eighteen months into one of the biggest leadership challenges in Australian sport, Marne Fechner faced this uncomfortable truth about herself.

"Be scared and do it anyway. Be underqualified and get in the room anyway."

Her leadership credo perfectly captures the courage required to lead AusCycling through the largest governance reform in Australian sport.

But even with that courage, Marne faced a personal leadership challenge that would test everything she believed about authenticity and her sense of belonging.

"As the leader of the organisation, I didn't feel like I belonged," she tells me. It's a raw admission from someone leading Australia's largest participation sport, who presents with such calmness and composure.

"If I was going to lead this team through the biggest transformation that it needed to, I had to take some responsibility for that and stop being on the outside."

When leadership reveals who you are

For over twenty years, netball had been Marne's professional home. She knew "every aspect of the sport." Cycling demanded something entirely different. Despite being brought in specifically because she had no embedded allegiance to any of the nineteen disciplines, her very strength became her greatest challenge.

"I needed to reshape the way I would sit in that room and be the CEO," she reflects. "Sometimes I still don't feel comfortable because I wish I could have that technical conversation as well."

The competitor's courage

Marne's "be scared and do it anyway" philosophy didn't only emerge from her CEO and commercial experiences - it was forged as an athlete. "I think sport gave me the space to really explore that from a really young age," she reflects. "When you're learning new skills and even contemplating ambition, pushing yourself was part of that."

Her athletic background as a netballer taught her something essential about growth: "I learned pretty quickly that unless I got myself into uncomfortable situations, I probably wasn't going to move forward." Her competitor's mindset - the willingness to step into spaces that are "really uncomfortable" - became her leadership foundation.

"I am a competitor, but probably to a point," she says. "Sometimes competition and pushing goes too far." The wisdom lies in knowing when to push and when to bring others along: "You can just get too far out in front and leave people behind."

The mechanics and dynamics of transformation

Change requires nuance. Marne distinguishes between the "mechanics" - structural changes needed to unify nineteen organisations - and the "dynamics" - the human transformation that makes unity possible.

Such understanding is so important.

"The mechanics were certainly the first three or four years," she explains. "How do we actually meld nineteen ways of working into one? How do we reset culture?"

The mechanics meant new governance structures, unified systems, and clear reporting lines across all disciplines. But mechanics alone never guarantee success. The breakthrough came when she gave herself "permission to actually say and openly talk about belonging and the fact that I was uncomfortable. If I could actually admit that and say that, then we could actually talk and have a genuine conversation about that. And that's when shifts happen."

The dynamics - the trust, the relationships, the shared sense of purpose - only emerged when vulnerability entered the conversation.

Here's an excellent lesson for CEOs and leaders. You won't get good dynamics unless you get the mechanics right, but good mechanics will not guarantee the right dynamics.

The leader's practice

What strikes me most about Marne's journey is her willingness to do the work that leadership demands. When belonging became an issue, she didn't wait for it to resolve itself.

"Sometimes I look in the mirror and say, put your big girl pants on, Marne, and get on with it," she laughs. "Because it's not gonna shift until you take control of it."

Leadership consciousness in action - understanding what the role expects of you and rising to meet it, even when it asks you to become someone you haven't been before.

Notebook ready.

Play on!