Can leaders switch industries?

Steve Jobs did it with Pixar and Apple, Elon Musk does it with Space X and Tesla and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has done it with Square.

These are high profile US leaders who have switched industries and continued to develop successful and valuable companies.  However, it is rare with most leaders remaining in one particular sector and from a recruitment perspective industry credentials often ranking higher than transferable leadership capabilities.

I personally think that leaders can and should switch industries.  I have personally done it in my career moving from medical devices to diagnostic services to now venture capital and we have a successful leader in our current portfolio who has proven themselves time and time again in different industries. 

I think many of the principles of business and principles of leadership are completely transferable and the specific industry expertise can be easily complimented. One could argue that it can be beneficial to have no preconceived thoughts and instead learning afresh from the most important industry experts – speaking to customers!

Gareth Southgate wrote an interesting piece on Linkedin this week, where he hinted that his next leadership role may be outside of football. Time will tell whether he meant remaining in sport or in other areas of business or charitable activities.

In sport, it is actually very rare for leaders to change sport.  I know Pep Guardiola has taken influence from other sports such as Basketball but I doubt he would ever be in the running to take over leading a team.  Dave Brailsford has done it moving from cycling to now an overall leadership role with Ineos sport being involved with sailing, F1 and football that includes Manchester United. Clive Woodward also moved from a successful Rugby career as World Cup winning England manager to be Director of Sport for Team GB at the Olympics as well as a short period as Performance Director with Southampton FC, but I can’t think of many other examples.  Even in the case of Brailsford and Woodward it is senior board roles as opposed to actually running the underlying teams.

In terms of transferable leadership competencies, I know Southgate worked closely with Owen Eastwood during his time at England and applied many of his principles and made reference in his article where purpose was very important to him.  Eastwood is the author of a great book called “Belonging”.  Drawing on his personal experiences and professional expertise as a performance coach, Eastwood presents a compelling case for why fostering a sense of belonging is essential in high-performing teams and organisations.

He gives many examples including the New Zealand All Blacks (Eastwood is a Kiwi) with the key themes driving belonging being cultural connection, psychological safety, and a shared purpose. 

All companies and sports teams fundamentally are groups of people and by recognising the human need for connection and to nurture it, I think it is a cornerstone of success which can transfer across industries and we should encourage it more.

As always I would value your thoughts on this and any personal experience you have switching industries.