Sue Fontannaz has 25 years of social entrepreneurial experience living through the highs and lows of leading teams in the turbulent media industry in South Africa.  This included a company buy out and reporting to the board of a public company.  She has extensive team-coaching experience for public companies (DeBeers, Deloitte, Discovery, Old Mutual and Graduate Schools of Business (UCT, NMMU) and as a lecturer for final year MBA students (Leading at the Edge week long elective, University of Stellenbosch Business School).

Sue Fontannaz’s focus with her work for Mission Performance is on leadership as a team sport, drawing upon research from both the sporting and organisational contexts. A keen rower and sailor she met Mission Performance through her coaching research and as a competitor on the Clipper round the World Yacht Race.

Her research explored the Growth mind-set and the relationship between team alignment, well-being and team performance. She has a Professional Doctorate in Coaching and Mentoring and this combined with her impressive coaching experience enables her to deliver powerful and informed learning experiences.

‘I realise that we learn best when we experience ideas that are supported with rigorous evidence – there’s nothing as practical as good theory experienced.’

Her ongoing research focus includes designing creative spaces that engage leaders to challenge their thinking, leadership as a team sport, building high performance teams that generate well-being and confident growth mind-sets, coaching, leadership development and experiential learning as a critical leadership “edge”.

This includes the pioneering use of rowing as a developmental tool.

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