Name: From Deloitte CEO to WNBA commissioner: Inside Cathy Engelbert’s daily routine
Uploaded: 2024-09-23
Duration: 5 min 37 s
Description: 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.

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.

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

Features

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert's daily routine never slows down— even during WNBA playoffs.

 From Deloitte CEO to WNBA Commissioner: Day in the Life with Cathy Engelbert 

I got a call from a former colleague at Deloitte who's now the head of the NBA basketball League operations. And he said I have the perfect job for you, commissioner of the W NBA. And you know what I said to him? No, I know nothing about running a sports league. And this is what we as women in the workforce cannot do is like automatically assume we can't do something. So as I thought about it, he kept on me for like three months and he's like, Cathy, you don't understand this is the job for you. So he said just come over and talk with people at the league office for one hour and I walked over, got off the elevator basketball everywhere. My father was actually drafted into the NBA in 1957 played against Wilt Chamberlain. There were pictures of Wilt Chamberlain and of course, I grew up with Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. And there were pictures and basketballs and logos of both W NBA teams and NBA teams everywhere. And I was mesmerized. So that's how I ended up as the commissioner of the W NBA. Hi, I'm Kathy Engelbert, commissioner of the W NBA 59 years old. And this is my daily routine. I typically wake up around seven ami. I think the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning, a lot of people say, look at their phone, I try to have that not be the first thing I do in the morning. Honestly, probably brush my teeth and then jump in the shower and then I come out and look at my phone. So it kind of gives me this little respite in the morning when I wake up and then it's like, ok, now let me look at everything that happened overnight. No, one day is the same. I have two kids. So spend some time with the kids sometimes have breakfast. Sometimes not. I used to be a big breakfast person, oatmeal, cherries, raisins, things like that, brown sugar. And now I kind of just have a protein bar in the morning on a banana and then have a big lunch. And obviously I have a lot of lunches and dinners in this roll. So I focus more on a big lunch than a big breakfast these days. One thing people don't know about me never had a cup of coffee. So I do not drink caffeine in the morning. I am a huge water consumer. A lot of water keeps me going. We're based in New York City. I live in northern New Jersey, so I have quite the commute in the morning. Sometimes I keep commute into New York City with my son who just joined the workforce in September in the morning, the commute into New York City from northern New Jersey can take about an hour and a half some days to way home. 45 minutes, 50 minutes. So much easier to get home than to get in the time of day. I usually get to. The office is usually somewhere between 839. That was one thing that coming from the corporate world. The first day of work you got in really early when you were in the corporate world, you were trying to beat the traffic. The commute had meetings, sports because there's so many games and so many things at nights and weekends. First day that I started, I think I got in at 730 no one got in until about nine o'clock. So, so now I get in, usually I aim to get in 839 if I don't otherwise have a meeting, scheduled early morning. And then it's really just meetings all day, meeting with potential corporate partners, meeting with my team. We're embarking on a huge transformation of the W NBA. So we have a lot going on globalization expansion. Getting ready for our All Star Game is a very busy time as well as we prepare to celebrate the best athletes in the world in women's basketball at our All Star game. But actually preparing already for next year's All Star game. So we're having meetings on a variety of things like that, meeting with our owners, our board of governors. So that's all jam packed in the day. So I'm kind of just, you know, always focused on lunch, whether it's with one of my team members, whether it's with a potential corporate partner, whether it's with just a, it gives me the opportunity to network. I usually take a couple block walk from our office and go to lunch. I actually put on my calendar s more smor small moments of recovery. Usually over the lunch hour, I need to get out. And whether I'm, if I'm working from home, I go for a walk and then have lunch when I get back. The afternoons are usually filled with meetings with my team on emerging issues. Again, planning for 10 pole events like our All Star game or Commissioner cup championship. Um Also, you know, every once in a while I have calls with media partners, corporate partners, you know, a lot of zoom definitely post pandemic, a lot of zoom calls, but also a lot of meetings in the office. Our office is very cool. It's got a lot of background with basketballs and players and current players and our retired players murals on the wall. So it's cool. People love to come in our office and, and see all the basketball related themes. Usually I try to leave sixish um because I know I'm going to be watching games. And the interesting thing about sports to me after 30 plus years in the business corporate world, you work nights and weekends because all your games are nights and weekends. I try to get home at a reasonable hour. So I leave at six, get home, +77 30 have dinner with the kids. My thoughts on work life balance. I used to call it work life integration because when you have the career I had before I got to the W NBA as the CEO of Deloitte and I had two kids and raising two kids. It was integrating them into part of my work because especially with technology today, following us everywhere and our devices, it was important to me to call it work life integration. I included my kids in a lot of things. One of my kids is coming to the W NBA All Star Game and um we'll have a ton of fun, you know, interacting there. But it is important and it's important to be a role model for young women and men in the workforce today to make sure they're seeing some of that balance and that integration and how you can turn some work things into fun things with the family as well. My wind down routine right before I'm about to go to bed is disconnect from devices because we're always looking at our devices, whether I'm big, you know, whether it's my ipad, whether it's my, my iphone, I'm usually watching some business. So, you know, when I first get home, then sports and then at the very end of the night I turn on friends. And so every night I set the sleep timer on my TV, whether I'm on the road in a hotel or whether I'm at home, I, I actually like, like the ambient noise of a TV in the background to get me to fall asleep.