Peggy O'Neil, CEO AFL

Almost 100,000 people roared with delight at Richmond’s drought-breaking AFL grand final win as superstar Dustin Martin made his way around the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the team’s celebratory lap of honour.

Martin, who had been named the best player of the match and winner of the Brownlow Medal for the AFL’s best and fairest earlier that week, was surrounded by photographers and victorious teammates.

But he pushed past the mob to embrace Richmond’s president, Peggy O’Neal, a diminutive superannuation lawyer and former Freehills partner who was born in a small US coalmining town. As he hugged her, he whispered: “I told you we would win.”

Read how a women in her Sixties influenced a team of men to work together to win!

O’Neal, who moved to Melbourne in the early 1990s, grins as she proudly recounts the story to BOSS. That afternoon on September 29 she had become the first Richmond president in 37 years to watch the team win a premiership.

Behind the scenes, Richmond has been transformed using leadership techniques gleaned from around the world; it has stayed strong and been patient in the face of heavy criticism from fans and past players, and stuck to a plan that empowered its staff, coaches and players to win the biggest prize in their sport.

After O’Neal became chairman in 2013, the club made headlines for infighting and the ruthless sacking of coaches. But over the past four years, it has embraced mindfulness, meditation and an authentic leadership style with the aim of finding a purpose higher than simply winning football games.“We have this thing before a match, I will ask [Martin] if we’ll win, and he will say something like, ‘Oh 100 per cent we will,’ or ‘We’ll be singing the club song this week, Peggy.’

Read more of this interesting story here.