Why the best sport leaders today might be the most "in-different"

Would you be surprised if we told you that to successfully deliver the Brisbane 2032 Summer Olympics, we will need in-different leaders?

No, it’s not a typo. In fact, just the opposite.

An indifferent leader means to stand in-difference. To be able to hold tensions—between opposing perspectives, competing priorities or irreconcilable expectations—without rushing to resolve them. 

It’s about staying present in discomfort long enough to allow deeper, more creative solutions to emerge. It’s one of the hardest things to do as a leader, but also one of the most important—especially in today’s complex, high-stakes sporting landscape.

The idea comes from Paolo Quattrone, Professor of Accounting, Governance and Society at Alliance Manchester Business School. Quattrone describes in-difference as a space of productive tension. Instead of collapsing into binary choices, great leaders can hold that middle ground—not as a compromise, but as a space for insight, innovation and real change.

Holding tension, however, isn’t just about managing conflict or navigating competing stakeholder interests. It’s also about opening up space for creativity. Holding space is an act of leadership that enables not only better decisions but new ways of thinking. In other words, holding space isn't passive. It's generative.

We’ve seen this kind of in-difference leadership play out on the global stage. Take Adam Silver, Commissioner of the NBA. In 2020, when players protested racial injustice during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, Silver didn’t shut things down. Nor did he unilaterally champion one side. 

Instead, he held the space—supporting players’ right to protest while engaging with owners, sponsors, and fans who had differing views. The result wasn’t perfect, but it was transformative: games paused, social justice funds were established, and courts were branded with “Black Lives Matter.” It all happened because leadership chose to stand in the middle, not above or outside the tension.

This kind of leadership is increasingly being described in business and psychology circles as paradoxical leadership. Instead of either/or choices, leaders are encouraged to embrace the “messy middle”—balancing short-term pressures with long-term goals, stability with innovation, and commercial outcomes with community purpose. Sport, perhaps more than any other sector, is defined by paradox. And the leaders who thrive are those who embrace it—not eliminate it.

Which brings us back to Brisbane 2032.

After months of uncertainty, the recent 100-day review delivered a clearer picture: the Gabba is out, Victoria Park is in, and planning is back on track—for now. But beneath that clarity sit complex and unresolved tensions likely to demand exactly the kind of in-different leadership we’re talking about.

Chief among them? The decision to push events out beyond Brisbane, into sites across regional Queensland. On paper, it’s an inspired move—helping ensure these Games are held for and benefit all of Queensland, not just the southeast corner. 

The 100-day report ticked boxes on inclusion, legacy and economic uplift. But in practice, this de-centralised model may drive up delivery costs, complicate logistics, affect athlete experience and create travel headaches for fans and tourists.

Sound familiar? It should. The decision to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games across multiple regional hubs was one of the factors that led the Victorian government to withdraw—citing skyrocketing costs. The 2026 Commonwealth Games will now be hosted in Glasgow, but Victoria’s withdrawal sent shockwaves through Australia’s sport system and its lessons loom large over Brisbane 2032’s planning efforts.

There will be many more tensions that will require leaders to stand in-difference. One of the most pressing—and absent from the recent review—is the need for respectful, authentic and sustained engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. While the announcement emphasised broadening the Games across Queensland, we must not lose sight of the original bid’s vision: Brisbane 2032 will serve all of Oceania. There are many more.

What kind of leadership is needed now?

Not the kind that rushes to sell certainty. Not the kind that doubles down on a single narrative. Instead, the International Olympic Committee, Australian Olympic Committee and Queensland Government will need visionaries willing to stand in-difference—to hold the space between competing imperatives and counterintuitively invite solutions that don’t yet exist. That kind of leadership is about possibility, not posture. It takes courage, patience and a healthy dose of humility.

If we get it right, Brisbane 2032 won’t just deliver great Games—they will produce a business school case study in modern leadership. And having been built in an age defined by complexity, contradiction and rapid change, in-difference might stand out as the most important leadership skill detailed.