This week, I had the pleasure of playing golf and reconnecting with my former teammate, Alexia Heist. [Re]connecting through golf is one of the reasons this sport is so much fun. When Alexia and I walked onto the course, it seemed like no time had passed, and our competitive nature and team spirit came alive once again.
During our time at Texas Christian University (TCU), Alexia earned the honor of being a "Triple Athlete" for her achievements in indoor volleyball, beach volleyball, and golf. Today, she has leveraged her success into a career at Stryker in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. I'm thrilled to shine the Corporate Golf Spotlight on Alexia, as she exemplifies the concept of Bridging the Gap in both sports and professional achievement.
[Continue reading below for the full Q&A with Alexia Heist]
Q&A with Alexia Heist
- Let's begin with your background. Please give a brief intro about yourself. (How were you introduced to the game, what did you study in college, and what is your current role?)
My name is Alexia Heist and I was born and raised in El Paso, TX, where my parents still live. I have two younger sisters (Andrea and Alyssa) who are my best friends and have supported my golf career, quite literally, from day one.
How it all began…my parents own a disposal company, Heist Disposal, and one day my Dad found a small golf club in a dumpster and brought it home. I was around three years old. He took me outside to see how I would do, and I hit the ball on the first try. As a father who wanted three boys, and got three girls, he was very excited about the potential of having a golfing buddy.
My parents exposed me to a ton of sports at a young age, but decided to stick with volleyball and golf. I played my first competitive golf tournament when I was six and started playing club volleyball at age nine. After years of competitive youth sports, I committed at the end of my freshman year of high school to play indoor volleyball for Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX.
In college, I ended up playing indoor volleyball, beach volleyball, and golf while also receiving my bachelor's degree in Marketing from the Neeley School of Business.
I currently work for Stryker, one of the world's leading medical technology companies. The business unit that I work for, Communications, focuses on designing and building operating rooms while selling critical OR infrastructure. I am on the downstream marketing team that is in charge of supporting our national sales force, launching and commercializing products and services, and supporting customer interactions in the office and in the field.
- Which skills or mindsets from your athletic career do you find most valuable now as a corporate professional?
I think that some of the main skills that I learned through my athletic career that I continue to use on a daily basis for my job are:
Time Management: As a collegiate athlete, a lot is demanded and greatness is expected. You have practice, workout, games, travel, school, and a social life, and in order to balance it all you have to do a great job of managing your calendar. Same goes for work. In order to get work done and optimize your days, you have to make sure that your days and weeks are planned out appropriately, while also making sure that you are taking care of yourself with workouts and prioritizing self-care.
Discipline: "How you do anything is how you do everything." Hard work and doing things the right way are required to be successful in sports, school, and life. There are many things that you have to do to be your best that are hard, painful, and require self-discipline. Sports teach you that discipline and sacrifices are worth it if you want to achieve the end goal of winning, and the same goes for your professional career.
Teamwork: My sports career was interesting in that I played both a competitive team sport (volleyball) and individual sport (golf) from a young age, so I learned how to work with a ton of different types of people, and that has served me well. At Stryker, we take a strengths blend test, and my number one strength is "Individualization." Meaning I am able to meet people, get to know them, and learn what their strengths are allowing me to assign them projects that I feel they will excel at. That trait will help me for the rest of my career, and the main reason for it was because I started flexing that muscle in youth sports.
- How did your experience as a collegiate golfer (or competitive sports background) shape your approach to challenges and opportunities in your professional career?
- How has your golfing background influenced your leadership style particularly as a woman in the professional world?
- How do you stay connected to the sport of golf now, and does it play a role in your professional networking or leisure activities?
I have actually taken a few breaks from the sport throughout my life, but keep coming back to it. Those who have played golf at a competitive level understand the grind that it takes to perform your best. It's such a difficult sport, even when you are practicing a ton and playing well. But the nice thing is that golf is a sport that you can play your whole life.
As far as leveraging golf in my professional network life, I like to say, "golf gets you in the conversation." Whether it's a conversation over a beer at the bar, at a networking event, or playing with your team at a sales meeting, golf allows you to relate to people in a special way.
The barrier to entry for new golfers is high and can be daunting to some, but I encourage you to pick up the sport if you don't already play! It's fun, challenging, and a great way to get outdoors and meet new people.
Connect with Alexia Heist on LinkedIn.
