Gold Medal Career
>> Posted by Jo on Friday 12 November 2010 | Comments: (0)
I had the pleasure of attending a presentation given by Sally Gunnell last night. The event was organised by Women In Technology and held at BP's headquarters in London. Women In Technology is a leading online job board and networking forum for women working in the technology profession in the UK and they provide many events throughout the year to inspire and encourage so an opportunity to hear Sally Gunnell was one not to be missed. The topic of Sally's presentation was Rising to the challenge: how to achieve a 'gold medal career' and I have to say, it was undoubtedly one of the best presentations I've ever seen or heard.
For those of you who may not be familiar with the name, Sally is one of Britain's best female athletes of all time and is the only woman in history to hold all four major track titles concurrently - Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth - plus the 400 metres hurdles world record. Sally has now retired from athletics and uses her experiences to inspire others achieve their true potential at events such as this one.
These days we're all used to speakers on stage with PowerPoint slides full of bullet points and text which are a hindering crutch for the speaker and a distraction for the listener. Sally however spoke without any prompts, slides or cue-cards for almost an hour - a commendable feat in itself! During that time she told her story. A story that started back in 1978 watching the Olympic games on TV and deciding there and then that she wanted to win Olympic gold!
And so the journey began. The way she guided us through her journey was full of passion and emotion - and delivered in a way that everyone in the room could relate what she was saying even though none of us had ever won an Olympic gold medal. She spoke of the highs of winning a first gold medal at the Commonwealth Games followed by frustration and disappointment with injuries or results that didn't go her way. A key learning point for Sally during these times was to use the things that go wrong, learn from them and use them in a positive way to move on. That message certainly resonated amongst the audience.
She also spoke of the 'gremlin', the little voice inside her head (plus some real voices of people around her) that told her she couldn't do it. Sally explained the techniques she adopted to quieten those voices and the need to replace them with something much more positive and empowering instead. As she said "who controls the voice is a sign of a true champion" - how right she is. In the years building up to the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 she realised that in order to have the best possible chance of success, she would need to have a team around her, all experts in their own field but as a sum of the parts would be a winning combination.
I want to highlight two of the team members as their input can be used by all of us to assist in us getting our gold medal career. The first of these experts was a nutritionist, because everyone knows that what you put into your body is what you get out. Naturally Sally wanted to eat the right foods to keep her on top form, sharp and alert and as injury-free as possible. We also know, usually from past experience, that over-indulging in the wrong food (or drink) can and does impact our performance. So eating well ensures we take care of ourselves on the inside and builds our physical and mental strength.
The second key member of her team was a sports psychologist, David Hemery, a gold-medal winner at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. His key technique for Sally was visualisation - imagining the final in her mind over and over again many times a day, anticipating issues that she might experience during the race and dealing with them in her mind and being so focused and clear on the race that when the actual day came, it was almost like operating on auto-pilot because the preparation had been so thorough. She knew exactly what she had to do from start to finish, ignore everything that was outside of her control (e.g. other competitors) and just do what she had to do. By focusing on achieving our own goals we build our mental muscle - that rich picture of success in glorious technicolour - using all our senses; sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing to build the layers in our mind makes the journey to success so much easier.
The climax to Sally's talk was the day of the 400m final at the 1992 Olympics. We laughed as we heard how she took 2 hours to get ready (hair, make up, nails - all the essentials for her to be at her most confident and assured). Then Sally then played us the actual TV clip of the race which resulted in a huge round of applause as she crossed the finish line in first place. I know Sally must have seen that footage hundreds of times but she still gets goosebumps from watching it. So did we.
Of course, Sally's journey didn't end there. She's continued to set new goals and targets since that day in Barcelona. It's about sustaining excellence because otherwise we'd all just take our foot off the pedal as soon as we achieved a goal and then sat back never to challenge ourselves again. Planning is essential, looking ahead and deciding what the next goal is going to be and if it's something big, then having lots of smaller interim goals along the way to give us confidence and reassurance that we're going in the right direction. As Sally says, 70% of what she achieved that day was due to mental strength and attitude - having self-belief and knowing in her mind that she could do it.
It was a fabulous presentation and one which will stay in my mind for a long time - maybe reinforced all the more because Sally brought that famous gold medal with her and passed it around for the audience to touch. Just holding that medal in my hands really served to strengthen my desire to spread the word on leadership coaching: the importance of setting goals, learning more about who you are along the way, handling challenges and celebrating success on a personal and professional level has got to be the way forward for future leaders. Sally Gunnell is definitely an inspiration and role model!
For those of you who may not be familiar with the name, Sally is one of Britain's best female athletes of all time and is the only woman in history to hold all four major track titles concurrently - Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth - plus the 400 metres hurdles world record. Sally has now retired from athletics and uses her experiences to inspire others achieve their true potential at events such as this one.
These days we're all used to speakers on stage with PowerPoint slides full of bullet points and text which are a hindering crutch for the speaker and a distraction for the listener. Sally however spoke without any prompts, slides or cue-cards for almost an hour - a commendable feat in itself! During that time she told her story. A story that started back in 1978 watching the Olympic games on TV and deciding there and then that she wanted to win Olympic gold!
And so the journey began. The way she guided us through her journey was full of passion and emotion - and delivered in a way that everyone in the room could relate what she was saying even though none of us had ever won an Olympic gold medal. She spoke of the highs of winning a first gold medal at the Commonwealth Games followed by frustration and disappointment with injuries or results that didn't go her way. A key learning point for Sally during these times was to use the things that go wrong, learn from them and use them in a positive way to move on. That message certainly resonated amongst the audience.
She also spoke of the 'gremlin', the little voice inside her head (plus some real voices of people around her) that told her she couldn't do it. Sally explained the techniques she adopted to quieten those voices and the need to replace them with something much more positive and empowering instead. As she said "who controls the voice is a sign of a true champion" - how right she is. In the years building up to the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 she realised that in order to have the best possible chance of success, she would need to have a team around her, all experts in their own field but as a sum of the parts would be a winning combination.
I want to highlight two of the team members as their input can be used by all of us to assist in us getting our gold medal career. The first of these experts was a nutritionist, because everyone knows that what you put into your body is what you get out. Naturally Sally wanted to eat the right foods to keep her on top form, sharp and alert and as injury-free as possible. We also know, usually from past experience, that over-indulging in the wrong food (or drink) can and does impact our performance. So eating well ensures we take care of ourselves on the inside and builds our physical and mental strength.
The second key member of her team was a sports psychologist, David Hemery, a gold-medal winner at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. His key technique for Sally was visualisation - imagining the final in her mind over and over again many times a day, anticipating issues that she might experience during the race and dealing with them in her mind and being so focused and clear on the race that when the actual day came, it was almost like operating on auto-pilot because the preparation had been so thorough. She knew exactly what she had to do from start to finish, ignore everything that was outside of her control (e.g. other competitors) and just do what she had to do. By focusing on achieving our own goals we build our mental muscle - that rich picture of success in glorious technicolour - using all our senses; sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing to build the layers in our mind makes the journey to success so much easier.
The climax to Sally's talk was the day of the 400m final at the 1992 Olympics. We laughed as we heard how she took 2 hours to get ready (hair, make up, nails - all the essentials for her to be at her most confident and assured). Then Sally then played us the actual TV clip of the race which resulted in a huge round of applause as she crossed the finish line in first place. I know Sally must have seen that footage hundreds of times but she still gets goosebumps from watching it. So did we.
Of course, Sally's journey didn't end there. She's continued to set new goals and targets since that day in Barcelona. It's about sustaining excellence because otherwise we'd all just take our foot off the pedal as soon as we achieved a goal and then sat back never to challenge ourselves again. Planning is essential, looking ahead and deciding what the next goal is going to be and if it's something big, then having lots of smaller interim goals along the way to give us confidence and reassurance that we're going in the right direction. As Sally says, 70% of what she achieved that day was due to mental strength and attitude - having self-belief and knowing in her mind that she could do it.
It was a fabulous presentation and one which will stay in my mind for a long time - maybe reinforced all the more because Sally brought that famous gold medal with her and passed it around for the audience to touch. Just holding that medal in my hands really served to strengthen my desire to spread the word on leadership coaching: the importance of setting goals, learning more about who you are along the way, handling challenges and celebrating success on a personal and professional level has got to be the way forward for future leaders. Sally Gunnell is definitely an inspiration and role model!
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