How to win a gold medal

Or probably more accurately how to win more than one gold medal.

As part of our Corporate Leadership event in Birmingham today I was lucky enough to be able to listen to Sir Steve Redgrave taking part in a Question & Answer session led by Gavin Esler. He was clearly briefed to fit the theme of the day about sustaining high performance, but all the same it was fascinating to hear him speak about some of the psychology that helped him achieve five gold medals over five Olympic Games. His messages actually chimed a lot with some of the principles and techniques I've been trying to use from the work of David Allen (the productivity 'guru' not the dead Irish comedian).

For posterity... and for my own future reference... here are some of the key things that I picked up from Sir Steve today...

• After winning an Olympic medal an athlete will sit down with their coach and consider what it will probably require in order to win again at the next Games. Usually this will mean facing up to the need to achieve an even faster time than they can currently achieve and often at face value this can be very dispiriting after the high of achieving their first goal
• To make this achievable though requires that you break down the task at hand into intermediary tasks. Shaving four seconds off a time can seem daunting when you've just achieved the fastest time you've ever rowed to win gold. Viewing it as a second improvement each year starts to make it seem more achievable  Viewing it as less than a tenth of a second improvement per month suddenly makes it feel a whole lot more do-able. (Of course 'cutting up the elephant' is a basic task management technique, but hearing it from Sir Steve in relation to winning gold brought it so more vividly to life)
• Redgrave was asked how he motivated himself to train on cold dark mornings when he really didn't want to and I found his answer very enlightening. He said that goal visualisation is a key technique for all top sportsmen and women, but the goal that you visualise can't always be standing on the winner's podium bathed in the sunshine. When the going is good then that's fine, but on the dark mornings the goal would be a much smaller, much more achievable one. It may even be just getting to the cup of tea or the hot bath that awaited at the end of the training session. The less motivated you're feeling the easier your goal needs to be, so that success can be constantly achieved.
• Finally he made a very interesting comment about goal setting and aspiration. He said that not everyone has the ability to be an Olympic champion or even the best in their particular field, but every one of us has the capability to achieve personal bests. Its all about setting realistic goals to make yourself the best 'you' that you can be.

It was a really inspirational session and one I will remember for a long time to come.