Yesterday I had the opportunity, at a private event for OTD,  a training company I do associate work for,  to listen to Shane Sutton OBE talk about performance coaching for a few hours. Shane is currently the Technical Director of British Cycling and was previously head coach. He has had tremendous success as cyclist and even more so as a coach (Wikipedia background info HERE).

The sesión was really inspiring and some great points were made. Whilst I was focused on listening and trying to make as few notes as possible in the session, so that I could be “in the moment”, I did develop a sketch note on my way home on a wobbly train.

If I had to take away four key learning points from the session they would be:

Make everything evidence based: Change, improve and adapt based on clear, validated evidence. Don’t use theories,ideas and opinions BUT use hard facts when looking to change something with oneself or in a team / business. Hunches don’t win medals!

Develop coping strategies: The difference between the best and the rest is the ability to quickly bounce back from ANY setback: review, learn and move forward.

Create a continuous improvement mindset: Every individual, team and business should be looking to be better, even if they are the best. Once you rest on your laurels, you are lost.

Remain egoless: The best performers over any significant period of time are those that are humble and keen to get better. They see everyone as important and pay attention to everything. They recognise that being a prima donna is a blocker to success.

Performance Coaching sketchnote:

As I had scribbled the notes quickly, I had not written down clearly the CORE values the team had. As I went off to find these on the internet,  I came across this article on the GB cycling team and their philosophy towards high performance. It is a worthwhile read: management_focus_issue_35_15_steps

Thanks for reading. Any feedback, insights or resources in this area would be appreciated!