A community that helps you and your enterprise
ENGAGE. ADAPT. GROW.
In-person & Online
Thurs 19th Oct 2023
The Oval, London.
3 Incredible tracks, 30+ Amazing speakers to help you
ENGAGE. ADAPT. GROW.
Steve Williams OBE
Performance coach specialising in leadership and team development. Double Olympic Gold medallist. Everest summiteer.
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Talk Title
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How to win an Olympic Gold Medal: The Agile rowing boat.
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Abstract
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Over the last 40 years the British Olympic Rowing Team has been one of TeamGB’s most consistently successful sports and producers of Olympic medals, helping GB to first climb and then establish itself at the very top end of the overall medal table. Many of us will have joined in the national ritual at Olympic time of staying up late into the night or getting out of bed extra early to cheer on GB rowing crews as they crossed the finish line first and sung the national anthem with medals around their necks.
Steve will tell us the story of what happens over the four years leading up to those six minutes of the Olympic Final that we see on the TV, on the windswept rivers, in the torturous gyms, through the countless blisters and the screaming quads – and throughout it all, the rowers’ relentless rigour to their own version of Agile methodology that is critical to them continually getting faster and wining Gold medals.
Steve’s parallel from Olympic rowing will give us all inspiration and insights that we can take away and concretely apply in our own worlds to help us learn and achieve more, faster and to win our own Gold!
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Bio
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Steve was “never a very talented rower”, as his Coach confided in him (after Steve retired). At his first Olympics, after just one year in the rowing team, he was not racing in the boats but rather sitting on the side of the lake as a “travelling reserve”. However, by committing in to GB Rowing’s winning system and approach, Steve went on to be part of crews that won two Olympic Gold medals and four World Championships.
Steve now works with businesses as a performance coach, helping leaders and teams apply the high-performance disciplines from rowing themselves in order to achieve their own success. Steve’s approach is based on: GB Rowing’s high-performance culture and environment; the leadership methodology of Jürgen Gröbler, one of the most successful Olympic coaches ever with 13 consecutive Olympic Gold medals; sports science and psychology; and the mindset, practices and behaviours deployed by the rowers to win Gold.
Since retiring from rowing, Steve has been applying and evolving everything he learnt in a boat to a number of other challenges including skiing to the North Pole, climbing Mount Everest, and working in a professional football club.
