Olympic champion David Hemery on coaching
Former Olympic champion and world record holder, David Hemery CBE, began his session with a film of one of his sporting triumphs.
He told us how three thoughts occured to him when he stood on the podium to receive his award:
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I'm relieved I didn't blow it
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this is a dream come true
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most importantly - "Why me?"
His running partner and he were equal slowest of the field, not the favourites to win - but they did.
After his running career was over, he decided to try and discover why when under pressure some people achieve close to their best, some do only okay and others tend to achieve significantly lower than their potential.
He was fortunate enough to be able to speak to 83 people who were viewed as the best in world in their chosen sport.
Key concepts emerged from this research:
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they were very aware of their goals
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they were very aware of their challenges
Hemery pointed out that the leaders in the hall would not be in their positions of responsibility if they were not keenly aware of these concepts. Their work was based around this awareness.
He posed the question: "how can we enhance this is others - do we put them under stress?".
Henery urged caution but pointed out that there is nothing wrong with the 'traditional' methods. Suggestions, sharing best practice, goal feedback are all useful. However, if it's only on our agenda, it's not going to work - we need people to think for themselves, to promote thought and independence. We can be at risk of generating dependence. To avoid this, we must ask questions which make people think.
Hemery identified three intrinsic motivations:
- The joint agreement of agendas
- Ownership and independence - the 'coaching dance'
- Personal development and performance improvement
As coaches, we need to ensure that people are involved in decisions which personally affect them. We must listen,engage people in decisions.
Hemery went on to describe the history of management styles leading to a discussion of the work of Daniel Goleman over twenty years ago - emotional intelligence. Key to this is the fact that over 85% of management is now concerned with relationships, with the understanding of what is going on in the emotional minds of people we work with.
Developing the argument, he pointed out that values underpin all behavious - "If I don't give a hoot about people it will be evident in all I do" - and it's this self-awareness that is at the start of emotional intelligence. He encouraged delegates to be aware of the reactions of their people and look after them emotionally.
More recently, spiritual intelligence has also been studied - the desire of people for a meaning, a purpose in their lives. Hemery stressed that the mix of all these aspects are essential.
Hemery's own coaches were the basis of much of his own success, of course. A most striking statement was from an experienced coach who put his philosophy of coaching as simply; "becasue I loved them." This is unmeasurable. Hemery pointed out that people will value and respect you if you go theough the hard times with them but overall, the most important starting point is "can you encourage them to take the first step?".
Everything starts with the first step.
Finally, after an inspiring, authentic and emotional journey with a rapt audience, Hemery closed with a challenge to identify, value and nurture the innate talent in everyone we deal with:
"Can you become exceptional coaches and 'guardians of the flame?'".
Kevin Mulryne
