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 We would like to pass on our thanks to all who attended "Success is not a chance event" which was co-hosted with BP on Wednesday 7th March 2012. This was our first event of the year and was extremely popular! Special thanks go to BP for kindly hosting the event with us, our keynote speakers, Greg Whyte, former Olympic pentathlete and athlete Hugh Williams-Preece and Q&A panellists Lyn Grobler, David Whiteing and Amy Talbert from BP.
The event was chaired by Maggie Berry, Managing Director at womenintechnology.co.uk
As a starting point, Greg highlighted that nowadays we live in an XFactor society where people think they can simply turn up and in 12 weeks' time they'll have a number one hit single - life isn't really like that - it takes time and preparation to achieve success and that was the theme of Greg and Hugh's talk - the following is an overview of what was discussed:
Success is not normally achieved alone - Greg trained and coached David Walliams when he swam the length of the River Thames however there was a team of 63 people in total working on that project and it had involved nine months of preparation.
Greg and Hugh shared their key steps and advice to achieving success. These were identified as the following:
VISION - Don't be afraid to set an audacious goal
- Achieving a challenging goal is empowering - it's about the journey and moving yourself out of your comfort zone.
- Life can be mundane if you don't have any challenging goals.
- Although it can be painful reaching a goal - e.g. running the Marathon des Sables, you usually only remember the good memories and the painful experiences are consigned to the back of your mind.
BELIEF - What is your motivation and how are you going to stay motivated?
- What is the driving force that you need to keep you heading towards your goal?
- Coaches often provide most of that belief at the beginning of a challenge but gradually that belief moves 100% to the participant.
- You need total commitment to achieve a goal - successful outcomes are less than certain.
- Often the challenge is mental as long as the physical training is in place.
STRATEGY - Develop a plan and a team to deliver success
- If you are a coach or a team leader, you'll know that one size does not fit all and that you need a bespoke approach for everyone.
- You have to plan for success - it just doesn't happen on its own.
PREPARATION - Do the things you hate well
- Be prepared but be prepared to change your plans - especially if that means there is a better chance of success.
DELIVERY - prepare for the worst and hope for the best
- You will get better at the things you hate doing.
- Things do go wrong but you can get over them as long as you've got the plans in place to deal with them.
- Face your problems and deal with them early.
- Take it a day at a time and you will cross the winning line.
Greg shared one of his favourite quotes:
“Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must move faster than the lion or it will not survive. Every morning a lion wakes up and it knows it must move faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It doesn't matter if you are the lion or the gazelle, when the sun comes up, you better be moving.”
- Roger Bannister
Hugh completed the challenge: 50 marathons in 50 days If you'd like to find out more go to: http://www.50in50.co.uk/
Greg and Hugh's presentation was followed by a Q&A session. Here are some of the points raised and discussed:
- Not everyone does everything perfectly - if there is a failure, consider the severity of it, how it happened and recover from it.
- Don't be too hard on yourself.
- Failure is part of the learning process.
- If you never fail, you're not pushing yourself hard enough.
- Don't be caged in or constrained by other people's (good or bad) opinions of you.
- Success isn't usually defined by one event or one moment.
- Think about who you would like to be - what steps do you need to take to reach that goal?
- The world is becoming more and more collaborative so we need to get on with other people.
- Have the courage and the willingness to leap into the unknown.
- If you're looking to break into an inner circle, remember that people like to talk about themselves so engage them in conversation.
- It takes time to build and maintain a relationship - you have to work at it - keep it on your agenda and be authentic.
- Work life balance - we can have it all but not at the same time so focus on the things that are important to you.
- Don't beat yourself up about the decisions you've made.
- Don't be half hearted about the choices you've made.
- You can't do a good job if you don't have a life.
- Only you manage your career.
We continue to work with BP who are committed to developing and retaining their female talent and if you are currently looking for an IT job, you can check out their live job vacancies here.
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