Olympic rower shares her experience to help audience unlock their potential

‘We must make sure we’re all rowing in the right direction,’ must be one of the most over-used phrases in the management lexicon.

However, for Dr Cath Bishop, pictured, rowing the boat in the right direction was, quite literally, her life, and she was very good at it.

Bishop, winner of Olympic silver in the 2004 coxless pairs, rowed in three Olympic Games. She won gold at the 2003 World Championships and followed her first passion into the Foreign Service where she worked in Sarajevo, Bosnia, and Basra, Iraq.

Bishop is now an expert in what it takes to be a high performer and it’s probably not what you think.

Bishop was at pains to point out that training more is not enough. She was training six hours a day, every day for almost 10 years but it wasn’t until she started to learn and understand what it takes to be a high performer that she unlocked all her potential – going from ninth in 2000 to silver in 2004.

It’s all about looking for ‘marginal gains’. Finding the seemingly small aspects of a performance that one can change for the better.

For Bishop, her coach and her team, it was all about ‘how can we make the boat go faster’ – and in business it’s no different. Find a common, uniting purpose, be willing to give and open to receive feedback and take the time to reflect and review performance, were through lines in Bishop’s captivating presentation.

She left the room with the thought: ‘Don’t focus on what’s wrong – focus on what’s possible.’ Do try this one at home or in the office.