Dr Catherine Bishop is a former British rower. In partnership with Katherine Grainger she was world champion in the coxless pair in 2003, and in 2004 they won a silver medal at the Olympic Games. Following a career as a diplomat she is now a leadership speaker and writer.
As I sat on the start line of my third and final Olympic Games in Athens, I could feel my heart rate rising even though I was sitting perfectly still. In the quiet of the start area, I joined in the chorus of deep breaths coming from each lane. I took a fleeting look behind me at the 2000m of calm water that awaited us. I focused in on the first stroke, visualising it as I had practised over and over again. Somewhere, deep in the recesses of my mind, I was also processing the importance of the next seven minutes. I knew the rules of the game. Only one result counted.
A fraction over seven minutes later, that mundane electronic bleep signified the end of years of striving. The bleeps came in quick succession. Despite overwhelming fatigue and eyes firmly focused forwards, our minds instantly unravel which bleep applied to us. I knew ours was the second bleep and immediately my mind started working out what that meant. That process of sense-making has continued ever since. The question I get asked most often when giving talks is, ‘How did you feel when you crossed the line?’ I got wrapped up in trying to find the right answer. For a while, I thought it was my own personal dilemma. Until I listened to other sporting stories and realised it’s in all our minds - that we all have a need to work out what constitutes meaningful success. ‘Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing!’ ‘No room for second place!’ ‘Don’t be a loser!’ This language resounds in our lives, from the classroom to the boardroom, and often loudest of all in gyms and on sports fields (and riverbanks). Through my rowing career and my careers since as a diplomat and now a leadership coach, I started to realise that these clichés might not be helping us to perform at our best. That the assumptions behind the dominant ‘winner takes all’ narrative might actually be holding us back from winning.