Outstanding “elite performance” event…. John Dew’s thoughts from the audience
Yesterday I attended a simply first-class conference organised and led by DNA Definitive. The conference subject was “Elite Performance”. The audience was made up of a “self-selecting” eclectic group of delegates all passionate about performance excellence. Representatives of Industry, Business, Health, Academia, Consultancy, Sport and the third sector were present. There was a palpable sense of “energy” throughout the entire day - evidenced by the fact that no-one left at the allotted time and everyone stayed on to continue the discussions after the event was scheduled to have closed.
Core Themes
For me, there were some consistent and recurrent themes throughout the day:
- Firstly, it is good to strive for excellence at organisational, team and individual levels and to aim to be the best!!!
- Elite performance often involves personal sacrifice, ambition, dedication and personal aspiration in order to overcome hurdles and triumph over sustained adversity and misfortune. (Some of you who have heard me present on the lead-up to the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games and its potential impact upon our athletes will now that this is something I am personally passionate about!)
- Taking on any demanding profession, project or personal life challenge isn’t without risk and the risk of failing is an implicit part of the journey we take on when we strive for excellence.
- There will be failures along the way but the key is how you respond to that failure and how you grow, develop and progress having learnt from it.
- The absolute criticality of 21st Century Leadership that inspires, motivates, connects, empowers and enables rather than seeking to “command and control” through the misuse of both “position and knowledge” as a means of exercising power!
- At an individual level, the importance of attaining balance and harmony of emotional, physical, mental and intellectual state and of the need to work on personal “readiness” for the challenge in hand.
……I loved every minute of it!
If that wasn’t enough…. The day ended with inspirational presentations from four of our elite sporting ambassadors: Non Evan MBE, Sam Warburton, George North, and Sam Brearey.
It was a huge personal privilege to have met each of them yesterday and to have listened to them talk so openly and passionately about their life experiences so far.
Defiantly amongst the very best conference events I’ve attended and one to keep an eye out for in the future. Well done DNA Definitive and all those involved in the conference. - John Dew OBE
Speakers & Presentations -Outstanding presentations by:
Dr Paul Thomas @businessdocme and two visionary leaders from Blaenau Gwent CBC (Elite Leadership & Organisational Excellence);
Mark Stacey and Andy Hughes – In search of evidencing and developing Team Excellence (An NHS/Sport Mix case study);
Two inspirational and thought-provoking presentations from representatives of our elite UK Special Forces and Police Armed Response Teams (Elite Team Performance).
Andy McCann - (Elite Individual performance – achieving psychological readiness).
