Roger Black
Roger Black became one of Britain's greatest 400m runners. As an Olympic athlete who has collected 15 major championship medals for Britain, Roger has spent many years learning the...
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How can I maintain a positive mindset?
For all sports people, you have that dream of, in my case, wanting to stand on the Olympic roster. But of course, it is never going to go easily. And there are lots of challenges and hurdles and injuries and setbacks along the way. And the real test is can we stay positive when things are going badly? And I think the answer to that is if you really do engage with your why, if you're clear about why you want to achieve and what you want to achieve, then no matter what, you can create positivity about the moment that you're in. So I think the key to staying positive is to not lose sight of that target, not lose sight of that goal. Don't give up on that goal. Recognise the challenge you're in. But if you don't have that goal, if you don't know where you're going, you're going to end up anywhere. And I think it's holding onto the goal and the dream, no matter what happens, is a really important step. If you want to stay positive.
How can we get our teams to work more collaboratively?
Collaboration. I mean, I was fundamentally an individual athlete. I ran the 400 metres, but I loved being part of a team. And I was lucky because now and again, I got to be part of a great team, the four by 400 metre relay team. And it was such an example of collaboration and the power of collaboration is bringing individuals together who may be different people, but as long as they share the same goal, then they can do extraordinary things. My great training partner was a guy called Chris Akai, who was so different to me in many, many ways. But what we realised was that our differences made us unique, but it was our similarities that made us champions. And I think if you can celebrate, if you've got a group of people and you want 'em to collaborate, celebrate your differences, respect your differences, and acknowledge them, but really focus on the things that join you together. That common goal, that common those common values. And I think if you can do that with a group of people, then that's collaboration and you can achieve incredible things.
If I enjoy working on my own, how can I be a better team player?
A lot of people feel that they just want to be left alone. Let me work on my own. I work much better on my own and that's fine. But you also get other people who say, look, I'm just much, much better in a team from my experience, whether it's in sport or in business, the really successful people are people that recognise that there are actually two hats to wear. Sometimes you wear the individual hat and sometimes you wear the team hat. I ran the 400 metres. I trained most of my life to compete as an individual, but now and again, I got to compete as part of a team, and it was a very different psychology. When I was competing individually, it was all about me. I was in my world, in my lane running my race, but when I was part of a relay team, I had to act differently. Not so much on the track, but off the track as well. When you get a group of individuals who have competed against each other all year to come together once or twice a year and be a happy team, that is easier said than done. But I think the people that managed to make that transition are the people that don't say, look, I'm an individual and I'm not a team player, or I'm a team player and I'm not an individual. The successful people are the ones that recognise this is an individual moment. I'm going to wear that individual hat, and they take that hat off and go, this is a team moment and I'm going to wear the team hat. And it's that ability to go from one to the other and recognise what moment is an individual moment, what moment is a team moment that will lead to top performance, certainly in sport.