Nigel Redman, former Bath and England Rugby lock forward, who had a glistening rugby career spanning 14 years, is the latest keynote presenter to be added to our world class speaker line-up for In-house Recruitment LIVE! London on 4th September.
Nigel’s impressive playing career resulted in him making 350 club appearances for Bath, winning 10 RFU Senior Cup Final wins, six League titles and one European Cup final win. He also achieved 20 caps playing for the England national team where he was a member of the World Cup team in both 1987 and 1991 and was part of the victorious British Lions tour in South Africa in 1997.
Nigel Redman is now the Head of Performance Team Development at British Swimming, who have just won 24 medals in the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow, finishing 2nd in the overall medals table.
His experience and sporting knowledge means he knows a thing or two about developing, growing and nurturing the successful attributes of a winning mentality within a team. We’re excited to welcome Nigel to the main stage as our closing keynote presenter for an inspirational and thought provoking talk.
We caught up with Nigel ahead of the event, to discover the key takeaways he’ll be sharing with In-house LIVE! Attendees. For your chance to hear Nigel’s story in full, you can register for free but be quick, as spaces are now extremely limited.
As a keynote speaker at In-house Recruitment LIVE! why can’t attendees afford to miss your presentation? What should they expect to learn from you on the day?
I will be talking about proof of development – how we can motivate ourselves and take the best out of what we learn to make us better at doing what we do. My whole philosophy is about continuous improvement and seeing everything in your environment as a learning opportunity.
I am part of the senior leadership group at British Swimming – my role is to help develop coaches that work with the swimming team, as well as the sports science and sports medicine team. Our focus is on working together to create a space where the athlete can be their very best.
I’ll be taking elements of my daily work and sharing them with the audience, but I think it’s up to people in the room to go away and reflect on what works in their environment. How they can take key lessons from the sporting environment and adapt it to fit with the way that they work and how it would help the people around them.
What are some of the most important lessons you’ve learned so far in your current role?
I learn a lot by working with other people. My natural state is very introverted, to stand on the outskirts and just watch people. By doing that I’m looking at how people interact and work together and how they sometimes get in their own or each other’s way. That helps me establish a philosophy that’s based not on what I think, but what I see in others. But it’s up to people to establish how this philosophy impacts on them and how they want to work. I think too often we try to impose ourselves on other people whereas I think people can find a way on their own, we just need to create a space where they can do it.
We had a meeting with the athlete leadership recently and we talked about culture. And one of the athletes expressed their worry for telling another team member to adhere to what they say. We then had a conversation about how to create a space for all athletes to be able to give peer-to-peer feedback without any judgement. The athlete in question went on to win the 200m freestyle final at the 2018 European Championships the other week. Right after his victory, I gave him a book about creating culture from within, thinking this would be the best time for him to make good use of it.
How do you keep your team motivated in the face of challenges?
We ride the wave of success and failure. We try not to get overly excited when we do well or overly disappointed when we lose. We go into it every day with a day one mentality. But a week into a championship, people can start to get tired. Keeping the energy going all the way throughout is difficult because people have different motivations. So, a lot of it comes down to conversations – we have daily meetings with the coaches where they can share their thoughts and fears, allowing them to come into the evening with a clear head. Clearing some of the space in that part of your brain where you overthink things is really important, so you can be in the present.
Don’t miss Nigel’s keynote presentation ‘Diving into Success: Creating an Environment to Thrive’ on 4th September at In-house LIVE! London
