In the last article I talked about the topic «Resilience» and how important it is to stick to your goals, even if it doesn’t always work right away.

In the last article I talked about the topic “The Importance of a good functioning team” how crucial it is to find common goals, promote diversity, and create trust through open communication and psychological safety – both in individual sports and professional life.

The fifth and final part is about “Presence and Performance Skills”. 

Confidence is of great importance in elite sport. As an athlete, I quickly realized that my self-confidence directly influenced my performance and how I interacted with my sponsors and the media. In this fifth and final part of my blog series, I want to talk about how I learned to strengthen my self-confidence through sports and how I apply it today in both my professional and personal life.

At the beginning of my career as an athlete, I was never the most self-assured player, and I also didn’t enjoy standing in front of people, whether it was for a winning speech or facing the media after a round. However, I soon recognized that strong self-confidence plays a decisive role, whether on the course or when dealing with sponsors and the media. To improve my presence and my performance competence, I worked intensively on myself and applied various techniques, including visualization. By imagining myself playing confidently and performing successfully, I could positively influence my subconscious mind. This positive imagination also helped strengthen my thoughts and body language, using this interaction to my advantage. By consciously controlling my thoughts and my body language, I became more self-assured not only on the course but also in my communication. I learned to express myself clearly, present my ideas and goals convincingly, and appear confident – even when I didn’t always feel that strong internally. This learning from elite sport has had a lasting impact on my current professional life as well. An upright, positive posture, maintaining eye contact, having a clear voice, and the ability to respond appropriately to questions and suggestions are crucial elements of performance competence. And this is also vital in the professional world. In business conversations, a confident and authentic presence can make the difference between getting the job or not. The ability to convincingly present oneself and one’s ideas, build trust, and create a positive impression are essential for achieving goals.

The techniques of visualization and conscious control of thoughts and body language personally helped me develop this competence and successfully apply it in today’s business environment.

So, the importance of this positive and authentic presence and performance competence is another key learning I took from my time as an elite athlete and now use, share, and implement daily in my work with individuals and teams.