Kate Richardson-Walsh
Speaking Topics
High-Performance Teams & Culture Transformation
Authentic Leadership
Resilience & Sustained Performance
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Leading Through Values
Mental Health & Wellbeing
Women’s Leadership & Representation
Bio
Kate Richardson-Walsh, is the most capped female hockey player in her country's history, and was captain of the GB and England women’s hockey teams for 13 years.
An inspirational and charismatic leader she has been widely credited for helping build the incredible team ethos and commitment that drove the GB team to a nail biting victory at the Rio Olympic Games.
In winning gold Kate also made history in other ways, becoming one half of the first same-sex married couple to win an Olympic medal playing in the same team.
Having retired from international hockey after Rio, Kate turned her experience towards coaching, encouraging the grassroots development of the game and applying the leadership, team and performance lessons of a career in elite sport.
Kate is also an experienced motivational speaker. During the 17 years of playing elite level of hockey she experienced soaring highs and crushing lows, and playing in teams that were operating at their very best, and those that had deep structural issues and struggled to function.
Taking these experiences into the corporate space, Kate shares the key processes and behaviours that have underpinned the successful teams she has been a part of. The collaborative process to establish a shared team vision, values and behaviours that everyone feels ownership of, and the self-knowledge that each individual within the team developed, empowering them to give their very best to the collective cause.
She touches on the roles, awareness, leadership responsibilities and resilience of individuals within the team structure and shares some of the psychological tools they equipped themselves with and how this affected team cohesion. She also addresses the differences in the team and how they leveraged on this as a strength.
FT Women at the Top Summit
Kate spoke at the Financial Times Women at the Top Summit, having just returned from Rio where she led the GB women's hockey team to Olympic victory. She gave a fascinating, insightful interview on leadership, team dynamics and the culture of a winning team, all in a way that was relevant to our senior corporate audience and which perfectly strengthened the core theme of our event: how to achieve gender balance and redefine leadership. It was an honour to have Kate join us and the audience loved it. I would fully recommend her as a speaker”
L’Oreal
“THANK YOU!!!!! What a wonderful, inspirational morning. I thought Kate was amazing, She was very passionate and very honest about her role as a captain, leader and as a team player.”
BBH
“I just wanted to write to say the most enormous thank you for yesterday. You were utterly inspirational, and our team has not stopped talking about the impact you made. It was very easy to see why you were such an outstanding athlete, and leader. We agreed afterwards that we would all have followed you anywhere. I have seen many magnificent sports people tell their story over the years. From World Cup winners to Olympic gold medallists. You topped them all. It was an extraordinary hour that we will never forget.”
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