TransCity Rail South dinner guests were treated to an audience with former Olympian, Helen Richardson-Walsh MBE at the evening reception at the industry event in London.
Richardson-Walsh who represented Great Britain in hockey and won gold at the 2016 Summer Olympics alongside being the youngest person to represent her country at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, knows a little on overcoming adversity and the struggles that come with it.
In her speech, Richardson-Walsh said: “After London, we went through a lot of change. New coaches, new players, different influences and structure. It was hard to really see a way forward that had gold in it.
But after bronze at London, we were challenged to look inwards and think about how we wanted to be remembered. That made a difference.”
And this adversity is often seen in the rail industry. It often has the difficulties, whether it is engineering know-how, financial constraints, overcoming the impossibilities that the fragmented industry currently has and what the future may have in store.
Valuing opinion and hearing others was a fundamental shift for Richardson-Walsh, saying that as her influence grew in the team, knowing when to speak, to ensure others can be heard was important. But so was the changing of the mindset, growing from a selfless team without a direction, into a driven team, with a renewed focus.
A theme from this year’s TransCity Rail South has been the need to collaborate, this is echoed in the thoughts of Richardson-Walsh.
“Empowering people, which is what I realised was the key to our success, we decided that our vision, three years out of Rio, was ‘gold’ – We were afraid of failure, but once we had decided our vision, we brought into it and it changed, slowly but surely, our mindset.
“We knew, what was going to get to our goal. That was teamwork.”
Richardson-Walsh left a lasting thought, as the industry grapples with the multitude of challenges, that it is embracing.
“We are all leaders and going out of your comfort zone and stretching yourself, means you grow, it means you become that leader.”
