New challenges during Covid, guest blog by Andragogy.co's Anneli Ritari-Stewart

What is the secret of peak performance in business and sport? Hard work, perseverance and skill are essential. But there is another often neglected element which optimises results. 

Growing up in Sweden I played football from a young age and continued to play at a high level until my thirties. An injury put an end to my football career but instead I took up running. I started with shorter races before moving on to marathons and ultra-marathons. 

Once I had my two boys, now aged 5 and 7 I needed a new sport and took up powerlifting. I won “Best Female Lifter” in the Scottish Masters Championships three years in a row and had the opportunity to be part of Team Scotland and medal at the Commonwealth Championships.  

At the start of the 2020, I decided that I needed a new challenge and signed up for a physique competition. I started training in January but due to the pandemic competitions kept getting cancelled. It was tempting to give up as the goal post kept moving further away.

Finally, I competed at the UKDFBA’s (United Kingdom Drug Free Bodybuilding Association) UK International Championships in October where I won the Novice FitBody class. 

Performing in sports has made me realise that you can achieve almost anything you set your mind to. However, hard work and tenacity are simply not enough. The missing link was an expert led, data-driven and meticulous approach to training.

Working with experts, I left no stone unturned, whether it was calculating how many tons I lifted in each session, running at a specific heart rate, or sculpting a particular body part. I even developed a spreadsheet which calculated my carbohydrate consumption per mile. This helped take 1.5 hours off my marathon time. 

Coaching and training helped me understand exactly what I had to do to improve and in what areas. I used technology to measure my progress and evaluate what worked. Precision is crucial. 

And so, when I got the opportunity to work with Andragogy.co which uses a blend of experts, technology and a data driven approach to learning and development I leapt at the chance to use the same approach for businesses too. 

I interviewed 50 senior executives asking them about their digital skills gap and their training plans. None of the companies I spoke with used a data driven approach. When it comes to marketing, for example, we are obsessed by data, so why are we not using the same approach when it comes to improving people’s skills?

This is often because companies rely on team leaders or the individuals themselves to seek out the training they need. Busy leaders may not have the time or skills to do this and it is hard for individuals to know what they do not know. 

Andragogy.co helps individuals and teams to operate at their peak performance by assessing the skills gap and providing tailor-made individual plans to plug those gaps. Much like my use of technology to inform my performance, they gather data to inform business-wide skills development which is crucial for companies looking to accelerate their digitisation.  

I also believe that this approach can help improve diversity and nurture a mix of talent in teams. Using an assessment as part of recruitment can also eradicate some of the subjectivity and bias which often leads to certain groups being under-represented.  

The pandemic has also shone a spotlight on mental health and wellbeing. I have also felt emotional highs and lows and uncertainty about the future. Staying goal focused and enjoying the training has helped my mental well-being. Seeing constant progress gave me a sense of strength and it also helped me drive business forward.

This is also why I have volunteered to drive an initiative to develop future business leaders for Scottish Women in Sport in partnership with SAMH (Scottish Association for Mental Health). We are designing a mentorship program for young sports women to help them build mental resilience and the belief that they can achieve anything they set out to do in life. Despite the pandemic, I believe that is true and now more than ever we need to help our future leaders have that confidence too. 

An edited version of this blog ran as an op-ed in The Scotsman on Monday 9th November 2020