John Shackleton CSP

“Failure is so important; it usually leads us to our greatest successes in life if we allow it to.”

In his youth John failed to succeed as a sportsman always missing out by fractions of a second and never quite reaching international standard but this failure led him to become involved in Professional Coaching and eventually to study Sports Psychology. His personal failure and subsequent enlightenment has shaped his business life, his sporting life and his speaking career and has helped him achieve great success in all three areas.

He has coached numerous world-class sportsmen and women including the British Triathlon Team and two New Zealanders who have qualified to compete in the Beijing Olympics but he achieved his own sporting success late in life. It was low self-esteem that held him back and stopped him becoming an International swimmer in his teens. A huge inferiority complex consistently denied him the triumph he deserved but studying sports psychology helped him to overcome this. At the age of 50 John swam lifetime personal best times and achieved three top 10 places at the World Masters Swimming Championships in Italy 2004. He still competes today and believes that much of his success in life comes from the lessons he has learnt from his sport.

John applied the techniques and ideas gleaned from Sports Psychology to his business life, building a number of very successful businesses including the UK’s largest training company of it’s kind. He became a business coach to many CEO’s and senior executives within his blue chip clients and was in very high demand as a keynote speaker all over Europe and the US. In his presentations he draws on his own business and sporting successes and failures, talking to sales people, managers and business owners about applying the sports psychology techniques he’s used himself to improve their performance and achieve greater results.

“Most people really want to achieve more, however no matter how successful they are, they’re often held back by their own thinking, their attitudes, limiting beliefs and fragile self esteem. Sports psychology helps people to change this and harness the awesome power they have inside to create outstanding results in their lives.” Over the last 20 years John has spoken to most of the world’s major Pharmaceutical and Insurance companies, many of Europe's top Banks and Finance Houses and the majority of the top Real Estate companies throughout Australasia. He speaks in Australia, New Zealand and throughout Asia to a wide variety of audiences of mainly Sales people, Managers and Business owners.

His unique background and experience has made him a powerful motivational speaker with a story borne out of life experiences. His humorous but hard hitting style will have his audiences laughing and crying but more importantly they will find themselves making big changes to their thinking processes and taking greater levels of personal responsibility then ever before in their life.

"My passion is showing people that, no matter what level they are currently performing at, self limitation is what holds them back. Sport psychology teaches us about self-belief and how important it is to achieving everything we are capable of. All we need to do to raise our own game is to apply the techniques that sports people use, to our business and personal life.”

John’s second book, Inspire Your Team, was published in 2010 and is selling extremely well. The book outlines the four reasons why people don't perform, and offers a simple approach that managers can use to inspire their staff to achieve better results. The approach comes from John’s experience in Sports Psychology and he has been presenting this as a keynote to managers and leaders for the last 15 years so the book is a summary of all that experience.

"My passion is showing people that, no matter what level they are currently performing at, self limitation is what holds them back. Sport psychology teaches us about self belief and how important it is to achieving everything we are capable of. All we need to do to raise our own game is to apply the techniques that sports people use, to our business and personal life.”