A vital cog in one of the country’s greatest ever stories of sporting success. Dr Steve Peters is a Consultant Psychiatrist working full time in Elite Sport and resident with the British Cycling Team, Team Sky and within the English Institute of Sport. As Team GB’s sport psychiatrist who helped the cycling team smash all records in Beijing, Dr Steve talks about how winning mindsets are developed in sport, and how these lessons can be applied to business.

Dr Steve Peters has been a vital cog in one of the country’s greatest ever stories of sporting success. A Consultant Psychiatrist working full time in Elite Sport, Steve is resident with the British Cycling Team, Team Sky and within the English Institute of Sport.

Having initially become involved with British Cycling in 2001, Steve now works with riders, coaches and the staff team, and his contribution is deemed so valuable that Dave Brailsford, the Sky team principal, has described Steve as “the best appointment I’ve ever made.”

‘‘The voice of reason’’ according to Sir Chris Hoy, if you ask Steve to describe himself he uses the words: the mechanic of the mind. Steve has been an unobtrusive yet powerful influence in a recent run of success which included the 2008 Beijing Olympics and a key element in the success of Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton.

It is not widely broadcast, but Steve’s influence extends well beyond the world of two wheels. His clients include the quintuple junior swimming gold medalist Lizzie Simmonds, the UK’s taekwondo No1, Sarah Stevenson, an Olympic judo qualifier in Karina Bryant, and the Olympic bronze medalist pentathlete Georgina Harland. Peter has also worked in diving, netball, trampolining, cricket, sailing and Premier League football.

His career began with teaching Mathematics and then moved on to Medicine. With a specialist interest in the working of the human mind and how it can reach optimum performance applied to all walks of life, Steve has worked in the clinical field of Psychiatry for the past twenty years. In addition, Steve has been engaged with Sheffield University as a Senior Clinical Lecturer since 1994 and is also Undergraduate Dean. He holds degrees in Mathematics, Medicine and a Masters degree in Medical Education, also with postgraduate qualifications in Sports Medicine, Education and Psychiatry.

At the end of 2011 Steve published a book called The Chimp Paradox. The book explains how the Human mind operates and how any individual can learn skills to manage their mind by following the programme offered. It uses the Chimp Model, created by Steve, as a means of understanding and working with the mind. This simple model looks particularly at emotional management and how to increase your chances of becoming happier, more successful and more confiden.