What people see
People see the medal.
They see the podium, the anthem, the moment where everything seems to come together in perfect clarity. Success looks visible, almost simple.
But what people don’t see is what lives behind it.
The early mornings. The invisible doubts. The fragile moments where confidence could either grow or break. And most importantly, the environment that holds it all together.
A shift in how I understand leadership
For many years, I lived this journey as an athlete, competing at the highest level of taekwondo and representing Finland at the Olympic Games. Today, I experience it from a different perspective — as a coach and a leader, working daily with athletes who dream of becoming Olympic champions.
And somewhere along this journey, something shifted. At the beginning, I believed leadership in sport was about having the right answers. The right strategy. The perfect plan. But over time, I realised something different. Performance is not built through control. It is built through culture.
The Essence that Resonates Most with Me
Through my experience and more recently through the reflections sparked by the Women Emerging journey, I began to recognise four key pieces of my Essence that shape how I lead: motherness, experience, balance and honesty, and passion and belief.
At the centre of it is something I now recognise as motherness. A way of leading that is protective, present, and deeply human. A way of putting the person before the outcome.
In elite sport, this may seem counterintuitive. From the outside, high-performance environments are often seen as intense, demanding, and results-driven. And they are. But what I have learned is that the strongest environments are not built on fear. They are built on trust.
Leading from motherness
For me, leading from motherness does not mean lowering standards. It means creating a space where athletes feel safe enough to go beyond their limits. I remember standing in the corner during a major competition, looking at my athlete just before stepping onto the mat. In that moment, it was not about technique anymore.
It was about trust.
Trust in the work.
Trust in herself.
Trust in the environment we had built together.
Something powerful happens when athletes feel supported.
They become brave.
They take responsibility.
They take risks.
They grow.
And growth is where performance truly begins.
Leading from experienceÂ
For me, leading from experience comes from my own journey.
From the experiences — and also the difficult moments — that have shaped how I see performance, pressure, and people. Those moments taught me that performance is never just physical.
It is emotional.
It is mental.
It is deeply human.
And because of that, I lead with a greater awareness of what athletes may be carrying, even
when it is not visible.
Leading from balance and honestyÂ
For me, leadership is also about balance.
The ability to stay grounded. To regulate my own energy so that I can be fully present for others. Because the environment we create is not only shaped by what we say, but by how we are.
And at the same time, honesty. Leading by example. Being consistent. Showing through actions what we expect from others. Because athletes do not follow words. They follow what they feel and what they see.
Leading from passion and beliefÂ
At the heart of everything, there is also passion.
A deep love for what I do and for the people I work with.
And alongside that, belief.
Not belief in results, but belief in people before the results appear.As leaders, we often see something in others that they cannot yet see in themselves.
And in those moments, our role is to hold that belief.
To stay steady when they doubt.
To remind them of what is possible.
And slowly, that belief becomes their own.
The invisible side of Excellence
In sport, we often talk about performance.
But what we are really building are human environments.
Spaces where people learn how to respond under pressure, how to navigate uncertainty, and how to grow through challenge. For me, leadership is about protecting that space. Holding a vision of what people can become, even when the path is not clear. And staying present through the process. Because in the end, the medal is only the visible part. The real achievement is who people become on the journey towards it. And the culture that made it possible.
Author’s Bio
Suvi Mikkonen is a two-time Olympic taekwondo athlete and now a high-performance coach working with Olympic and world-class athletes. She is President of Hankuk International School, a globally recognised elite training environment based in Spain. Suvi is part of the IOC Women in Sport High Performance pathway and the Women Emerging leadership expedition, where she continues to develop her approach to human-centred leadership in sport.
