Lord Chris Holmes: Nine Paralympic Golds, a seat in the Lords, and a mission to make business truly inclusive
Lord Chris Holmes is rightly celebrated as one of Britain’s most accomplished Paralympians - nine-time gold medallist, former Director of Paralympic Integration for London 2012, and Life Peer in the House of Lords.
He is also a prominent D&I speaker and thought leader in digital innovation, AI ethics, and inclusive governance.
Having navigated a life-changing loss of sight in his teens, Chris transformed adversity into a platform for impact. Over nearly two decades he dominated on the world stage, before transitioning into public policy, law, and advocacy roles across technology, equality and social mobility.
In this exclusive interview with The Diversity & Inclusion Speakers Agency, Lord Chris Holmes brings together his personal journey and policy expertise to discuss high performance, inclusion, and the intersection of humanity and technology.
Q: Success as a Paralympic swimmer demands extraordinary commitment. From your perspective, what qualities are truly essential to reach the highest level in the sport?
Lord Chris Holmes: “I think to succeed as a Paralympic swimmer you need certainly to be able to take a lot of hard work - five hours training every day for 17 years. Resilience, for sure, determination, and crucially being able to put yourself out there.
“There's no guarantee of success. When I started the mission, there was no sense I'd even qualify for the Games, never mind make a podium position. So, really being prepared to put yourself out there, set a course and stick to it.
“And crucially, it's not about really what you do at the Games in those few seconds of the race. It's what you do in the weeks, months and years in the build-up to that one moment in time.”
Q: Many business leaders look to elite sport for lessons in performance. What insights from your Paralympic career do you believe translate most powerfully into the corporate world?
Lord Chris Holmes: “I think there are so many lessons for business from Paralympic high-performance sport in terms of organisation, in terms of prioritisation, in terms of really drilling down to what matters.
“When I was training and competing, I had a very simple maxim which I applied to everything: will it make me swim faster? If it will, I would do it. If it wouldn't, why would I?
“And that was for everything in life, not just what I was doing in the pool - every single thing, will it make me swim faster?
“Having those acid tests I think is really important because we're all bombarded with so much data, so much content, so much stuff these days, just as it was when I was training.
“The key is to find that golden path through it and have that absolute mission statement, that acid test, and stick to it right the way through.”
Q: You are also a leading advocate for diversity and inclusion. What practical advice would you offer to organisations aiming to embed a truly inclusive culture?
Lord Chris Holmes: “When it comes to diversity and inclusion, it's a pretty simple message: just do it. Do it for legal reasons, for sure. But do it because it will make better organisations - broader organisations, richer organisations in every possible element.
“Crucially, lead on it. When it comes to it, what's diversity and inclusion about? It's leadership and it's culture. And it's really thinking through how you can bring that to life and do it every day, and ensure that your organisation is true to that, is inclusive by design.
“Every beat point, every element, every interaction within that organisation rings true to a truly inclusive, truly diverse culture, truly inclusive, truly diverse organisation.”
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Q: One of your most requested keynote topics is ‘being the leader of my own life’. Could you expand on what this means and how it shaped your journey?
Lord Chris Holmes: “Leader of my own life is a really popular speaking topic, and it came to me very early in life when I was just a regular working-class kid going to the local comprehensive school and then, completely unexpectedly overnight, I lost my sight.
“It wasn't expected, I could never have imagined that. But in the midst of all of that trauma, all of that chaos, all of that confusion, it seemed pretty clear to me that I had to get so many people around me to help: family, friends, teachers, swim coaches, everybody I could get to help me.
“And it became clear - I couldn't have expressed it in such clear terms at that time, but pretty soon afterwards - it was absolutely crystal to me that I had to be the leader of my own life.
“Crucially, the leader of my own life if I wanted to achieve the three goals that I had as a young kid then: to try and do A-levels, to try and get to university, and to try and represent Great Britain at sport. I could only potentially achieve one, two, maybe all three of them, if I was the leader of my own life.”
Q: When you deliver speeches today, what are the main takeaways you want audiences to leave with?
Lord Chris Holmes: “What I hope audiences take away from my presentations is a sense of practical, realistic and achievable pointers, suggestions, thoughts, ideas that they can take into their world.
“I write all of my presentations from scratch, so each presentation, each speech is unique, because I want to make it as tailored, as connected to that organisation, that business, as I can possibly make it - to make it as relevant, as absolutely connected to their purpose, what they're trying to achieve.
“And through that, really giving elements within it that they can take away and reflect upon and determine whether that can work within their organisation, whether it can be adapted and fitted in with their mission, their endeavours. But really wanting to make it as connective, as practical, as real, as authentic as I possibly can.”
This exclusive interview with Lord Chris Holmes was conducted by Chris Tompkins of The Motivational Speakers Agency.
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