The psychology of winning: Roberto Forzoni reveals how mental resilience creates champions

Roberto Forzoni is a renowned mental resilience speaker and performance psychologist whose work bridges elite sport and leadership.

For over 30 years, he has guided Olympic champions, top Premier League football clubs, and high-performing organisations through the complexities of pressure, adversity, and peak performance.

His signature approach blends psychological insight, practical strategy, and storytelling - he brings tools for mental clarity, resilience, and sustainable high performance directly into team culture. 

In this exclusive interview with The High Performance Speakers Agency, Roberto shares the core principles behind The Laws of Effective Teamwork, reveals surprising lessons from working with elite athletes, and explains how any team can build resilience that withstands pressure and change.

Q: You’ve worked with elite athletes and top teams across multiple sports. When it comes to your concept, The Laws of Effective Teamwork, what are the principles that truly separate great teams from the rest?

Roberto Forzoni: “I love this. I put the booklet together about 20 years ago, and I’ve just actually rewritten it. It’s available on my website for free - you can just download it.

“I think three things that successful teams do that other teams don’t: they think differently, they act differently, and they communicate differently.

“The Laws of Effective Teamwork really focuses on and clarifies 25 key principles - key laws - that effective teams use. I’ll give you some examples.

“There’s the law of attitude. Steve Coppell used to say, “Attitude is contagious - is yours worth catching?” I love that phrase. It gets people to change the way they think. Coming into a room, are you the person who lights up the room when you come in, or do you light the room up when you go out? Who do you want to be?

“Attitude is a big thing. The law of the price tag is another. I was talking to a big law firm last week about this - in effective teams, everyone has to pay the price, and the price never goes down. If you want to be successful, it always goes up. But that doesn’t mean working longer hours; it’s about working smarter. Effective teams are disciplined and consistent.

“Another law I really like is the law of choice and standards. You look at what Clive Woodward and David Brailsford did. Clive used to say “100 things better by 1%,” and Brailsford called it marginal gains. 

“Can we improve lots of things by a little bit to become better? The Laws of Effective Teamwork encompasses all those principles - 40 years of coaching teams at the highest level. What do they do to be successful, and how can you do that in your own business?”

READ MORE: The impact of referee decisions on live betting odds

Q: You often draw on lessons from elite sport when coaching leaders. What can businesses learn from the way athletes build resilience under intense public and performance pressure?

Roberto Forzoni: “I like taking examples from sport because that’s my background. How do sportspeople become resilient? They put themselves into challenging positions where they’ll be evaluated. The people I work with are judged to the nth degree - on TV, in the press, nationally.

“Nowadays, if you make a mistake, it’s on social media within seconds. Top athletes know that when they fail, they’ll be ridiculed - yet they keep going. That’s how they build resilience. Companies could learn a lot from that.

“I spoke recently to a construction company whose three core values are care, integrity, and courage. They brought in people from sport - psychologists, Olympians, performance directors - to reshape their culture. They’ve transformed the business because they live by those values, not just display them on a wall.

“It’s about creating a safe environment where people aren’t afraid to fail. One employee said, ‘I messed up twice and cost the company thousands - but they backed me.’ That’s how you build a high-performing, resilient team.”

Q: Wellbeing has become a major topic in sport and business alike. From your experience, what practical steps can organisations take to support their people’s mental and physical performance?

Roberto Forzoni: “Understand your people and communicate better. That doesn’t mean more meetings - it means smarter communication. It can be through Zoom, WhatsApp, or other ways that fit your team.

“Provide resources employees can tap into - yoga classes, breakfast, and wellbeing spaces. When I worked at the LTA, we had breakfast together and even a sleep pod for power naps. But beyond those perks, it’s about genuinely caring for people.

“You can’t support your staff if you don’t listen to them. Some people won’t speak up about what they need, so it’s about creating an environment where they feel safe to do so. If they fail, they won’t be criticised - they’ll be supported. That’s how you build trust and wellbeing.”

ALSO ON SNB: Gavin Cromwell: Stumptown set to miss Aintree for Cheltenham Festival defence

Q: You’ve spent years helping both athletes and executives reach peak performance. What’s one insight from elite sport that you think every business leader should take on board?

Roberto Forzoni: “I don’t think it’s surprising, but sport offers immediate feedback. You always know what success looks like - whether it’s a time, a score, or a win. It’s measurable.

“That immediacy helps improvement - you can measure, adjust, and grow quickly. In business, success is harder to measure. You can tick off a to-do list, but that doesn’t always equal progress.

“In sport, if you lose, you learn fast. In business, we often don’t know if we’re getting better or worse. So, one lesson from sport is measurement - being able to assess progress with tangible data and use it to improve.”

Q: When you deliver motivational talks, what’s the key message you want audiences - especially those in sport and leadership - to walk away with?

Roberto Forzoni: “The biggest thing I want people to take away is tangible, practical things they can do immediately to feel and perform better.

“There have to be golden nuggets - messages that inspire a mindset shift. Moving from ‘I can’t do that’ to ‘I can’t do that yet.’ It’s about adopting a growth mindset and having tools to apply it.

“I also want people to have fun - because when they’re engaged, they learn more. During talks, I include interactive moments, like psychological illusions, to make people see things differently.

“So, fun, practical takeaways, and a mindset shift - those three things are really important to me.”

This exclusive interview with Roberto Forzoni was conducted by Megan Lupton of The Motivational Speakers Agency.

READ NEXT: Padel news: Team USA beat Team GB to win inaugural Anglo-American Padel Cup in London