When the Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Adrian Moorhouse developed his second career, coaching businesses in how to perform better, he named his firm after the fastest qualifier’s lane.

Voted last year’s most inspiring leader, and with an international consultancy, Moorhouse draws keen lessons from his years as a sporting champion.

“I wanted to remove the ego of a sportsperson and get sports psychology into the business place,” he explains. “It is about handling pressure, building an Olympic strategy and bringing it to life. Someone like Steve Redgrave has a four-year strategy. In sport, it is about setting a big goal and then taking chances.”

Moorhouse and his team of 57 staff encourage businesses to think more broadly about leadership, motivating colleagues, developing resilience, “mental toughness” and self-belief — but not arrogance.

Related Internet Links

• Company website

• Lane4's entry in 2007

Turning up the Heat pays off

Strong training and a sense that work is to be enjoyed add up to Heat powering past its rivals into top spot this year

BACKGROUND

• Hats off to great leadership

• Getting the message across loud and clear

• Fly high with the X Factor

• Why it pays to know what you’re doing

BACKGROUND

• Charity wins top small company award

• Special awards for best practice

• Rules of engagement

• 100 Best SME's to work for 2008

Multimedia

• Best Small Companies to Work For 2008

• Highlights from the awards ceremony

With a team including sports psychologists and organisational experts in his Buckinghamshire base, he emphasises: “Sport is a helpful metaphor, but we don’t trade on it: our clients are buying a performance consultancy.”

Nonetheless, it is pretty unusual to go into an office to find an Olympic gold medal rower (Greg Searle), a champion 400m runner (Mark Richardson), an elite gymnast (Katie Warriner) and a male ballerina.

Warriner joined Lane4 a year ago as a trainee consultant and is being supported through a doctorate and sports psychology accreditation. “I had talent,” she recalls, “but was hindered by my mental approach. Sport and business are about performance, and the factors that can increase and decrease it, as well as being on show all of the time.” At Lane4, Warriner feels her own performance is unhindered because she has such an appropriate job. “I feel I can be totally me and still be successful.”

Searle, practice director, also has a fresh sense of himself in this career. “Working here has helped me to become more aware about what made me a good sportsman (and why I missed my goals sometimes): I motivated myself through a sense of belonging, control and goals that were ones I cared about.”

One of the most vital lessons is to spend time “resting and learning”, to avoid burning out and missing the big prize, he adds.

Ironically (but perhaps understandably with so many high achievers bobbing about), this is the area in which Lane4 has relatively low scores with people feeling they are spending too much time working (a positive score of just 57%) and reporting work-related stress (72%).

Solid perks, however, include free private healthcare, while maternity leave is 10 weeks fully paid and the rest on the statutory minimum. People are encouraged to use all their holiday (from 22 to 30 days). Moorhouse does, and he turns off his phone.

With his low-key, thoughtful manner staff find Moorhouse inspiring (92%), say he runs the firm on sound moral values (91%) and listens to their concerns (86%), all top 10 scores.

People are not scared to talk to managers (85%) who are honest back to them (91%). Charitable work is driven by good intentions and not a desire for good publicity, earning a survey-topping 88% positive score.

Moorhouse is admired for his swimming achievements and equally for helping to create a firm in which staff feel genuine pride (96%) and which they love working for (91%).

Explore Best 100 Companies

• Best 100 Tables