Bo Hanson

More About Bo Hanson

Co-Founder and Developer of Team8 & Athlete Assessments
International Corporate Training Consultant & Presenter

4x Olympic Representative for Australia • 3x Olympic Medalist

Bo Hanson’s career within the sport and the business sector spans over 25 years, delivering leadership, management, and coach development. In addition to his own athletic career comprising of four Olympic appearances and including three Olympic medals, Bo has worked for many years with coaches and athletes from over 40 different sports across the globe, and some of the top performing businesses and organizations in Australasia.

Bo’s ability to improve performance, team culture, and people strategies of his clients has resulted in over 22 national championships , Olympic medals and pro team premierships, along-side genuine improvements in business performance, productivity and safety metrics of organizations. Long-standing working relationships and consistent high-quality feedback from his clients are testimony to his ability to understand, connect, design, and deliver exceptional work. 

In 1992, at just 18 years old, Bo Hanson became Australia’s youngest rower to compete at the Olympics. Bo then went on to win bronze medals at the 1996, 2000, and 2004 Olympic Games. During his Olympic career, Bo studied at the University of Technology Sydney and began his 25 years of experience in corporate training , development , and facilitation.

Utilizing the learning experiences from four Olympics, and his training and development qualifications, Bo founded two businesses, Team8 and Athlete Assessments. Both businesses are designed to enable people to achieve their best performances, whatever their field of endeavor.

In his work with clients, Bo draws unique parallels between the world of elite sport and high-performance business, and is highly regarded for his expertise in leadership, teamwork, communication, and culture. Highly educated and accredited in the use of DISC Profiling , Emotional Intelligence (Emotional Competence Inventory 360), the Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator and a Master Practitioner in Neuro Linguistic Programming, Bo incorporates these personality and behavioral modeling tools into the customized programs he delivers.

Bo regularly is drawn upon to speak about developing resilience, leadership, teamwork, and how to use behavioral profiling and emotional intelligence to create greater success.

DISC Behavioral Profiling

At the core of his work today is DISC Behavioral Profiling. Athlete Assessments has the world’s only validated and reliable version of DISC specifically for sport which Bo developed for use with Coaches, Athletes, Sports Administrators, and Officials. This in demand sport specific behavioral awareness tool has consistently helped clients improve their individual and team performances on and off ‘the field’. Through Team8, he also uses the Team8 Business and Teacher DISC with his corporate and education clients. Team8’s DISC is most often used at conferences or in various professional development programs designed to build self-awareness, improve relationships, and master communication.

Throughout his career, Bo has worked internationally with more than 100,000 coaches, athletes and sports administrators from over 40 different sports, across several countries, including top Olympic, Paralympic, National, Professional, State, and US College teams to improve coaching strategies and performance. Bo Hanson also works with leading Coach Education providers, leadership programs, USA universities, and a network of consultants from the sporting and corporate sector.

Due to his unique knowledge of DISC behavioral profiling and his own Olympic background, Bo Hanson has become a much sought after speaker and has spoken at more than 150 International Sporting Conferences on topics critical for Coaches of all sports to understand. At the core of these presentations is the same philosophy Bo has built his business on which is building self-awareness and enabling people to develop productive relationships with those around them.

“Sport is played by people, coached by people and managed by people, so it is imperative to get the people side right. And business is no different!”

- Bo Hanson​

Presenter & Keynote Speaker

As a presenter, Bo has a modern approach to coaching and leadership which revolves around athlete and employee ownership accountability, how to create improved team performances and how to use behavioral profiling to achieve sustainable success. Learn more about Bo as a Keynote Speaker and his highly requested topics here.

No matter the topic, Bo utilizes his practical experience from working with thousands of teams, and will discuss the behaviors of the best teams and identify how to prevent your program or organization from being derailed by ‘people issues’.

Most recently, Bo Hanson published the ATHLETE TOUGH™ Program, a Handbook and Video Series designed to share his knowledge with both the Coach and athlete in mind. The goal? To get you to take action so you can really learn how to build mental toughness and resilience. Bo Hanson uses his skills and experience to teach you how to become, and stay, ATHLETE TOUGH. You can read more about the ATHLETE TOUGH Program here.

If you would like to find out more about how Bo Hanson can take you or your team to the next level, or book Bo Hanson for your next conference or event, we invite you to contact us.