You can’t perform at a level you haven’t practiced

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THE ART & SCIENCE OF LEADING SELF
The Power of Practice

My friend, elite athletes routinely point us towards what it takes to unlock high performance.

You may or may not be following Roland Garros (the French Open), but I want to share a recent gem from British player Jack Draper. Following his victory over Brazilian teenage phenom João Fonseca, he spoke about how he assesses his progress over the last few years. He made a point to highlight how he was pleased with his level of performance during his practice sessions.

The distinction he made between his performance during practice and his tournament results stood out.

It got me thinking about how you can use this insight to improve your self-leadership.

Key Distinction: Practice vs Performance

Draper's comment reinforces that how you perform in practice matters as much as how you perform when it counts.

Think about it. Most leaders focus heavily on execution during high-stakes moments. But what about the preparation? What about the deliberate development of your capabilities when no one is watching?

Your relationship with practice reveals everything about your approach to self-leadership.

Consider your current leadership development approach. Are you simply going through the motions during team meetings, one-on-ones, and strategic planning sessions? Or are you treating these moments as opportunities to practice specific leadership competencies?

The difference is profound.

3 Critical Questions for Leadership Practice

Draper's insight sparked 3 essential questions that I encourage you to ask yourself:

1. What does practice look like for you?

It's easy to fall into the trap of simply focusing on execution in your role. But that overlooks the value of practice. Professional tennis players practice their serve, their groundstrokes, their on-court movement and more.

Have you spent the time identifying what key competencies you need to perform? If yes, how do you create a practice schedule to support your continued improvement?

Many leaders haven't identified their core competencies, let alone created deliberate practice routines for them.

Here’s how that shows up:

👉🏽 You might excel at strategic thinking but struggle with difficult conversations.
👉🏽 You might be great at inspiring vision but weak at operational execution.

2. How are you measuring (or planning to measure) your progress in practice?

Draper mentioned feeling "a lot more developed in myself, in my tennis" and having "a lot more experience and understanding of how I'm most effective on the court." This suggests he has metrics for assessing his practice performance.

What metrics do you use to assess your leadership development? Are you tracking your improvement in giving feedback, making difficult decisions, or building team cohesion?

Without measurement, practice becomes activity without progress. You need clear indicators that show you're getting better at the fundamentals of leadership.

3. How do you create the conditions for breakthrough performance?

Elite athletes understand that practice performance and game performance are connected but different. The goal of practice isn't to replicate game conditions perfectly. It's to develop capabilities that transfer when pressure increases.

Your leadership practice should prepare you for high-pressure moments by developing your fundamental capacities. When you face a crisis, lead through uncertainty, or need to make tough decisions, your practice foundation becomes your performance advantage.

Practice → Self-Leadership → Organizational Excellence

How you approach practice in your self-leadership directly influences how you lead others.

Because when you model deliberate development and continuous improvement, your team sees what commitment to growth looks like.

In this way, your practice habits become the blueprint for organizational excellence.

FROM INSIGHT TO ACTION
Putting It Into Practice

Ready to apply Draper's insight to your leadership development? Start with this framework:

Your Leadership Practice Audit

1. Identify Your Core Competencies: List the 3-5 leadership skills most critical to your role and success.

2. Assess Your Current Practice: For each competency, how do you currently practice and improve? Be honest about gaps.

3. Design Deliberate Practice: Create specific opportunities to practice each skill. This might mean seeking out difficult conversations, volunteering for challenging projects, or role-playing scenarios with a coach.

4. Establish Practice Metrics: Define how you'll measure improvement in each area. What does better look like?

5. Review and Refine: Regularly assess your practice performance, not just your results.

Remember, the goal isn't perfection in practice. It's intentional development of your leadership capabilities when the stakes are lower, so you can perform when they're higher.

DEEPENING YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Resources for You

🏆 Want to understand how deliberate practice applies to professional development? (Link)

🧠 Want to explore the neuroscience behind skill acquisition and practice? (Link)

📝 Ready to design your own deliberate practice routine? This academic paper provides the scientific foundation. (Link)

🎾 Curious about how elite athletes actually practice using mental training methods? (Link)

EXCELLENCE UNBOUNDED
How I Can Help You

High-performing executive teams don’t happen by chance. They happen by design.

Aligned Senior Leaders Are:

✅ 1.9x more likely to achieve above-average financial performance
✅ 2.5x more likely to have satisfied and engaged employees

Aligned Companies Are:

✅ 58% faster revenue growth
✅ 72% more profitable

Misaligned companies underperform in the following ways:

❌ 50% lower ROIC
❌ 18% lower EBITDA
❌ 25% loss of revenue
❌ Reduced productivity
❌ Slower strategic execution

Book a call to learn more about The Executive Alignment Playbook 🚀, an immersive, experiential leadership program.

Realign your leadership team. Accelerate execution. Drive measurable results.

🎤 Speaking Engagements: My mom can attest to the fact that I LOVE to talk. 😂 Now, I put that talent to work delivering talks on Mindset, Courage, Resilience, & Innovation.

A few past clients include KraftHeinz, Amazon Women @ Payments, PAHEi, & the Panamá Chapter of the International Coaching Federation (I delivered this talk in Spanish).

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Until next Sunday,

Shawnette