I was sitting in a high-stakes board meeting a few months ago, watching a leadership team struggle to navigate a relatively standard conflict. They were smart, capable people, but they were fumbling the execution. They were defensive, their communication was clunky, and the tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a dull stapler.
As I sat there, I had this sudden, jarring realization.
If these people were professional athletes, they’d be considered total amateurs. Not because they lacked talent, but because of how they spent their time.
Think about the average pro athlete. Whether it’s Steph Curry or a backup punter in the NFL, their life is defined by a very specific ratio: 90% training, 10% performance.
They spend thousands of hours behind the scenes: lifting weights, studying film, running drills, and failing in private: just so they can perform for a few hours a week under the bright lights. They treat the “performance” as the test, and the “practice” as the work.
Now, look at the business world.
In the average office, the ratio is flipped on its head. We spend 99% of our time “performing” (answering emails, sitting in meetings, hitting KPIs, putting out fires) and maybe 1% of our time actually training. And even then, that “training” is often a dusty compliance video we watch at 1.5x speed while eating a sandwich.
We have it completely, fundamentally wrong.
We expect peak, gold-medal performance from our teams every single day, yet we never give them a practice field. We’re asking them to win the Super Bowl every Tuesday without ever letting them run a scrimmage.
The High Cost of the “Always-On” Performance
When I talk to executives about this, the first thing they usually say is, “Andrew, we don’t have time to practice. We have a business to run.”
I get it. The pressure is real. But here’s the thing: by skipping the practice, you aren’t actually saving time. You’re just paying for the mistakes in real-time, in front of your customers, and at the expense of your team’s sanity.
When you are 100% performance and 0% practice, a few things happen:
- Innovation dies. You can’t innovate when you’re terrified of making a mistake. Practice is the only place where it’s safe to be “bad” at something new.
- Burnout skyrockets. Performance is exhausting. Imagine a marathon runner who never stops running. Eventually, the engine gives out.
- Skills stagnate. If you only do what you already know how to do, you never get better. You just get faster at being mediocre.
In business, we treat “work” as the performance. But if you’re always playing the game, when do you actually get better at the game?
The truth is, most teams are running on fumes, trying to execute complex maneuvers they’ve never actually rehearsed. It’s why The Gold Medal Edge feels so out of reach for most companies: they’re too busy playing to ever improve.
Why “Learning on the Job” is a Lie
We love to use the phrase “learning on the job.” It sounds efficient. It sounds scrappy.
“Learning on the job” is usually just code for “making expensive mistakes in front of clients.”
Imagine a surgeon telling you they’re going to “learn on the job” during your heart bypass. You’d be out of that hospital before they could grab a scalpel. Yet, we ask managers to “learn on the job” when it comes to difficult conversations, strategic planning, or leading a team through a crisis.
When you don’t have a dedicated “practice field”: a place where you can role-play a tough conversation, test a new leadership style, or fail at a new strategy without consequences: you end up playing it safe.
You do what you’ve always done. You stay in your comfort zone. And your growth hits a ceiling.
The Practice Field: Where the Magic Happens
So, what does “practice” actually look like in a corporate environment? It isn’t just more meetings. In fact, it’s the opposite of a meeting.
Practice is a structured environment designed for growth, not output. It’s where you develop the mindset required to handle the pressure of the “real game.”
This is where leadership development workshops and professional coaching come in.
I’ve seen it happen dozens of times. We take a team out of their daily “performance” environment and put them into a workshop. We give them a safe space to be vulnerable, to try on new behaviors, and to get real-time feedback.
Suddenly, the manager who was too intimidated to give feedback is “practicing” it with a peer. The executive who was struggling with vision is “scrimmaging” their message until it lands.
Workshops and coaching are the practice field for the modern professional.
Without that space, you aren’t a pro athlete; you’re just a person running around a field hoping for the best.
5 Ways to Flip the Script (and Actually Start Practicing)
If you want to move your team from “surviving the game” to “dominating the league,” you have to shift the ratio. You don’t need to hit 90% training: that’s not realistic for business: but you need to get way past 1%.
Here is how you build a culture of practice:
1. Schedule the Scrimmage
Don’t wait for a crisis to see if your team can handle a crisis. Use your team meetings for more than just status updates. Dedicate 20 minutes to a “what-if” scenario. Practice the response. Role-play the solution. Make it okay to mess up the “rehearsal” so they don’t mess up the “opening night.”
2. Embrace the “Messy” Middle
When you’re practicing, you’re supposed to look bad. If you look perfect in practice, you aren’t practicing anything new. Create a culture where “I’m working on this skill and I’m not great at it yet” is a badge of honor, not a sign of weakness.
3. Shift the Metric from Output to Growth
If the only thing you measure is “did we hit the number?” your team will never take the risk of practicing a new way of working. Start measuring growth. Ask, “What skill did you improve this month?” or “Where did you step outside your comfort zone?”
4. Protect the Recovery
Athletes know that muscle grows during the rest period, not the lifting period. In business, we think more hours equals more results. It doesn’t.
To stay energized, your team needs “off-season” moments. Use Energy Bus principles to keep the bus moving forward—without burning out the driver or the passengers.
Practice is what keeps the bus moving.
5. Get a Coach (Because Pros Don’t Self-Train)
Have you ever seen an Olympic athlete without a coach? Even the best in the world need someone outside of themselves to spot their blind spots.
A coach is the trainer on the sidelines, the one watching the game with a clear head while you’re in the middle of it. They help you refine your practice so you can win during performance time: tighter reps, better reads, fewer unforced errors, more confidence when the pressure hits.
Professional coaching isn’t for “underperformers.” It’s for people who want to reach the next level.
A great coach turns effort into execution.
The Winning Edge
Here is the hard truth: Your competitors are likely playing the same game you are. They are performing 99% of the time, just like you.
That means the quickest way to gain a competitive advantage isn’t by working harder at the performance; it’s by getting better through practice.
When you invest in leadership development, when you bring in workshops that challenge the status quo, and when you provide coaching that sharpens the saw, you are building a team that can out-perform anyone else when it matters most.
Because when the “big game” happens: that massive client pitch, that sudden market shift, that internal reorganization: the teams that win aren’t the ones who worked the most hours.
The teams that win are the ones who practiced the most.
Stop just playing the game. Start practicing to win.
Quick Summary of the “Practice Field” Principles:
- Schedule the Scrimmage: Rehearse the hard stuff before it’s real.
- Embrace the Messy Middle: Practice is supposed to look imperfect.
- Shift the Metric to Growth: Measure improvement, not just output.
- Protect the Recovery (Energy Bus): Keep the bus moving forward,without burning out the driver or the passengers.
- Get a Coach: Outside perspective turns effort into execution.
