Sports mindset, business reality: The leadership gap the C-Suite can't ignore

EY-Parthenon surveyed 1,200 C-Suite leaders – half with a sports background, half without – to find out whether an athlete's mindset drives better business decision-making.

Nadine Mirchandani, EY-Parthenon's Global Deputy Leader, tells UNLEASH that although there’s a lot for business leaders to learn from elite sport,  the outcomes are harder to measure.

She shares: “Businesses operate in environments that are often more ambiguous, less structured and influenced by a broader range of stakeholders than competitive sport.

“Success is rarely defined by a clear scoreboard.”

The takeaway isn’t to hire former athletes, or to coach executives to think like sports stars – instead CEOs and boards should be “intentional” about viewing leadership as “a portfolio of complementary strengths rather than a single model to replicate,” notes Mirchandani.

Three decisions will ensure that C-Suite intention works in practice.

Prioritize both discipline & adaptability

EY-Parthenon data identified that leaders with a sports background excel in accountability and discipline. They prioritize small, repeatable wins, and ensure that everyone knows how their role contributes to the team’s success.

However, in an uncertain, complex business reality, discipline alone cannot drive sustained performance. This is because discipline can bring “rigidity to resist change,” stated the report.

Instead, the strongest leaders combine discipline with adaptability. Adaptability is a core skill of non-sports leaders, alongside empathy.

The organizations that succeed are those who are disciplined enough to execute, but also preserve “the flexibility to shift when the external environment changes,” noted the report.

The decision for boards is not whether to build discipline — it's how to stress-test it. With 55% of non-sports leaders spotting the risk of false confidence in planning, versus just 30% of sports leaders, the more urgent task is figuring out when discipline quietly become an excuse not to adapt.

Balance action with diagnosis in a crisis

When a crisis hits, athletes don't hesitate; they mobilize.

47% of sports leaders bring the team together to jointly assign responsibility when a crisis hits, compared with 31% of non-sports leaders.

In the EY-Parthenon report, Joice Maduaka, two-time Olympian and Global Lead of the EY Athlete Programs, pointed out: "You're constantly coached, challenged and expected to execute under pressure. Those experiences naturally shape leaders who understand how to align people around a common goal."

That instinct for fast, coordinated action doesn't extend as easily to ambiguity and unknowns.

Sport leaders struggle with balancing immediate responses with longer-term strategic consequences: the kind of trade-off business crises rarely allow leaders to avoid.

Non-sports leaders show the opposite pattern. They're twice as likely to step back and diagnose the root cause before acting, and less likely to prioritize visible, in-the-moment accountability.

The report is clear that neither instinct – mobilize fast or diagnose first – wins on its own.

The action is to build both into the same crisis response: pairing rapid team mobilization with a rigorous, non-negotiable diagnosis step, so speed doesn't come at the cost of understanding what actually broke (and preventing it happening again).

Recovery is essential to performance

For Mirchandani, one of the surprising findings of the report is around recovery.

“Elite sport has long recognized the importance of rest and recovery in sustaining performance, yet leaders with sports backgrounds were less likely to intentionally create space for recovery and reflection in a business context,” she tells UNLEASH.

Just 8% of sports leaders said they deliberately create space for recovery and reflection, compared to 29% of non-sports leaders.

Sports leaders are “more inclined to maintain momentum” – however, the reality of today’s uncertain business environment is “sustainable performance requires knowing when to pause and reset, not just when to push harder.”

Belief isn't the problem — 89% of all leaders agree rest matters. The decision is whether recovery is scheduled and protected like any other performance input, or left to individual discretion, where it will keep losing to the next deadline.

Mirchandani’s final call to action for CHROs is to expand “how they identify and develop leadership potential.”Mirchandani’s final call to action for CHROs is to expand “how they identify and develop leadership potential.”

“Beyond technical expertise or operational performance, they should focus on capabilities such as coaching, communication, collaboration, adaptability and recovery.”