For many years I have talked about how corporate athletes spend much more time with their craft than professional athletes. And as I have been training over the last few months for a tournament next month it occurred to me that corporate athletes (that’s you) spend more time in competition than professional athletes. And professional athletes spend much more time honing their skills, digging into individual and specific skills, to refine in practice what will become performance. It’s the opposite for you. You spend your time performing and far less time growing your skills in practice.

What if you committed time to practicing your leadership skills and growing and refining your talent? Where would you focus first? Would it be leading at your level and turning over the work of your direct reports to…. Your direct reports? Would it be attending to growing trust among your team, your peer group, or your organization? Either way, that starts with you.

Athletes know that discipline, when no one is watching, will elevate what is seen. Give it a go, start small, practice and play. Watch your performance rise.