{"id":34791,"date":"2026-05-01T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=34791"},"modified":"2026-05-01T10:10:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:10:36","slug":"the-debrief-a-snapshot-of-powerful-discussions-happening-right-now-across-the-leaders-performance-institute-25","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/the-debrief-a-snapshot-of-powerful-discussions-happening-right-now-across-the-leaders-performance-institute-25\/","title":{"rendered":"The Debrief \u2013 a Snapshot of Powerful Discussions Happening Right Now Across the Leaders Performance Institute"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 1 May 2026 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

The Debrief \u2013 a Snapshot of Powerful Discussions Happening Right Now Across the Leaders Performance Institute<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/the-debrief-a-snapshot-of-powerful-discussions-happening-right-now-across-the-leaders-performance-institute-25\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n\n\n
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Strategy, skill acquisition and change management were just some of the topics on the agenda at the Leaders Performance Institute in April.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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By John Portch<\/h6>\n
Back-to-Back Masters winner Rory McIlroy shared his preparation strategy in the aftermath of his second triumph at Augusta National.<\/h6>\n

\u201cI joked last week that this place feels like my home course,\u201d he said. \u201cI haven\u2019t played anywhere else in the last two or three weeks really. I felt prepared in that way. I felt prepared that wherever I hit it on the golf course, I sort of know what to do. I know where to miss. I\u2019m pretty comfortable with all the shots around the greens.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy, a six-time major winner, disregarded other PGA Tour events and even chose to ignore a back injury that had been hampering his performance. At one point he even carded a score of 29 on the front nine at Augusta.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good blueprint,\u201d he continued. \u201cI\u2019m not going to take three weeks off before every major, but to get to the major venues early, do your preparation, play. And not just play and look at things, but actually play. Go out there with one ball, shoot a score and try to do it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy\u2019s successful strategy came not long after our Leaders Meet: the Art of Strategy event at Lord\u2019s Cricket Ground, where a range of guests, including Olympic gold medallist Tabby Stoecker and Lawn Tennis Association Performance Director Michael Bourne discussed how to build, stress-test and execute an effective performance strategy.<\/p>\n

We know McIlroy wasn\u2019t there because he was in Georgia, but he, much like yourselves, can check out the chief insights here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And now on to other happenings at the Leaders Performance Institute in April.<\/p>\n

Quote of the month:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Personally, I don\u2019t believe in skills coaches.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These are the words of Rory Teague, who notably spent a year and a half between 2016 and 2017 working as a skills coach under then England men\u2019s rugby union Head Coach Eddie Jones.<\/p>\n

A decade on, Teague serves as the Head Coach of French Pro D2 club AS B\u00e9ziers H\u00e9rault and, as he tells the Leaders Performance Institute, would not copy Jones\u2019 appointment in southern France.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t myself employ a skills coach,\u201d he says. \u201cI think every coach who coaches an area of the game should be able to coach the skill of their area. \u2018Skills coach\u2019 as a term has become archaic as coaching has moved along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We also addressed some of the common tensions, challenges and opportunities in skill acquisition here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Insight of the month:<\/strong><\/p>\n

British military operations are primed to perform when personnel do not have even 60% of the desired information at hand.<\/p>\n

As Aneaka Reay-Kemp, the Lead Military Intelligence Specialist at the UK Ministry of Defence, told the audience at Leaders Meet: the Art of Strategy, they are trained, as she said, to be \u201ccomfortable being uncomfortable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rank, she argued, has limited bearing. In fact, the British military has taken steps to reduce the influence of its own hierarchies in moments of uncertainty. She said:<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter what\u2019s on that person\u2019s chest, it doesn\u2019t matter their background, they still bring value no matter how junior they are. So for me, I find that when you\u2019re operating in an environment where you don\u2019t have all the information, understanding your people, understanding their capability, what they bring to the party can help save someone\u2019s life.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Reay-Kemp was one of six guests<\/a> who brought the day\u2019s proceedings to life.<\/p>\n

Shock of the month:<\/strong><\/p>\n

We often hear informally of \u2018bad\u2019 environments, but we don\u2019t necessarily expect them to be amongst those considered the very best.<\/p>\n

Yet that was the experience of Alexander Campbell, the former principal dancer at the Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet when he attended the Royal Ballet School in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI struggled so much that I wasn\u2019t sure whether I wanted to continue pursuing a career in ballet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He had arrived from his native Sydney mid-term, which didn\u2019t help him to settle, but it was also down to the type of prescriptive teaching that routinely irks younger generations today.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t really encouraged to step out of our lane. It was like, \u2018you know the steps, you focus on this, and we\u2019ll worry about everything else,\u2019\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

When reflecting on that time for Leaders members, he said it was \u201csuch a missed opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

His turn-of-the-century experience as a ballet student shows that the need for teachers to meet their students halfway is not new. Two decades later, talent environments in performing arts, and in sport, must be designed to engage a cohort that wants to know \u2018why?\u2019<\/p>\n

Campbell, now the Artistic Director of the Royal Academy of Dance, shared his full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Good to know:<\/strong><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the difference between a \u2018change\u2019 and a \u2018transition\u2019?<\/p>\n

A \u2018change\u2019 is simply that, but a \u2018transition\u2019 refers to the human adaptation required in the face of change.<\/p>\n

That is according to John Bull, the Head of High Performance at Management Futures, who posed this question at a virtual roundtable for members of the Leaders Performance Institute where the topic of the day was \u2018what makes change stick?\u2019<\/p>\n

In simple terms, as Bull explained, change initiatives fail not because the change itself is wrong but because the human transition is misunderstood, ignored or rushed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe object of change is quite straightforward; transition can be super complicated,\u201d he said, \u201cand what we tend to do in organisations is not pay nearly enough attention to managing transition. We forget about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

To help the virtual room in this regard, he introduced attendees the three phases of transition:<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nBull brought these three phases of transition to life by describing how he went through each in response to a postponed work project:<\/p>\n

The key thing about stage one is I am still really frustrated and annoyed with certain individuals that have led to that happening. Now, I would say on one level, that\u2019s really understandable. It\u2019s a significant project that we were really excited about; but here\u2019s the key point: it is useless and doesn\u2019t help me one bit. So all the energy that I\u2019m investing in the frustration is not going into the adapting; and what I should be spending much more time on is focusing on what do we need to do to adapt now that change has happened.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Finally\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Four common causes of tension between business and performance<\/a>\u2026 and four opportunities for increased collaboration.<\/p>\n

Coming up for Leaders Performance Institute members<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Sport Performance Summit New York<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n