Faculty Column ∙ August 29, 2025

“In sports and in business, the sole pursuit of winning only leads to losing.”

John Neal ∙ Professor of Practice at Hult International Business School

Winning is for losers

Sport has long been held up as an example for business practice in areas like leadership, team development, performance, and coaching. Former champions are often wheeled out at conferences to tell you what they did, how they did it, and how you could do the same as a leader.

While there are some parallels between sports and business, and interesting ideas that can be applied under pressure, the greatest learning comes through seeking out the subtle nuances, approaches, adaptations, and interactions of coaches, performance directors, and CEOs who create the environment and processes and provide the leadership for champions to excel.

For the past 20 years, Hult Ashridge has partnered with some of the world’s most significant sporting organizations in order to seek out these nuances and transfer them to the business world – and they may not be what you thought.

Winning is often held up as the holy grail for sport and business. However, what sport has realized – at a great cost to their organizations, their athletes, and often the society that they influence – is that winning is not the perfect solution.

UK Sport, who lead all UK Olympic sports, recognized that the pursuit of winning was actually causing a great loss. Consider some of the epic failures which have occurred when sports adopted a winning-at-all-costs approach: drug-taking, rule-bending, pushing athletes to burnout and injury, and often abusive behaviors among coaches.

In addition, the research suggests that gold medals do not drive healthier societies. More subtly, sports governing bodies also realized that the pressure to win was leading to poorer performances, not just in the stadiums but also in athletes’ personal lives. Even when they did win the euphoria was short-lived, leaving all concerned to consider, “Was it really worth it?” – better known as the ‘Olympic Blues’.

“Winning well” became their mantra. The focus needed to shift from how many gold medals were won to performance process with the athletes at the heart: the environment that they worked within, the governance system and culture, the coaching approach, and the underlying process of achieving success not every four years but over a much longer period.

This focus had to stay centered on the athlete and the team rather than the structures and system, which needed to flex and accommodate the changing nature of the people.

Stepping off the performance treadmill

Such a shift in culture, system, and process does not come without risk. After all, much funding is based on results and winning. But sport is fast-moving, experimental and innovative, and these are often the super strengths that enable any organization to get ahead of the opposition.

To enable this shift in sport, significant progression has taken place in three keys areas, which I believe are the real nuances that are transferable to business.

1. Leading teams

2. Coaching teams

3. Culture execution

At the heart of all three is a better understanding of the pressure response and how it affects performance. Calm, confident, and happy performers who feel loved and cared for, who are working to a personal and team purpose that really matters to them, are likely to perform better than those who feel that they are on a performance treadmill, managed and monitored by data, directed by people that see them as a means to a gold medal end.

While this shift was initially met with derision and media critique because it was “soft” and did not meet the “macho” model of sport, the outcomes were significant. The medal tally increased, more people wanted to stay involved in their sport after they stopped competing as either coaches or support staff, and community engagement spiraled as the stories circulating the sport attracted more fans and corporate partnerships. It was a space where parents wanted their kids to be.

At Hult Ashridge, we have teased out the nuances which make a real difference to the business world. We do this through creating real-world, enjoyable, and challenging experiential learning that is memorable and long-lasting, with the person at the center.

The effect that these activities have on people is measurable using heart rate variance technology pioneered by Hult Ashridge and our sports partners, whereby you can actually see the physiological impact of an experience. This is what leads to what we call ‘sticky learning’ – learning that lasts.

The work we do with organizations is broad, covering how leaders can bring compassion into their processes, master coaching under pressure, foster trust and belonging, and nurture the kind of environment where their people can succeed.

So, I guess you could book another sporting champion for your next development program or conference, or you may simply adopt the mantra of the latest (often overhyped) sports bestseller topping the book charts.

But if you are serious about the process of achieving sustainable success for your business you could go further and create your own approach which will work in your environment and context, with your people and your purpose. Drawing on our experience, research and insight across sports large and small, you can discover what really happens in the business of sport at the leading edge: what works, what doesn’t, and the emotional engagement and patience it really takes to create sustainable success under pressure.

After 35 years of working in this field with pragmatic business and sports organizations, I know which approach is more likely to work. It will take insight and courage to take your own path, but it is well worth the journey – and the view at the end is far more enjoyable.