Insights, Leadership

Leading for the Long Haul

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Lessons from Elite Swimmers for Executive Leaders

BRYAN J. CHRISTIANSON, MANAGING DIRECTOR

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As October begins, many executives have recently ended a prior quarter of pursuits. For some, it marks the first quarter of a new fiscal year and for others it transitions into the final quarter of the current fiscal year. With the transition, it’s a natural time to pause and ask:

• Are our strategies moving the business forward?
• Are our priorities gaining traction?
• Are our teams aligned around what we are trying to accomplish?

But there is another question worth asking:

• What will sustain us when the journey becomes harder, slower, or less predictable than we expected?

Three months can feel like a significant amount of time. Yet, when the goal is meaningful organizational transformation, it’s just the beginning.

Major strategic initiatives rarely unfold in a straight line. Consensus takes time. Decisions can become complicated. Resources are often constrained. Unexpected events change the context, while assumptions evolve accordingly. And sometimes the factors that could materially affect an outcome are known.

For today’s executives, it’s not enough to create a compelling strategy. You must be able to sustain the leadership (and the energy) required to pursue that strategy over time.

That thought recently brought me back to a recent interview with Jack Roach, a highly respected swimming coach whose career has included coaching elite athletes, U.S. Olympic teams, USA Swimming’s National Junior Team, and national teams and programs at the highest levels of the sport.

What makes elite swimming such an interesting parallel to organizational leadership is the relationship between the goal and the work required to reach it.

A swimmer may train for months or years for an event that ultimately lasts only a matter of minutes. The destination is clear, but the path is repetitive, demanding and filled with opportunities for doubt. Progress isn’t always visible. Setbacks happen. Circumstances change.

And yet, the training continues. In swimming circles, this training can often be referred to as the ‘hard yards.’

This made me think about what executives might learn from elite athletes about maintaining performance over a long journey.

Two ideas from Roach’s perspective particularly stood out to me.

1. The best performers are resilient—and naturally optimistic.

Angela Duckworth’s research on grit describes it as the combination of passion and perseverance for long-term goals.^* Her work has helped bring greater attention to the role persistence plays when achievement requires sustained effort over time.

That concept has obvious relevance to leadership.

Business transformation inevitably involves ups and downs, twists and turns, starts and stops. Strategies evolve. Plans encounter resistance. Results take longer than expected. Leaders discover that something they believed six months ago is no longer true.

Resilience allows a leader to absorb those experiences without losing sight of the larger objective.

But there is another quality that I find particularly compelling: optimism.

Not optimism as naivete. Not optimism as ignoring difficult facts. Rather, an orientation toward possibility.

The belief that a problem can be solved. That a better approach can be found. That people can make a difference. That today’s constraint does not necessarily have to become tomorrow’s limitation.

For a leader navigating transformation, that mindset matters.

Resilience helps you stay the course. Optimism helps you continue to see a path forward.

You need both.

2. The best performers are both able and willing.

This may be the more challenging leadership lesson.

Ask yourself first: Are you able?

Do you have the knowledge, competencies and skills required to lead effectively? Those capabilities can be developed. We can learn. We can train. We can gain experience. We can seek coaching. We can acquire better tools and resources.

But then comes the harder question: Are you willing?

Willingness is different from capability. It is about mindset—belief, conviction, curiosity, vulnerability and self-awareness. It shows up in behaviors.

• Are you willing to listen?
• To receive difficult feedback?
• To be coached?
• To acknowledge what you don’t know?
• To change your mind when the evidence changes?
• To model the behaviors you are asking from others?
• To have the difficult conversation when avoiding it would be easier?

In the interview, Roach discussed the distinction between being unable and being unwilling—an important distinction in coaching athletes and, I would argue, in leading organizations.

Sometimes people need more capability. Sometimes they need a different mindset.

And sometimes the executive needs to recognize which problem they are actually trying to solve.

In the interview, Roach discussed the distinction between being unable and being unwilling—an important distinction in coaching athletes and, I would argue, in leading organizations.

Sometimes people need more capability. Sometimes they need a different mindset.

The journey is the work.

There is an important lesson in watching an elite swimmer train. The breakthrough rarely comes from one extraordinary practice. It comes from hundreds of practices.

Small adjustments. Repetition. Feedback. Recovery. Discipline. Setbacks. Persistence. And a willingness to keep getting better.

Organizational transformation is much the same. The strategy may be approved in the boardroom. The initiative may be launched with energy and enthusiasm. The goals may be clear.

But the transformation is ultimately built in the weeks, months and years that follow.

It is built through the daily choices leaders make:

• How do we respond when progress is slower than expected?
• How do we maintain energy without creating exhaustion?
• How do we remain optimistic without losing our grounding in reality?
• How do we build the capabilities our teams need?
• And are we, as leaders, willing to learn and change along with the organization?

The past quarter is over. That is worth recognizing.

But for executives pursuing meaningful transformation, it is also a reminder:

The goal may be quarters or years away. The work starts again tomorrow morning.

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OCTOBER 19, 2026

Bryan J. Christianson is a Managing Director in DSG Global’s Healthcare Practice. A member of the American College of Healthcare Executives, he brings more than 25 years of healthcare experience and has placed leaders at national health systems, community hospitals, and pediatric organizations.

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References

• ^*Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Scribner.
• ^*Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087-1101.
• Lee, T. H., & Duckworth, A. L. (2018). Organizational grit. Harvard Business Review, September-October 2018.