High performance under pressure: What businesses can learn from elite sport

What do world class athletes know about high performance that business leaders could overlook?

In the Actcountex London 2025, three competitors of Elite-Stuart Broad, Bryan Havana and Ebony Rainford-Born-Sat-Sat for a power panel on how data, innovation and mentality combine high performance.

Organized by Kirsty Waller, Vice President of Regional Performance Marketing in Sage, the session explored what counters and business leaders can learn from sport on staying sharp, adapt quickly and prosper under pressure.

In this article, we highlight some key ideas that shared and talk about how you can apply their lessons to your business.

This is what we cover:

Mentoring, mentality and little daily wins

The legend of the Cricket Stuart Broad opened with a history of his school days.

He said: “The best advice I have become the best filter I could.”

As his career progressed, they were leaked distractions from the noise of the media to doubt and focuses on how he wanted to deepen every day.

Your method?

Daily notes, handwritten, about the energy I wanted to bring and the leader who wanted to be independent of the results.

Stuart explained: “Every morning, he wrote how he wanted to behave. It was never performance, only energy and positivity.”

The former star and commentator of Crickt from England, Ebony Rainford-Bornnt, shared a similar approach. “I was everywhere as a child,” he said, “but once I learned to prepare myself correctly, everything changed.”

Ebony’s career was molded not only by talent, but for the ability to re -fuss after the setbacks, and continue to appear with the purpose.

For the winner of the South Africa Rugby World Cup, Bryan Havana, Mindset was inseparable from motivation. He said: “He trains as he thought you are number two, even when you are number one.”

This hunger for improvement helped him make the jumping star jump of the World Cup to the Fintech businessman.

The AI ​​coach: how the data sharpens the instinct

The data increasingly promoting modern sport.

From visual training technology in Rugby to recovery tools based on Cricket, today’s athletes use ideas to sharpen instincts, not replace them.

“The AI ​​is becoming the invisible coach,” Bryan said. But he also warned about excessive dependence and “analysis by analysis.”

He said: “The statistics told me that the opponents were running more than me, but I was scoring more attempts. The context matters.”

This tension, between trusting the data and trusting yourself, applies both to business.

From visual training tools to recovery planning, AI allows elite athletes to track trends, refine decisions and customize performance.

But no one in the panel saw data as a replacement for human intuition.

In accounting, AI tools such as Sage Copilot are helping to finance automatic automatic administration and surface surface equipment in real time.

But the best decisions still depend on human judgment, especially when pressure on.

Instinct versus information: filter what matters

For Stuart, the data were the spark for transformation.

After they told him that he had a lower performance against left -handed batters, he spent months rebuilding his technique and reduced his average bowling against them from 37 to 17.

But Ebony offered a precautionary word.

She said: “In my early career, I trusted the data too much. Once I ignored the conditions and trusted the model. He signed.”

He recalled a match in which a data model predicted that anything above 280 would be a winning score.

“I thought we had it in the bag,” he said. “But I didn’t read the field or opposition. They chased him in the middle of the time. It looked like a complete idiot.”

The experience taught him to combine data with instinct, and always read the room.

Approximately time, hugged rule 80/20: 80% of the results come from 20% of tickets. He focused on identifying what moved the needle and let the rest go.

The lesson: not only collects data, squeeze.

Resilience and reinvention

Success is not linear. The three athletes shared moments of doubt, injury and failure.

For Bryan, he was bumble of the field on the front or 23,000 fans. For Ebony, it was an injury and close to retirement. And for Stuart, it was the humiliating experience of being throughout the park in Durban.

Each of them turned the fuel setbacks.

“You wake up and choose your mentality,” Bryan said. “Either a game day or a Monday morning.”

That mentality now promotes its commercial companies, from the hospitality business of Stuart to the Coaching project led by AI de Ebony, which uses technology until access to democratism to Cricket for thousands of sub -present children.

How counters and business leaders can become high performance

So what does all this mean for you?

• Prepare as a professional: It’s not just about what you know, it’s how you apply it. Use the data, but trust your process.

• Adopt intelligent tools: Ai can be an ally. With tools such as SAGE COPILOT, you can routine automatic administration data and report generation, so it can focus on the most value work, such as cash flow prognosis, scenario planning and customer advice services.

• Build mental muscle: They are not born of high performance, they are trained. Just as athletes trust routines and training, finance professionals need workflows and tools that help them stay resistant and consistent, specifically when the deadlines reach.

• Keep evolving: Being still staying behind. Stay curiosity. Stay up to date with regulatory changes such as doing digital prosecutors, exploring new ways of providing advice and experimenting with tools such as AI to sacrifice deeper ideas.

• Stay ready: Be prepared to change customer expectations, faster report cycles and a more strategic role in commercial decision making.

Take it home: the high performance mentality in business

Whether you are playing bowling in the field of Melbourne’s Cricket or that closes the end of the room, the performance is based on habits, tools and mentality.

In the field or in the joint room, high performance is reduced to three things:

1. Knowledge: Understand what matters most.
2. Preparation: Build the habits that appear under pressure.
3. Execution: Move fast, adapt quickly and lead with intention.

3 final ideas of Ebony, Bryan and Stuart

Final thoughts

The Sage High Performance panel was a clear reminder that the right resistance and tools create the conditions for success.

Sports and companies can have different rules, but the best leaders learn to train, think and perform as athletes, using the highest performance tools to help them.