What I learned about energy management from 30 seasons in elite sport and what corporate leaders are getting wrong

I’ve spent most of my professional career working inside the world of elite sport. Eight seasons with the Cronulla Sharks. Eight with the GWS Giants. Five with Giants Netball. The Sydney Kings. The NSW Waratahs and Western Sydney Wanderers. And seven years advising to the Australian Defence Force School of Special Operations – arguably the most demanding performance environment in the country.

In every single one of those environments, energy management was the difference between their definition of winning and losing. Not just on game day, but across a season, a career, a life.

And then I moved into corporate Australia.

What I found surprised me. Not because executives weren’t working hard. They were working incredibly hard. The problem was how they were managing their energy and how much of what I’d learned in over 30 seasons of elite sport was sitting completely untapped in the boardroom.

Here’s what elite sport taught me about energy management – and where I see corporate leaders getting it wrong.

1. Elite athletes treat energy like a budget. Most leaders treat it like a tap.

The best athletes I’ve worked with are meticulous about energy allocation. They know exactly how much they have, when to spend it, and critically when to protect it. Every training session, every recovery protocol, every nutritional strategy is designed around one question: am I building toward peak performance at the right moment, or am I depleting unnecessarily?

Most corporate leaders I meet are running on the tap model. The tap is either on or off. When it’s on, they’re going full pace. When it’s off, usually through illness, exhaustion or forced holiday – they crash. There’s no strategy between those two states.

The science is clear: energy is finite and renewable, but only if you manage the renewal deliberately. The same periodisation principles that drive a premiership-winning pre-season apply directly to a leadership calendar. Build toward the big moments. Recover intentionally between them.

2. The afternoon slump is not inevitable – it’s a fuelling problem.

In elite sport, we talk about ‘fuel for the work required.’ The nutritional strategy shifts based on the intensity and timing of the demand. A player heading into a 90-minute high-intensity training session fuels differently to one doing a recovery swim. The principle is simple: match your fuel to your output.

In corporate environments, I see the opposite. Executives eating the same thing, or nothing – regardless of what the day demands. Back-to-back high-stakes meetings, a board presentation, a difficult performance conversation – all fuelled by a coffee and the memory of breakfast at 7am.

The afternoon productivity crash most leaders experience around 2-3pm is a physiology problem. Blood sugar dips, mental fatigue accumulates, and decision-making quality drops – measurably. Research consistently shows that cognitive performance, working memory and executive function all decline with inadequate fuelling. While everyone will experience some dip mid-afternoon, the severity of it is largely determined by what you eat (or don’t eat) in the lead up to it.

The fix isn’t complicated. It’s consistent. Small, strategic fuelling at regular intervals keeps energy stable and performance sharp throughout the day.

3. Recovery is a performance tool, not a reward

This is the one that changes the most minds when I’m on stage.

In every elite environment I’ve worked in, recovery is non-negotiable. It’s scheduled. It’s prioritised. It’s measured. Nobody in the Cronulla Sharks system in 2016 apologised for taking a recovery day. It was part of the work.

In corporate culture, recovery is still largely framed as a weakness or a reward. Taking a break means you’re not committed. Leaving at a reasonable hour means you’re not working hard enough. Sleep is the sacrifice you make when things get busy.

This is the most expensive performance mistake I see leaders make. The research on sleep deprivation and decision-making quality is clear – just one night of poor sleep measurably reduces cognitive function, emotional regulation and risk assessment. For leaders making decisions that affect hundreds of people, this isn’t a wellness issue. It’s a performance issue.

The leaders who stay at the top the longest are not the ones who outwork everyone else. They’re the ones who recover better.

4. The best performers have a system — not just good intentions

What sets the athletes and executives I’ve worked with who achieve sustainable high performance apart from those who burn out isn’t talent, motivation or even discipline. It’s architecture.

They have a daily operating system built around the behaviours that protect their energy. Non-negotiable sleep windows. Structured fuelling through the day. Movement built into the work

rather than squeezed around it. Clear boundaries around recovery. Not because they’re disciplined enough to do it differently every day, but because it’s built into how they operate.

This is exactly what I cover in my keynotes on energy management and sustainable high performance. Not inspiration, but performance architecture. Because inspiration and overhauls, fade, but systems hold.

The bottom line

Energy management isn’t a wellness concept. It’s a performance strategy. The same science that drives premiership winning teams and Olympians applies directly to the leaders, founders and executives navigating some of the most demanding professional environments in the world.

The gap isn’t information. Most leaders know they should sleep better, eat more consistently and take breaks. The gap is the system, and that’s where the work happens.