4 Critical Insights From The World's Most Unique Leadership Performance Coach
A 6-minute investment to help make you a better leader - In role. In life.
Hi, I’m Jason. If you believe great leadership starts with being your best self - in role and in life - I've created The Prime Movement for you. I'm here to help you thrive mentally, physically, and emotionally. Because when you're at your best, you lift up everyone around you.
What’s coming up:
Prime Performance: This Week’s Best News, Views & Life-Hacks
The Prime Perspective: 4 Critical Insights From The World's Most Unique Leadership Performance Coach
Lessons from the Arena: When Switching Off Isn’t An Option
Be a Prime Mover: 1 Quote to Spark Change
Prime Performance: this week’s news, views and life hacks
🎞️ WATCH Resolutions Hitting Reality? 3 Key Actions in 70 Seconds
The first week of February is frequently where the good intentions of resolutions increasingly bump up against the harsh nature of day-to-day reality. Fortunately if you’re in that situation, I think I can help.
📖 READ Leaders - You Need to Rethink or Become Extinct
That’s essentially the root of the provocation in thought leader Rishad Toboccowala’s new book, Rethinking Work, but the real gift he’s giving us is this free platform of ever-evolving content to help us navigate the shock waves that are coming. Bookmark it now. Thank him later.
📻 LISTEN How To Fix Your Negative Patterns
World-renowned philosopher and author Alain de Bottom features on the latest episode of Chris Williamson’s Modern Wisdom podcast, and it’s as rich a conversation as you’d expect. They cover so many subjects applicable to leadership such as why we can struggle to let certain behaviours go. I personally loved his concept of giving public recognition to moments of emotional breakthrough among others, which you can hear just after the hour mark.
The Prime Perspective: Thoughts on Leadership and Growth
4 Critical Insights From The World's Most Unique Performance Pioneer
In last week's newsletter, I highlighted the Huberman Lab episode with Josh Waitzkin as an early contender for best podcast of 2025. Since then, I've listened to it again, taking notes, and I’m going to go one step further and say it’s probably the best I’ve ever heard.
I’d urge all of you to listen and make your own minds up, but I also know many of you are time-poor, so as valued subscribers I wanted to share mymost powerful take-aways.
I think this interview resonated with me deeply because as a world-class chess prodigy turned martial arts champion turned elite performance consultant, Waitzkin embodies what I've long believed: true optimization, in role and in life, requires an integrated, inter-connected approach.
And then of course there’s the way he articulates it - he captures my own beliefs better than I could myself. So the 4 insights I’m sharing will be more personal than normal, but I hope they matter to you as much as do to me:
1. The Hidden Power of Loss: Why Defeat Is Your Greatest Teacher
Waitzkin’s perspective on loss is truly transformative. Rather than viewing defeats as setbacks, he sees these “beautiful” moments as unique catalysts for growth. He feels strongly that it was his losses far more than his wins that propelled him toward transformation and he urges us all to therefore “hunt out adversity” - embracing challenges that push us to our growth edge. Think about the leaders you admire the most and I suspect you’ll find a 'beautiful disaster' story that catalyzed their growth.But embracing loss is only valuable if you're actively in the arena. This brings us to Waitzkin's powerful warning about…
2. The Armchair Quarterback Trap: Why Observers Never Become Champions
Waitzkin warns against becoming what he calls an ‘armchair quarterback’- someone who critiques from the sidelines but who never steps into the arena themselves. Regular readers will know how strongly I feel about this as I've seen how easy it is for successful leaders to gradually retreat from active engagement to passive observation.To switch from being ‘explorers’ to ‘experts’ - it’s a seductive move, but ultimately it’s a dangerous one, as it can ultimately lead to losing relevance. Once you're committed to staying in the arena, the next challenge becomes how you show up. This is where Waitzkin's next concept becomes crucial...
3. The Trap of Becoming A “Simmering Six”
Perhaps his most provocative insight concerns what he calls the "simmering six" - the trap of putting in long hours of mediocre effort rather than focused periods of quality work, the proverbial 6 out of 10 effort. It's not about working longer; it's about working with greater intention and intensity, followed by a conscious focus on rest and recovery. He captures perfectly how no elite teams operate in the way many do in the workplace - they have an incredible level of commitment for a defined period - they’re all in at 10 out of 10 and then they switch off completely as they know they need to recharge. Amp up. Turn off. But that move towards mastery requires more than just time. This is where Waitzkin's most profound insight comes into play...
4. Becoming A Living Laboratory: The Science of Self-Mastery
I cannot stress enough how important I think this is. Waitzkin isn’t a scientist in conventional terms, but he approaches performance with that mindset - conducting experiments, constantly testing, measuring, and refining. What struck me most was his emphasis on being your own laboratory. Too often, we outsource our growth entirely to others - whether that's blindly following training programs or robotically implementing leadership frameworks, “because that’s the one Jeff Bezos follows”. While external guidance is unquestionably critical to development, the magic happens when that is combined with the individual maintaining agency and intentionality in their development. I live and breathe this now, but I truly wish someone had shared this advice with me earlier in life (and I’ll be coming back to expand on this in the future).
The Path Forward
What makes Waitzkin's insights so powerful is that they're not just theoretical - they're battle-tested across multiple domains of excellence. From the chess board to the martial arts mat to the boardroom, these principles have proven their worth.
As Waitzkin would say, it's time to step into your own laboratory. But like any good scientist, you need the right tools and framework. This is exactly why Dr Brendon and I are developing the TPM Program - to give you the structure and support to enable you to progress towards you at your best. In role. In life.
Ready to explore this further? Message me at jason@theprimemovement.com
THE PRIME PERFORMANCE PROGRAM
Building Better Leaders. In Role. In Life.
Lessons from the Arena: Real Life Leadership Challenges
Every week, I'll share real challenges from coaching experiences, offering practical insights you can apply to your own leadership journey.
CHALLENGE:
"I'm in a senior role at a leading investment bank and I'm tired of getting generic advice about recovery and work-life balance from individuals who don't understand the reality of my role. Yes, I know sleep is important. Yes, I know I should take breaks. But when the markets are moving and deals are closing, that's not always possible. I need strategies that work in the real world, not some idealised scenario. How do you optimize performance when 'switching off' isn't always an option?"
MY GUIDANCE:
We all have our triggers and I have to be honest and say this initially generated an emotional response from me.
So, there's a reality that when I was in my global C-suite role, I struggled to find balance. What really didn't help me at that time was the friction caused by well-meaning advice bumping up against the reality of my commitments.
It's why I strongly believe in a hyper-personalised approach with clients - as the only routines and frameworks that matter are the ones that can be implemented in the reality of your world.
In this type of situation, it's about optimizing within the operating environment and here are a few of my thoughts around practical implementation:
1. Reframe Recovery
As Josh Waitzkin makes clear, the ideal is an 'on/off' scenario, but in dynamic environments like this 'tactical recovery' is the key. In this context, where long periods of complete rest can be hard to come by, it's about capturing micro-opportunities throughout the day. A perfect example of this is Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR) - a transformative relaxation technique that allows individuals to achieve a state of deep relaxation similar to sleep.
2. Strategic Energy Management
Just as you wouldn't execute all trades at once, don't even try to maintain the same energy level throughout the day. Instead, think like an athlete and work out when you need to peak:
Identify your critical decision-making windows
Map your key client interaction times
Build 5-10 minute recovery blocks around these high-demand periods
3. Performance Rituals
Develop transition rituals that signal state changes to your nervous system. For example, use the period immediately after 'clocking off' to practice box breathing, and allow yourself to decompress rapidly and disconnect from work stresses.
4. Use the right tech tools
We're increasingly in a world where there are tools you can use to monitor your performance just as you monitor markets. Track key metrics such as your heart rate variability (HRV) and your sleep quality and leverage the insights you can gain from that data. Focus on optimizing your rest and recovery just as much as you would your performance in the workplace.
The Bottom Line:
The goal isn't to lose time and energy trying to implement 'solutions' that clash with your industry's culture, that's counter-intuitive and will just exacerbate your frustration. This is about building a personalized, implementable sustainable system that works uniquely for you.
Ready to take your leadership to the next level? Book a call by messaging me at jason@theprimemovement.com.
Be A Prime Mover: 1 Quote to Spark Change
“Great ones are willing to get burned time and again as they sharpen their swords in the fire”
— Josh Waitzkin
If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing this with a friend. We are stronger together.
Your thoughts are the fuel that keeps us moving forward, so message me at jason@theprimemovement.com.
