The One Thing Leaders Must Do, According to a Performance Psychologist

Entrepreneur

11-06-2025

We asked a performance psychologist who trains Elite Warriors and Olympic athletes about leadership. Her insights reveal why the best leaders walk alongside their team, not in front.
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There is no doubt that special operators like SEALs and Rangers are able to function under extreme pressure. But this is no accident. It is a result of cognitive performance coaching from people like Brittany Loney.
Loney is the founder and CEO of Elite Cognition and has almost 20 years of experience training high-performing operators from communities as diverse as tactical units, professional and Olympic athletes and corporate executives. Her work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, peer-reviewed academic journals, textbooks, and various other programs. Her unique perspective comes from understanding how the brain performs under extreme pressure and translating those lessons into practical leadership principles. In this interview, we asked her to apply her years of working with elite performers to the 7 Questions from Entrepreneur.
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Q1: What's the role of a leader from your perspective?
Loney: To put themselves last, and to put the mission first, the vision first, and others first.
Q2: What's the one thing that every leader needs to know?
Loney: To stay humble and distance their ego from the situation."
Q3: What's your most important habit?
Loney: To have a set of daily habits that I have identified that really help me every day. For me, movement and journaling help me gain clarity.
Q4: What's the most important thing for building an effective team?
Loney: To value conflict in a productive manner. Task conflict is okay, and teach people how to navigate that. It should never become social conflict.
Q5: What's the biggest mistake you see leaders make?
Loney: Not admitting weakness and not showing vulnerability to a team when it would be effective to do so.
Q6: What's the best way to deliver bad news?
Loney: Honestly and directly and then show care afterwards.
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Q7: What's something you've changed your mind about recently?
Loney: It's not recent, but growing up, I always thought leaders had to take charge and lead from the front, and I think it would be to walk alongside and really learning how to do that. It took about 15 years for me to learn how to walk alongside someone as a guide versus telling them what to do.
The full interview with Brittany Loney can be found here: