{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"The Gap Between Good and Great Isn't Technical","description":"Released May 14, 2026 Episode 233 Fourteen years working with NBA players teaches you something most leadership books miss: the gap between good and great is almost never technical. It's psychological. This week I sit down with Tom Mitchell \u2014 40+ years coaching elite athletes and business leaders, co-author of an Amazon bestseller with Joe Montana, and author of the new book Embrace Your Inner Coach. Tom\u2019s central argument is deceptively simple: the gap between good and great is almost never technical. It\u2019s psychological. And the tools that work in a locker room work just as well in a boardroom. Three things to take from this conversation 1. Clarity, the burn, and visualisation \u2014 the three pillars of high performance Elite athletes know exactly where they\u2019re going, have an almost visceral hunger to get there, and train their minds to inhabit the goal before it\u2019s real. Most executives have at least one of these. Very few have all three. Tom\u2019s coaching, in both worlds, starts here. 2. Coaching isn\u2019t fixing Tom is refreshingly honest about the limits of his role. He could help a benched player process the frustration, sharpen their game, and come back stronger. What he couldn\u2019t do \u2014 and wouldn\u2019t \u2014 was lobby the coach for their minutes. If you lead people, this distinction matters enormously. 3. Journaling is taking a photograph of yourself Tom has kept journals for over 40 years. He doesn\u2019t frame it as a discipline or a ritual \u2014 just an occasional record of where you are, what you\u2019re thinking, what you\u2019re hoping for. For busy executives, that kind of reflective snapshot is often the missing link between activity and actual growth. Tom\u2019s book Embrace Your Inner Coach is available on Amazon. Find him at www.tommitchell.com. ","author_name":"The Executive Edge","author_url":"http:\/\/suefirthltd.com","html":"