From Olympic Podiums To Boardrooms – Why One Coach Says MBAs Are Psychologically Undertrained

When Paul Postema works with Olympic athletes competing on the world stage, the difference between success and failure often comes down to psychological readiness under extreme pressure. After earning his MBA at Warwick Business School and coaching executives across the U.K. and U.S., he has reached a conclusion that business schools may not be ready to hear: Many MBA graduates are technically prepared for high-stakes careers – but psychologically undertrained for them.

Postema, 36, is currently serving as mental performance coach to members of the Dutch National Bobsleigh Team competing in the Winter Olympics, while also advising a top-100 professional squash player and senior executives in finance, consulting, and industry. His specialty is translating Olympic-level performance psychology into the corporate environment – helping people perform at their best when fatigue, stress, and consequences collide.

It is also what prompted him, a longtime Poets&Quants reader, to reach out with an idea: Why don’t MBAs treat human performance the way elite sport does?

SKILLS ARE NECESSARY – BUT NOT SUFFICIENT

Postema is careful not to frame his argument as an indictment of the MBA. His own experience at Warwick, he says, was “life-changing.”

“The MBA was great. Without it, I wouldn’t be where I am now,” he says. “The analytical skills, the leadership frameworks, finance, operations – all of that is necessary.”

The problem, he argues, is what business schools assume will take care of itself.

“High performance isn’t just about skills or how smart you are,” Postema says. “It’s about emotional regulation, resilience, and making good decisions under pressure.”

That distinction becomes critical in the environments many MBAs enter after graduation. Investment banking, private equity, consulting, and parts of corporate strategy routinely demand 80- to 100-hour workweeks. Knowing how to price risk or optimize a portfolio matters. But it is not enough if psychological capacity collapses under sustained strain.

“It’s great that you know how to mitigate risk in a finance portfolio,” he says. “But what does that bring you if you can’t emotionally regulate yourself during the earning season?”

He is blunt about the consequences.

“If you fall apart at that moment, you can have all the knowledge in the world and still perform badly,” he says. “That’s the reality.”

WHAT MBAs TOUCH – AND WHAT THEY MISS

Postema graduated in 2023 after arriving at business school from a management role in HR consulting, while simultaneously building a career in elite sport. Today he works with five Olympians and multiple corporate leaders – experiences that give him a dual vantage point few MBA critics possess.

When he looks back at his own program, he recalls exposure to coaching, peer feedback, and reflective exercises.

“We had one hour of executive coaching, some peer feedback to increase awareness, maybe some reflections you needed to write,” he says. “That was it. It’s just not enough.”

The capabilities he develops with clients – stress regulation, confidence, cognitive awareness, decision-making under pressure – are learned skills, not personality traits reserved for a select few.

“Optimizing your own performance is transferable. Emotional regulation is transferable,” he says. “Mitigating risk in a finance portfolio is not.”

THE 80-HOUR TEST

For Postema, the real exam begins after graduation.

“How are you going to stay motivated, dedicated, and focused at the 80th hour of the week?” he asks.

He has coached professionals who quietly sacrifice relationships to keep pace with demanding careers. One consultant told him she ended a relationship because her partner did not understand the intensity of her workload.

“So how do you deal with that?” Postema says. “Things that happen in the very little time you have in your private life influence what you do during those 100-hour workweeks – and you still need to perform. If you don’t perform, you don’t get promoted. If you don’t get promoted, you get pushed out.”

Business schools, he argues, should confront that reality more directly.

PERFORMANCE IS MEASURABLE

What separates Postema’s philosophy from traditional leadership education is his insistence on data.

“When I discuss resilience, cognitive performance anxiety, somatic performance anxiety, confidence, wellbeing – these things can be measured,” he says. “We do it all the time with Olympians. My corporate clients get the same tests and the same data.”

If it were up to him, MBA programs would introduce a dedicated course – Human Performance for Managers – that begins at orientation and runs throughout the degree.

Students would establish a baseline, learn frameworks to improve performance, and repeat testing over time to track progress.

“It becomes hands-on,” he says. “Students try it on themselves, benefit from it themselves, and graduate as higher-performing individuals who also know how to apply those tools to others.”

To his knowledge, no school currently offers a fully integrated module of this kind.

“I think there would be demand,” he says. “Ultimately, we all want to perform at our best.”

AWARENESS IS THE BREAKTHROUGH

One of Postema’s favorite examples comes from an Olympian he coaches. Moments before a race, the athlete suddenly recognized an unhelpful thought forming – something that would previously have gone unnoticed.

“Normally those thoughts are automatic and we are not aware of them,” Postema says. “But with training, he became aware. Because he was aware, he could translate it into a helpful thought instead of letting it undermine him.”

That self-awareness, he argues, often separates consistent high performers from everyone else.

“The most successful people are very aware of the things they do and think.”

Likability matters, too – a trait he believes can be taught more deliberately than many assume.

“Successful people are able to deal with any type of person, and they are likable,” he says. “I can teach people to be likable. But it’s not really taught during the MBA, and it’s such an important aspect of career success.”

FROM THE LOCKER ROOM TO THE C-SUITE

Postema has seen the consequences of underdeveloped performance skills firsthand among senior leaders.

Two recent clients – a CEO and a head of product management in the U.K. – entered strategic roles but found their calendars controlled by others, leaving little time for the work that mattered most.

“They were working far more hours than necessary,” he says.

Within weeks of restructuring priorities and decision habits, one messaged him: “It’s the best Tuesday morning I’ve ever had.”

For Postema, the lesson is simple: performance is trainable.

WHO OWNS PERFORMANCE?

Despite his critique, Postema does not believe business schools bear sole responsibility.

“If I look at myself, there is only one responsible for my performance: me,” he says.

Schools cannot redesign demanding industries, nor should they attempt to solve every workplace challenge. But they can equip students with tools to navigate them – and to make intentional choices.

“You are very aware of the rigorous workweeks,” he says. “Do you prepare yourself for them, or do you choose a different industry or firm?”

There is power, he adds, in recognizing that opting out is itself a performance decision.

“Choosing not to do something is part of improving well-being – and the higher your well-being, the higher your performance.”

THE NEXT FRONTIER FOR THE MBA?

Business schools have spent years reinventing curricula around analytics, experiential learning, and artificial intelligence. Far less attention has been paid to the science of sustained human performance.

Yet as leadership demands intensify, Postema believes psychological readiness may become as essential as technical mastery.

Technical skills may get graduates hired. The ability to perform under relentless pressure, he suggests, determines whether they endure – and ultimately lead.

Because whether on an Olympic track or inside a boardroom, potential alone is never enough.

“We all want to be successful in work and in life,” Postema says. “Ultimately, investing in your own performance is investing in yourself.”

DON’T MISS THIS FRENCH B-SCHOOL IS REPRESENTED BY AN INCREDIBLE 26 OLYMPIANS IN THE 2024 PARIS GAMES and MY STORY: FROM TANZANIA TO THE OLYMPICS & STANFORD GSB

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