Are you reading this by a pool somewhere?
Or maybe you’re in the mountains, on retreat, finally finding some space to look inward after months of running hard.
Good. You’re already doing something many executives never do.
Some play the outer game all year: strategy, performance, execution, power. They barely stop to look at the person playing it.
The distinction is simple: the outer game is about running the business. The inner game is about running and developing yourself while doing it.
So take the break. Notice what you’ve been too busy to notice.
But here’s the less comfortable question:
Will any of this still be available to you in October?
When the numbers are off, the board is pushing, the transformation gets messy, and your calendar has been running you for six weeks.
That’s when your inner game gets tested.
Can you notice yourself while impatience takes over? Can you catch conviction becoming attachment, decisiveness shutting people down, your analytical brilliance filtering out what you don’t want to hear?
This is where the gap between being highly successful and truly exceptional starts to show.
The truly exceptional don’t just master the outer game. They develop their inner game with the same seriousness.
And that means more than awareness or self-regulation.
It means growth: holding more complexity, seeing new perspectives, becoming less identified with the patterns that made you successful, and gaining more freedom to choose under pressure.
That doesn’t happen during two weeks in August.
Insight can happen in a moment. Development takes practice, habits, friction, and time.
And serious inner development at the top is extraordinarily difficult to do alone.
Successful executives understand this elsewhere. If they want to improve their tennis, they don’t choose an average trainer. If they climb a serious mountain, they want an exceptional guide.
Why should the inner game be different?
You need someone with real mastery of that terrain. Someone who has done the work, recognizes patterns you cannot yet see, and understands development beyond tools and occasional reflection.
But that’s only half of it.
They also need to understand your world: business, power, politics, performance, conflict, responsibility, especially when those collide and you still have to make the call.
That combination is rare.
I believe it is one of the most valuable relationships a senior executive can have: an advisor who understands the outer game while seeing what’s happening in your inner game.
Who knows when to challenge your strategy and when to challenge the person creating it.
So enjoy the pool. Take the retreat. Climb the mountain. I do, too.
But don’t confuse insight with development.
If your inner game only works when the outer game stops, you haven’t mastered it.
The truly exceptional learn to play both at the same time, when it matters most.