I recently read a study on elite athletes that made me think: this is what’s missing in the way we think about executive capability.

In the study, researchers tested whether targeted cognitive training (using things like video simulations and VR drills to replicate high-pressure scenarios) could help athletes stay composed under extreme pressure. 

These cognitive training interventions made a huge difference, with the athletes becoming better at managing stress, regulating emotion and maintaining focus. In other words, they stayed calmer and mentally agile, leading to better performance when it mattered. 

Financial executives, much like top athletes, face high-stakes situations where they have to make split-second decisions under intense scrutiny. The study’s evidence that pressure-focused cognitive training improves athletes’ performance and builds long-term stress resilience suggests that financial firms could adopt similar approaches to keep their leaders calm, adaptable and effective through volatile conditions. 

Pressure as a performance catalyst 

What I want firms to take away from this research is that being the fitter or faster athlete (or, in our context, the more experienced or technically skilled executive) only goes so far. Athletes that gain the biggest performance advantage are those whose minds have been trained to operate under pressure.

Simulated stress conditions allow them to rehearse emotional regulation, recover faster from mistakes, and stay composed when their instinct might otherwise be to freeze or overreact.

Financial executives face their own equivalents of penalty shootouts or match-point serves: a sudden regulatory shift, an unexpected market shock, a cyber incident demanding an immediate response. When those incidents occur, what matters is the leader’s cognitive agility; whether they can absorb information, avoid reactive decision-making, and create clarity for others.

Training cognitive agility and building resilient leadership pipelines

The study raises an important point for firms thinking about how they identify and develop executives. The findings reinforce that resilience and agility, often viewed as innate gifts, are trainable skills. Modern candidate evaluations and executive development should evolve to reflect this.

Scenario-based simulations, for example, can replicate a sudden regulatory announcement that changes capital requirements overnight, or a sharp market swing that threatens portfolio stability. Exposing candidates to these allows hiring managers to observe how an executive thinks and acts when the environment becomes unstable.

For executives already in post, similar approaches can be built into ongoing development. Tabletop crisis exercises, market-shock scenario rehearsals or regulatory stress simulations give leaders the opportunity to practice high-stakes decisions before they face them in reality.

This opens up powerful opportunities for firms to build resilience into their leadership pipelines, giving high-potential leaders exposure to controlled challenges before they shoulder those pressures in live market conditions. This approach will shift succession planning from a static exercise in titles and tenure to a dynamic approach that prepares future leaders for the pressure-cooker moments that will inevitably define their careers.

I believe this is particularly important as we look at the generational shift underway across financial services. Many senior executives will retire over the next decade, and the leaders stepping up will face environments defined by technological acceleration, regulatory scrutiny and geopolitical instability. Preparing them cognitively, not just technically, is the best investment firms can make.

Are you testing for agility as well as ability?

The financial services industry has always prided itself on rigour, precision and performance. The challenge now is to expand the definition of performance to include the cognitive capabilities that underpin leadership in turbulent environments.

At Hanover, we see that theme surface daily. When clients ask us to find their next CEO, CFO or senior leader, the conversation increasingly turns to qualities like adaptability, composure and agility. Technical expertise remains important, but what really separates the exceptional from the adequate is their capacity to make clear, measured decisions when circumstances are volatile.

That is why I advocate approaches that draw on lessons from the research I shared earlier. It gives our industry a new lens to look through, a new way of getting “outside the box” and finding the talent that will deliver not only in stable times, but when the business is under strain. 

Our role at Hanover is to help firms identify, evaluate and secure that talent. As you think about your own leadership strategy, I would encourage you to ask: are you testing for agility as well as ability? Because in the years ahead, it may be the single most important quality on a leadership bench. If you can’t answer that question with confidence, make sure you reach out to me directly; I can help you build cognitive agility into your search strategy, and secure leaders who truly possess it.