Nate’s Notes 233: Sébastien Page, Chief Investment Officer at T. Rowe Price on the Psychology of Leadership

What great, counterintuitive lessons Sébastien shared. For the sports psychologist and 40-time national handball champ Daniel Zimet his best match ever was a loss. Roger Federer, one of the greatest tennis players of all time, lost nearly half the points in his career. Outcomes are noisy, and are only loose signals of decision quality. True peak performance, whether in sports, investing, or life, isn’t always about winning. It’s about a relentless focus on the process.

And Sébastien’s counterintuitive take on elite leadership was excellent: at the highest levels, listening beats speaking, strategic patience often beats knee-jerk decisiveness, and the courage to quit can matter more than blind persistence.

Finally, none of this matters if we’re running on empty. The foundation of sustained excellence is sleep, diet, and exercise.

In summary, prioritize the process, appreciate the counterintuitive, and take care of the basics.

All simple ideas. Please take them seriously.

Sébastien Page Bio:

Sébastien Page is the Chief Investment Officer at T. Rowe Price, one of the world’s largest investment management firms. Sebastien oversees a team of investment professionals who manage more than $500 billion in assets, and he rose from a non-English-speaking intern to the C-suite. Sébastien is also the author of the book, The Psychology of Leadership.