Elite athletes operate on a different plane to the rest of us. Skills refined over time, body and movement developed beyond what most can fathom. But there’s still a lot we can take away from their approach, and apply to running a business.

Nike CEO John Donahoe is a good example of an executive leading a global company who has taken much of his approach straight from an athletes’ playbook. If you’re a Nike exec you’ve got world-class athletes on tap, so for those of you are are not Nike executives, we’ve developed five lessons you can take away.

1. Set long- and short-term targets to get you there

Progression at the highest level of sport is tough. It takes goal-focussed training and most elite athletes use a particular method to hit their goals. Each year they’ll develop long-term goals that they want to hit – these are the core goals that are markers of their long-term progression. But long-term goals are not enough. On their own, they can feel unachievable. As a result elite athletes develop short-term, achievable goals that step them towards their more lofty ambitions. Try the same approach across your business and you’ll see them start to fall in place.

2. Accept the cycles

A common misconception people have of elite athletes is that they always operate at the same world-class level. Spoiler: they don’t, and they acknowledge it. It’s impossible to be at your peak all of the time, pushing your boundaries consistently, it’s just not feasible. So elite athletes accept that their top performances will come in cycles and they adapt their training and down time to ensure those cycles line up with their goals. Too often in business people try to stay constantly at the top of their game, ultimately risking burnout or stagnation. So think about when you next want to peak and time your cycle.

3. Create an off-season

Every sport has an off-season, providing downtime for their athletes to decompress and then train again to drive improvement to peak for the next season. Without it ,every sport would see injuries rise, mental health issues increase and athlete burnout happen at an exponential rate. Off-seasons don’t really happen for most businesses. Sure, there’s downtime through holidays, but most of the time running a small business you are always on. So it’s important that you establish your own off-season and clearly communicate it to your customers - they won’t blame you for it and their experience will only improve as a result.

4. Work on your weaknesses

The world’s best athletes, or the ones that win the most, are those who often have the most expansive skillsets. Roger Federer dominated tennis because he had developed a wide array of world-class techniques, not just the best serve. Athletes will work with their coaches to identify their strengths and work on their weaknesses to enable faster progression and refine their overall level. It can be much harder to get a 1% improvement in something you are good at, than it is to get a 20% improvement in a weakness. So list out your strengths and work out your weaknesses and work on them. It will have an outsize impact on your business.

5. Surround yourself with more knowledgable support

Nike CEO John Donahoe had a realization after hearing a speaker call out business leaders for the way they failed to ask for help, whereas elite athletes tend to view getting help as a sign of strength. As he explained to the WSJ “He was talking about [how] Michael Jordan didn’t only have Phil Jackson as his bench coach, but he had a personal chef; he had a psychological coach,” says Donahoe, 61. “And he said, ‘You people in business, you act like getting help is a sign of weakness. You act like you have all the answers. If you want to perform at a world-class level, you’ve got to feel comfortable consuming help.’

It’s true. Too often in business people fail to surround themselves with the right experts who are capable of delivering the knowledge they need. So surround yourself with the right expertise. It’s one of the reasons NOAN exists, to give you access to a deep bench of world class talent.