Repeat And Refine: Why Repetition Improves Performance For Leaders

Forbes

4 days ago

Every leadership interaction is an opportunity to repeat and refine.
Earlier this month, I returned home from a two-week stretch of delivering my Leadership Biodynamics training four times—four full cohorts, four two-day workshops, all within 14 days. I've taught this material dozens of times, but never in such a concentrated rhythm. The experience sharpened my approach more than any single delivery ever had. By the end, my pacing was tighter, transitions cleaner, and my ability to read and respond to participant cues more precise.
It reminded me of something I often tell the leaders I work with: repetition improves performance, not through mindless repetition, but through reflective variation. Every time you engage in a meaningful interaction, you gain a chance to observe, adjust, and improve.
Stand-up comics understand this intuitively. Before a new hour of comedy hits a Netflix special, it's been tested in dozens of clubs. They repeat, refine, and adjust constantly until every beat lands. Not because they love repetition, but because they understand how feedback fuels performance.
Repeat and refine isn't just a strategy for comics. It's a powerful tool for leaders. It's how you sharpen behavioral signals, improve real-time decision-making, and build a repertoire of interaction patterns that drive outcomes. Every leadership moment is an opportunity to test, learn, and optimize.
Repetition, when done right, isn't rote. It's adaptive. Research on deliberate practice by psychologist K. Anders Ericsson shows that improvement comes not from repeating the same behavior over and over, but from adjusting performance based on tight feedback loops. The brain gets sharper through cycles of prediction, action, and recalibration.
This kind of repetition works especially well in compressed, high-frequency contexts. When you teach something four times in two weeks, or lead four similar strategic discussions in a short span, you're not just remembering your material. You're gaining behavioral fluency. What improves isn't just what you say, but how you say it, and how you adapt to others in the moment.
Jerry Seinfeld takes a scientific approach to comedy
Few professions understand repetition like comedians. They obsess over timing, tone, rhythm, and silence. Jerry Seinfeld has described his process as 'very scientific.' He tests material like an experiment, gathers feedback as data, and rewrites until the flow feels right to his ear and works with a live audience.
Jim Gaffigan echoed the same mindset in an interview, saying, 'The thing that I love about stand-up is that I feel like I'm getting better at it.' That sense of getting better through constant refinement is the core of the craft.
Leaders may not be working toward applause, but they are constantly working toward clarity, credibility, and influence. And like comics, they get there by refining how they show up in the room.
The comparison holds, especially because most leadership isn't about prepared remarks. It's about everyday moments: checking in with a team member, pitching a new idea to a funder, navigating a difficult conversation with a peer. Each of these is a live performance, and each one is a chance to iterate.
The late Donald Schön called this process reflective practice, distinguishing between two forms:
I've learned to rely on both. During the training sessions, I notice the way a story lands, or when a participant leans in. That informs how I tweak the next segment. Afterward, I walk through what worked, what didn't, and what to try differently. Over time, the entire experience becomes sharper, more attuned, more effective.
Schön described this as the difference between technical competence and professional artistry. It's not about delivering a script. It's about reading the room and responding in real time with craft.
In my work on Leadership Biodynamics, I help leaders become more intentional with their behavioral signals—especially those that convey warmth, competence, and gravitas. These are not fixed traits. They're perceivable signals, and they land differently depending on how they're delivered.
Every time you interact with someone—a direct report, a board member, a client—you're sending signals. The more intentional you are about those signals, the more likely they'll create the kind of connection or influence you need in that moment.
Over time, repetition with reflection builds a repertoire, not a routine. You begin to develop patterns of phrasing, tone, posture, and pacing that tend to land well across a range of situations. You can reach into that repertoire when the moment calls for it, adapting your delivery while staying authentic.
This doesn't require a stage. It just requires a shift in mindset. Here's how to apply the repeat-and-refine approach to everyday leadership:
This isn't about perfection. It's about behavioral precision. And that's what drives influence. For leaders, the goal isn't to perform. It's to develop a body of interactions that consistently prompt the strategic outcomes you're aiming for—especially those that create shared value. Insights from adaptive leadership support this shift toward experimentation, feedback, and evolution in real time.
By the end of my fourth training in two weeks, I wasn't just delivering the material. I was tuned into it. Each session had helped me refine the message, the rhythm, the flow. But more than that, I had built a richer repertoire I can now carry into future interactions.
Scientific research on feedback loops reinforces what comics and leaders alike come to know: repetition improves performance, but only when it's paired with reflection and adaptation.
The best leaders don't just perform. They practice like professionals, learn like scientists, and refine like comics.