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Performance Intelligence

Andrew May

The show that unlocks potential for everyday life.
Mental Skills and Leadership Coach, Andrew May, talks to an all-star guest list of experts to unlock every edge of performance.

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  • 35 episodes
  • a few times a week
  • Avg 28 min
  • English

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  • Yesterday · 7 min

    Bite Size: The Hidden Cost of a High Performing ADHD Brain | Lindy Hadges

    Lost jobs. Bankruptcy. Marriages that did not survive. Unmanaged ADHD can leave a trail most of us never see, because the risk-taking that looks like drive on the outside is fed by the same low dopamine that quietly pulls a life apart. Lindy Hadges maps the layers sitting beneath the label, and makes the case that you cannot work with ADHD until you understand what is actually holding it in place. View the ADHD Cake model: https://performanceintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/ADHD-Cake-of-Understanding.png Find out more about the ADHD Foundation: https://adhdfoundation.org.au/about-us Connect with Lindy: https://ccaa.net.au/practitioner/200102-14/ High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website: https://performanceintelligence.com/ Book Andrew: https://performanceintelligence.com/keynotes/ Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/performanceintelligencepq/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/performanceintelligence-byandrewmay Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/performanceintelligencebyam/ Watch this episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@performanceintelligencepodcast If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.

  • Wednesday · 1 hr 17 min

    How a CEO Built Leadership Capacity + Created a Ripple Effect in His Entire Team | Byron Cannon

    You’re exceptional at your job. That isn’t the problem. The skills, the experience, the judgement, you’ve spent years building those and they aren’t going anywhere. The question is whether you’ve still got the capacity to use them. Enough in the tank for the project that matters. Something left for the people at home afterwards. The momentum to get where you told everyone you were going. And the wave is coming either way. A bigger year, a harder quarter, a team asking more of you than it did last time. Capability isn’t what keeps you upright when it lands. Byron Cannon has the capability. He is the CEO of LDK Seniors’ Living, a business about to triple in size, and a year ago he worked out capability wasn’t what he was running out of. Andrew and Byron walk through how they built Byron's leadership capacity to sustain his performance and how this rippled onto his leadership team. Byron didn’t do anything you couldn’t do. He just did it before he had to. 00:00 Why senior leaders really get pushed out 07:12 The hotel room phone call: “I can see burnout on the horizon” 11:02 Inside Byron’s full physical and psychological assessment 13:41 Dr Tom Buckley on what the data showed 20:20 Love, decency and kindness: the mission to change retirement living 26:33 Larry the gnome and how LDK builds its culture 29:46 The mindset shift: treating leadership capacity as strategy 38:47 AI: why depleted leaders outsource their thinking 47:34 How Byron rewrote Andrew’s framework: from survival week to surge week 52:50 “I felt selfish”: the hidden barrier to putting yourself first 56:29 Eight months later: the reassessment results 01:06:45 Unscripted: Byron’s team shares what changed for them Want to learn more about Leadership Capacity? Start here: https://performanceintelligence.com/building-leadership-capacity/ Follow Byron on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/byroncannon Learn about LDK: https://ldk.com.au/ - High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website: https://performanceintelligence.com/ Book Andrew: https://performanceintelligence.com/keynotes/ Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/performanceintelligencepq/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/performanceintelligence-byandrewmay Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/performanceintelligencebyam/ Watch this episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@performanceintelligencepodcast If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.

  • October 11 · 7 min

    Bite Size: Stop Promoting Your Best Performer Into Leadership | Lisa Alexander

    Ask Lisa Alexander who the best coaches she has known were, and almost none of them were the best players. Alexander spent a decade running the Australian Diamonds netball team to an 81 per cent win rate, one of the most dominant coaching records in Australian sport, and she names the pattern directly: serial winning coaches are rarely elite players themselves. The reason has nothing to do with talent and everything to do with what coaching actually requires. What that is, and who she credits with teaching her the difference, is where this goes. You can find Lisa at the TGI website: https://tgisport.com.au/talent/lisa-alexander/ Or the Celebrity Speakers website: https://www.celebrityspeakers.com.au/speakers/lisa-alexander/ Connect with Lisa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-alexander-am-a83bb378/?originalSubdomain=au High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website: https://performanceintelligence.com/ Book Andrew: https://performanceintelligence.com/keynotes/ Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/performanceintelligencepq/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/performanceintelligence-byandrewmay Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/performanceintelligencebyam/ Watch this episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@performanceintelligencepodcast If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.

  • October 7 · 10 min

    Bite Size: How To Coach a Client Through the Worst Year of Their Life | Nam Baldwin

    Divorce at the start of the year. A great white shark attack, live on television, in the middle of it. The death of his eldest brother at the end. That was 2015 for professional surfer Mick Fanning. Performance coach Nam Baldwin, who has worked with world champions across multiple sports, was in his corner for all of it. Baldwin says the conventional playbook for elite athletes, push through, stay hard, don’t let it show, would have made things worse. What he coached instead, and why it had to come before any return to competition, is what this one is about. Visit Nam's website: https://www.nambaldwin.com/ Visit Hupo's website: https://hupo.com.au/ High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website: https://performanceintelligence.com/ Book Andrew: https://performanceintelligence.com/keynotes/ Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/performanceintelligencepq/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/performanceintelligence-byandrewmay Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/performanceintelligencebyam/ Watch this episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@performanceintelligencepodcast If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.

  • October 4 · 6 min

    Bite Size: Why Win-At-All-Costs Doesn't Survive Contact With Business | Michael Klim

    Olympic gold medallist, Michael Klim, explains why the mentality that won him 17 years of world records nearly destroyed his life after retirement. Michael took the same win-at-all-costs approach into business: redeye flights, fourteen-hour days, no off switch, and it cost him his relationship, his mental health, and eventually his body. You can find Michael at his TGI Sport Profile: https://tgisport.com.au/talent/michael-klim/ At his Website: https://www.michaelklim.com/ Or on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelklim1/?hl=en High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website: https://performanceintelligence.com/ Book Andrew: https://performanceintelligence.com/keynotes/ Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/performanceintelligencepq/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/performanceintelligence-byandrewmay Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/performanceintelligencebyam/ Watch this episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@performanceintelligencepodcast If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.

  • September 30 · 10 min

    Bite Size: What Creatine Actually Does to a Desk-Bound Brain | Dr Tom Buckley

    Creatine has spent decades filed under gym supplements, something for building muscle and nothing else. Dr Tom Buckley says that filing is out of date. A recent meta-analysis found measurable improvements in memory, attention and processing speed among people taking creatine, distinct from any effect on strength or size. Buckley, who has spent his career researching human performance, is careful about what the research does and does not show. What it does show, for a desk-bound brain rather than a gym-bound body, is the part worth hearing. Find Dr Tom here View the UNSW Study View the Hair Loss Study Read the study on creatine and cognitive function Read the creatine articles from the AFR and The Guardian High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website: https://performanceintelligence.com/ Book Andrew: https://performanceintelligence.com/keynotes/ Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/performanceintelligencepq/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/performanceintelligence-byandrewmay Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/performanceintelligencebyam/ Watch this episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@performanceintelligencepodcast If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.

  • September 27 · 54 sec

    Bite Size: The Weeks You're Allowed to Just Survive | Andrew May & Angela Poon

    Most productivity systems quietly punish you for a bad week. Andrew May's Better Week framework budgets for them. The target is 25 to 30 genuinely good weeks a year, a number most high performers find uncomfortably low, which leaves room for the stretches when everything lands at once. He walks Angela Poon, Performance Intelligence COO, through the maths. What he calls the rest of the year, and what changes when you say it out loud to your team on a Monday. High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. - Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website: https://performanceintelligence.com/ Book Andrew: https://performanceintelligence.com/keynotes/ Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/performanceintelligencepq/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/performanceintelligence-byandrewmay Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/performanceintelligencebyam/ Watch this episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@performanceintelligencepodcast If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.

  • September 23 · 12 min

    Bite Size: The Skill Sport Teaches That Leaves You Lonely | Stuart Clark & Steve Rixon

    Years of touring teach cricketers to be very comfortable in their own company. Coffee when you want it, lunch when you want it, a day built entirely around you. Former Test wicketkeeper Steve Rixon argues the skill cuts both ways: it protects you on the road, then quietly isolates you once the career ends and the kids leave home. Former Test fast bowler Stuart Clark has already had to work it out for himself. What each of them realised was missing, and why it had nothing to do with cricket. You can find Stuart at his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-clark-32019360/ Book Steve to speak at your next event: https://www.celebrityspeakers.com.au/speakers/steve-rixon/ - High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website: https://performanceintelligence.com/ Book Andrew: https://performanceintelligence.com/keynotes/ Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/performanceintelligencepq/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/performanceintelligence-byandrewmay Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/performanceintelligencebyam/ Watch this episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@performanceintelligencepodcast If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.

  • September 20 · 9 min

    Bite Size: How to Step Down Without Screwing It Up | Michael Bungay Stanier

    Most people who benefit from the status quo work hard to keep it. Michael Bungay Stanier, Rhodes Scholar and bestselling author of The Coaching Habit, says it was built for him, and decided to spend some of that advantage. First through curiosity and humour, the quieter tools for shifting who holds power in a room. Then through the harder move: stepping down as CEO of Box of Crayons, the company he founded. What that handover asked of him, and the temptation he had to resist to make it stick. Find Michael at his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbungaystanier/ Or Website: https://www.mbs.works/ Buy a copy of Michael's books: https://www.booktopia.com.au/michael-bungay-stanier/author1256.html - High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website: https://performanceintelligence.com/ Book Andrew: https://performanceintelligence.com/keynotes/ Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/performanceintelligencepq/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/performanceintelligence-byandrewmay Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/performanceintelligencebyam/ Watch this episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@performanceintelligencepodcast If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.

  • September 16 · 1 hr 8 min

    196 The Science of Mental Fitness: Why Movement is Non-Negotiable | Dr John Ratey

    A professor at Harvard and MIT wrecked his knee and stopped running the 7.5 miles he ran every night of his adult life. 5 months later he could not finish his own work. He was losing the thread in conversations, forgetting things he had never forgotten, and getting angry in a way he did not recognise. He was convinced he had developed adult ADD in middle age. He hadn't. He had just stopped running... The psychiatrist who worked that out went looking for evidence that barely existed at the time. 2 decades later it became Spark, the book that put exercise and the brain in the same sentence for most of us for the first time. You already know you should move more. That is not the problem. The problem is the distance between knowing it and doing it, and what that distance costs you if you are paid to think for a living. Attention? Mood? Whether you can still hold a hard problem in your head at four in the afternoon? Dr John Ratey is now 78 years old. He has been at Harvard since his residency, he has written 12 books, and his own protocol is far simpler than anything you would expect from a Harvard laboratory. He explains what BDNF does to a brain, why he now describes muscle as an endocrine organ rather than scaffolding, what the last 10 years of research has added to the case he made in Spark, and the one thing he could not write at the time because the evidence was not there yet. You can keep treating exercise as the thing you do for your body when there is time left over. Or you can treat it as maintenance for the organ you are actually being paid for. 00:00 The Harvard genius who lost his mind when he stopped running 06:05 The cocktail party patient who started it all 11:01 The 1970s discovery behind the runner's high 14:05 Turn ADHD into a superpower: the Ferrari brain with bicycle brakes 20:06 The real prescription for a distracted mind 24:54 The school that got smarter by moving more 29:08 Meet BDNF: the brain's own Miracle-Gro 32:45 Dr Ratey is 78, and he's nowhere near done 37:11 Inside Spark 2.0: what's changed since the first book 43:26 Why a fit brain matters more in the age of AI 53:16 John's own weekly training plan 1:04:16 The question John didn't expect: why he took up Zumba at 75 Learn more about Dr John Ratey here: https://www.johnratey.com/ - High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website: https://performanceintelligence.com/ Book Andrew: https://performanceintelligence.com/keynotes/ Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/performanceintelligencepq/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/performanceintelligence-byandrewmay Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/performanceintelligencebyam/ Watch this episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@performanceintelligencepodcast If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.

  • September 13 · 9 min

    Bite Size: The Simple Habit That Flattens Your Energy Crashes | Dr Amantha Imber

    Most nutrition advice focuses on what you eat. Dr Amantha Imber, an organisational psychologist and author of The Health Habit, became more interested in what happens after you eat, and started wearing a continuous glucose monitor on herself to find out. The device tracks blood sugar in real time, and what she discovered about a specific ten-minute habit after meals surprised her enough to build it into how she coaches high performers now. What that habit is, and why flat blood sugar matters more than most people realise, is what this one gets into. You can find Dr Amantha at her Website: https://www.amantha.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amanthai/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber/?originalSubdomain=au Buy The Health Habit: https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-health-habit-9781761342363 High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website: https://performanceintelligence.com/ Book Andrew: https://performanceintelligence.com/keynotes/ Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/performanceintelligencepq/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/performanceintelligence-byandrewmay Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/performanceintelligencebyam/ Watch this episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@performanceintelligencepodcast If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.

  • September 9 · 1 hr 7 min

    195 Conflict Expert: What Swallowed Words Costs a High Performing Team | Tim Duggan

    You have rehearsed it in the shower. You have written the message and deleted it. And every time the moment arrives, you find a reason it can wait until next quarter. That conversation is still making decisions for you. It decides who gets the promotion, which project quietly dies, and which good person leaves without ever telling you the real reason. Tim Duggan spent 3 years inside one question: how do you get better at conflict? He built a media company out of a website he started in his twenties, hired hundreds of people, sold it, and was still terrible at the hard conversation. He thought he was good at it. He was not, and it took him years to work that out. So he went to the people who are: Adam Grant. Oxford negotiators. Accredited mediators. An executive producer of The Real Housewives, which turned out to be the most useful conversation of the lot. What he came back with is a map. 4 terrains, and every conflict you are carrying right now sits on one of them. The move that works on one will detonate on another. Andrew puts it under load. The leaders who can run a profit centre and have never been taught to disagree. Performance Intelligence's own work on psychological safety and constructive challenge. And a live test Tim has not seen coming, where he places a conflict still playing out in public onto his own model, no notes, no preparation. Listen to this one before your next difficult conversation, not after it. 00:02 — Why are we so bad at conflict? 03:38 — How our families teach us to avoid difficult conversations 07:02 — The moment Tim realised avoiding conflict was costing him 09:01 — What “swallowed words” do to us — and why silence isn’t really silent 11:32 — The counterintuitive question: what happens if you don’t have the conversation? 18:50 — The four terrains of conflict: summit, arena, minefield and swamp 27:27 — What happens when emotion takes over and the “amygdala hijack” kicks in 34:27 — The RISA test: should you actually have the fight? 37:36 — Why psychological safety doesn’t mean avoiding uncomfortable conversations 44:05 — The hidden conflict behind the return-to-office debate 47:26 — The Conflict Simulator: Tim analyses Justin Langer, The Beatles and Kyle & Jackie O 58:52 — How do you actually end a conflict? Resolve, repeat or release Contact Tim: https://timduggan.com.au/ Order Tim's book: https://timduggan.com.au/book/clear-in-tension/ View the conflict model: https://performanceintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Model.jpg - High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website Book Andrew Follow us on Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook Watch this episode on Youtube If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.

  • September 6 · 7 min

    Bite Size: The Two Steps That Stop a Player Throwing a Punch | Gilbert Enoka

    A young player once told Gilbert Enoka that his advice was rubbish. On the field, when a referee makes a call he disagrees with, he wants to throw a punch, and no amount of mindset work was going to change that in the moment. Enoka, the All Blacks' mental skills coach for 23 years, did not argue the point. He gave the player a simple physical structure instead, and the player's own frustration rating dropped within seconds of trying it. It is the example Enoka now uses to explain why he believes structure, not mindset, is the most underrated lever in high performance. High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website Book Andrew Follow us on Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook Watch this episode on Youtube If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.

  • September 2 · 1 hr 9 min

    194 Performance Nutrition: Lessons From Special Ops + Elite Athletes for Everyday People | Jessica Spendlove

    Elite athletes and Special Forces do not eat like you do....and the reason you fade in the afternoon is usually something you did that morning. Jessica Spendlove will tell you exactly what. She will also tell you what to eat when you have 4 minutes and no time to think, whether the supplements you bought are doing anything at all, and why she rarely recommends that a woman fast. Jessica is a performance dietitian with more than 15 years behind her, a decade of it in elite sport across 7 professional teams, Olympic medallists, world champions and premiership-winning sides, plus 7 years with Special Forces Command. Jessica has heard every version of "I'm already doing everything right" and she has never met anybody whose nutrition she could not improve. And she is happy to be challenged on that! The reason it lands is that she got it wrong herself. Jessica spent years feeding elite athletes while running on adrenaline, cortisol and caffeine, and it took her own data to stop her arguing with herself. If you have been telling yourself you will sort your nutrition out when things calm down, start here. 00:00 The day we took nutrition off the table 03:44 Seven professional teams at once, running on adrenaline, cortisol and caffeine 06:12 The reply-all email that got her roasted at the Christmas party 11:46 The keynote she nearly pulled out of, and the data that made the call 17:19 The three hour morning window where it all comes apart 20:14 The domino habit has to survive your worst day 31:41 You can't ice bath your way out of chronic sleep debt 39:25 Why she almost never recommends fasting for women 55:25 Same meal, different order, different result 01:04:00 Walking into a room of commandos and getting it wrong 01:14:42 How to work with Jessica Spendlove Contact Jessica through her website, Linkedin, or Instagram. Buy Jessica's new book "For The Long Run" here. - High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website Book Andrew Follow us on Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook Watch this episode on Youtube If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.

  • August 30 · 9 min

    Bite Size: You Are Almost Certainly Underestimating Yourself | Craig Harper

    There is a gap between what you are capable of and what you are actually doing. Craig Harper has spent 40 years studying it. His view: the gap is not primarily a talent problem or a knowledge problem. It is a psychological one. Fear, the need to be right, poor self-awareness, and an unwillingness to tolerate discomfort are quietly capping the performance of people who are objectively skilled, experienced, and intelligent. And the higher you rise, the easier it becomes to avoid confronting that. You can find Craig at his website:https://craigharper.net/ Follw him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craiganthonyharper/ Listen to The You Project:https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-you-project/id1342430567 High performance is not about pushing harder. It is about building the capacity to perform when it matters and sustain it over time. Hosted by Andrew May, one of Australia’s leading experts in human performance, leadership and mental skills, the Performance Intelligence Podcast explores how leaders, athletes, coaches and researchers think clearly, manage pressure and consistently perform at their best. Drawing on more than 20 years working with senior executives, elite sporting teams and the Australian Defence Force, Andrew combines candid conversations with evidence-based performance insights and practical strategies you can apply. Episodes span leadership capacity, performance psychology, mental skills, energy management, strategic recovery, productivity and wellbeing. Listen to think more clearly, lead more effectively and perform at your best for longer. Get in touch through: Our website Book Andrew Follow us on Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook Watch this episode on Youtube If you enjoy the podcast, we would really appreciate you leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us build our audience and continue to provide high quality guests.

  • August 26 · 56 min

    193 Mental Agility: Why it's so Important & How to Train it | Andrew May, Angela Poon, Jacqui Louder

    Some people get sharper when the pressure lands. The meeting turns hostile, the plan collapses, the number comes in wrong, and they are still thinking clearly while everyone around them has gone quiet or gone hard. That is Mental Agility. The capacity to move between demands, tasks, roles and relationships while staying grounded and effective when conditions change. It is trainable, and it is the capability every organisation is now asking for without ever having taught it. PQ founder, Andrew May, PQ COO, Angela Poon, and Sports Psychologist, Jacqui Louder, spent 6 months building mental agility into six layers. What your brain does to you under pressure. Why your body sets the ceiling on your thinking. How your identity decides what an event means before conscious thought gets a say. The six seconds that stop you saying the thing you regret. How to actually retain what you learn. The hardiness that has you growing through pressure instead of surviving it. Now, they are walking you through all six layers here, with one strategy from each you can use this week. Andrew brings you into his real life test of mental agility with a gripping story of being upside down, underwater, strapped inside a helicopter fuselage in the dark, with an instructor offering him a way out. But what he does next is where mental agility shows up... 00:00 The word everyone uses and nobody can define 04:12 Your brain under pressure is not a character flaw 07:21 What AI can't give you 11:10 Elite sport, clinical psych, actual clowns 14:24 Why an insurer is training this 17:51 Leaving KPMG for a startup 23:43 The three zones 28:18 The brain runs on the body 35:03 Why the same words land differently on different people 39:14 Hanging up the bad day jacket 46:55 Upside down, underwater, offered a way out 52:25 How to work with us Learn more about a Mental Agility program for your team here or email us at support@performanceintelligence.com Contact Jacqui Louder here

  • August 23 · 7 min

    Bite Size: A Debrief Won't Fix a Numb Team | Ex-SAS Soldier Harry Moffitt

    A suicide bomber walked into a crowded local event in rural Afghanistan, and Harry Moffitt's small medical team spent the day treating the dead and dying. By the afternoon his unit sat in near silence, exhausted and numb. Moffitt, who spent close to three decades in Australia's Special Air Service, reached for the one thing he carried on every deployment for exactly this reason. What happened next, in the middle of one of the worst days of his career, became one of the most effective group resets his unit ever experienced, and he says he has never seen anything else do the same job. You can find Harry at his website: https://harrymoffitt.com.au/ Order a copy of Harry's book: https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781761563133/ Connect with Harry at his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harrymoffitt/ Follow Harry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harrymoffitt353/?hl=en

  • August 19 · 1 hr 4 min

    192 We Have Misdiagnosed a Generation of Exhausted Leaders | Andrew May on DLTOMI

    You're probably treating recovery as the reward for hard work, when elite sport treats it as part of the work. Andrew May has spent more than two decades coaching in sport and business, and Andrew thinks we have misdiagnosed a generation of exhausted leaders. Call it burnout and you go looking for rest. Andrew says the shortfall is usually capacity, and the first move is measuring it rather than resting on it. Pod O'Sullivan had Andrew on Don't Let The Old Man In podcast and asked him the things he does not get asked on his own show. It was too good to leave over there, so we are bringing it to you here. 00:00 The plan you don't have 01:11 Burnout is not what you think it is 04:25 Vitamin FLPJ: fun, laughter, play, joy 06:52 The CEO who has never burnt out 09:45 Train hard, push hard, recover hard 12:25 What executive blood profiles show 16:17 Your father, your son, and you 18:45 The waterfront house and the crash 23:47 The five metrics worth tracking 30:17 You'd spend a year planning a renovation 38:55 Wearables: who they help, who they wreck 44:38 Why sauna beats cold 50:21 The toast that explains burnout 54:05 Three things to start this week 01:00:25 What your 75 year old self would ask 01:01:24 I've burnt out almost twice Listen to the original episode: https://pod.fo/e/5543c9 Watch the original episode: https://www.youtube.com/@DontLetTheOldManInPodcast/videos Follow Pod on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/padraigbosullivan/ Follow DLTOMN: https://www.instagram.com/dltomipodcast/

  • August 16 · 15 min

    Bite Size: Forget Your Why. Start With How... | Keith Abraham

    Most goal-setting advice starts with your why, the deep, soul-searching question everyone knows they're meant to answer but rarely do. Keith Abraham, one of the world's leading authorities on goal achievement, thinks that's exactly backwards, and too hard for anyone with a job and a diary. He starts somewhere else entirely, with a short list of feelings almost nobody names out loud before setting a goal. Once that shifts, the goal itself, the reasons behind it, and the people who can help all fall into a completely different order. What that starting question actually is, and why it beats a purpose statement, is the part worth hearing. You can find Keith at his website: https://keithabraham.com/ Or at his LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/keithabraham Order a copy of Keith's new book: https://www.amazon.com.au/Unstoppable-Velocity-Goals-Reality-Faster/dp/1394389302

  • August 12 · 1 hr 24 min

    191 Mental Skills that Saved the Only Person to have the #1 Radio Show in 2 Countries | Christian O'Connell

    What do you do when the version of yourself that's winning is also the version that's breaking? You know the feeling, hitting every number, saying yes to everything, and still walking away from the day feeling like you performed it rather than lived it. Now imagine finding the exact moment that stopped working, and the one small shift that got you back. Most high performers don't burn out overnight. It happens one performance at a time, right up until the body forces the stop, mid show, mid meeting, mid life. Christian O'Connell has hosted the #1 breakfast radio show in 2 different countries, the only person to do it. He built that success on a persona so complete he stopped recognising himself underneath it, until panic attacks started hitting him minutes before airtime. Christian walks you through the exact mental skill that pulled him out of it, the same one he now teaches others to use before they hit their own breaking point. You can keep performing until something forces you to stop. Or you can borrow the skill that saved someone who'd already won twice. 0:00 — The reflection he didn't recognise 5:40 — The epiphany behind a show built on being unscripted 9:12 — "F**k off home": Australia's brutal welcome 19:49 — The morning his mother-in-law nearly died on air 21:03 — The radio tuner dial: shifting from fear to joy 32:12 — The woodshed: never running out of things to say 35:32 — What Jerry Seinfeld taught him about mastery 46:19 — Bruce Springsteen: "thank you for being my purpose" 1:02:18 — Running on clean fuel instead of dirty fuel 1:04:41 — Ricky Gervais, and the courage to admit you're not okay 1:09:56 — Why storytelling is the most underused skill in business 1:22:48 — How to work with Christian O'Connell You can find Christian at his website: https://christianoconnell.com/ Buy a copy of Christian's book: https://christianoconnell.com/unscript/#pre-order Listen to the Christian O'Connell Show: https://www.thechristianoconnellshow.com.au/ Connect with Christian on LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/christian-o-connell-8615a6314?trk=people-guest_people_search-card

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