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/
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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.
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