You’ve done the preparation. The pressure rises, and you start thinking harder and pushing harder. Then your performance gets worse.

Racing driver and 2024 New Zealand Grand Prix winner Liam Sceats recognises that pattern in himself. He can prepare until he makes the task too complex, or force the pace behind the wheel and lose time.

In this episode of Fireside Leadership, Liam joins Chris Turkington to explain how he recognises when effort is working against him and returns his attention to the basics.

They discuss:
• When preparation becomes overthinking
• Using breathing and task-focused self-talk under pressure
• Resetting after a mistake before it causes another
• Preserving tyres for the teammate taking over the car
• Processing a career setback without deciding you’re not good enough

For anyone who responds to pressure by doing more, Liam’s experience offers a useful way to examine whether that extra effort is improving the result.

CONNECT WITH LIAM
Website: https://liamsceats.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liamsceats/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liamsceatsmotorsport/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-sceats-86276021a/

AEGIS LEADERSHIP
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A joke in a meeting can lighten the mood. It can also say something people are hesitant to raise directly.

Dr Allanah Johnston joins Chris to talk about her research into workplace humour and what it can reveal about trust, tension and team culture. They discuss the line between banter and a pointed remark, why leaders should not try to force humour, and how clips from The Office helped one organisation discuss workplace behaviour.

The conversation also turns to change. Allanah explains why leaders should listen to people who push back: they may see consequences the change team has missed.

Allanah is the founder of Future Calibrate, a consultancy focused on organisational change.

Connect with Dr Allanah Johnston
Future Calibrate: https://www.futurecalibrate.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-allanah-johnston-9973a812/

Connect with Aegis Leadership
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Thanks to Dark Horse Coffee for powering the show
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Most leaders know how they are supposed to lead. The harder question is whether they can still access that judgement, patience and self-control when their system is depleted.

Rachel Taylor is a geneticist, biochemist and co-founder of Taylored Health. In this conversation, she challenges the idea that declining performance is always a grit or resilience problem. She explains how biology, behaviour, leadership and environment form a Capacity Wheel that can either build a leader or steadily drain them.

Rachel and Chris explore why the same workload affects people differently, how chronic stress narrows attention and weakens judgement, why the people at home often notice depletion first, and what genetics may reveal about individual stress and recovery.

They also examine why organisations invest heavily in leaders but continue treating their capacity as a private wellbeing issue.

The central message is simple: the future of leadership is not about extracting more from people. It is about helping them become capable of more without constantly pushing.

Learn more about Rachel and Taylored Health:
https://taylored.health/

The Fireside Leadership Podcast is produced by Aegis Leadership and powered by Dark Horse Coffee. You can check the out below.https://darkhorsecoffee.co.nz/ https://www.aegisleadership.co.nz/

This conversation is for general information only and is not medical advice.

Capable leaders can stay composed at work and still lose control at home. Jacqlin Richards says that is not a knowledge problem. It is a capacity problem.

When pressure rises, the space between being triggered and reacting begins to disappear. We may know exactly how we want to respond but still find ourselves yelling, avoiding, shutting down or trying to keep everyone happy.

Jacqlin is an international bestselling author and founder of the Resourced Parenting Method™. She joins Chris Turkington to discuss parenting as our first experience of leadership, the five survival states and the danger of needing your children or your team to like you.

She also shares why she called the police on her seven-year-old son, what that moment taught her about firm boundaries and how her rewind tool helps repair the relationship after a reaction.

This conversation is for parents and leaders who know how they want to behave but cannot always access that response when the pressure is on.

Find Jacqlin, her book and the Resourced Parenting Method:

https://jacqlinrichards.com/

Explore Aegis Leadership and the Fireside Leadership Podcast:

https://www.aegisleadership.co.nz/fireside-leadership-podcast

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Josh Komen built his identity around being able to outwork almost anything. Then leukaemia took away his health, athletic future and the identity he had built around them.

Josh is a former competitive New Zealand 800-metre runner, two-time acute myeloid leukaemia survivor, author, speaker, breathwork coach and father.

In this conversation, Josh and Chris explore what happens when relentless effort becomes the only response you have. Josh discusses losing an identity built around performance, learning to ask for help and discovering that real strength sometimes means adapting rather than pushing harder.

They also examine pressure, breathwork, resilience, fortitude, fatherhood and why our greatest strengths can become liabilities when they are used without flexibility.

Connect with Josh: https://www.joshkomen.com/

Learn more about Aegis Leadership: https://www.aegisleadership.co.nz/

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This episode includes discussion of cancer, depression and suicidal thoughts. In New Zealand, call or text 1737 at any time for free support. If there is an immediate risk to someone’s safety, call 111.

CHAPTERS

00:00 When hard work becomes a trap

00:30 Meet Josh Komen

01:19 What running taught Josh

02:27 Discipline when motivation disappears

03:43 Visualisation and mental repetitions

07:41 Learning to tolerate pain

09:02 When discipline becomes a trap

11:14 Cancer and the loss of identity

12:48 The strength required to ask for help

17:11 Finding meaning after survival

18:18 Pressure, breathing and better decisions

23:08 Resilience versus fortitude

28:27 Why discomfort matters

33:42 Controlling attitude and attention

37:40 Redefining success

40:58 Fatherhood and protecting attention

43:35 Slow is fast

45:46 Connecting with Josh

Four junior trials. Four rejections. Then Joe Sullivan went on to win five consecutive World Rowing titles, Olympic gold and the America’s Cup twice with Emirates Team New Zealand.

But the real story is not simply that Joe proved people wrong. It is what repeated doubt did to his self-belief, how easily systems can suppress exceptional talent and the difference made by people willing to fight for someone who has been overlooked.

Joe takes Chris inside the London 2012 Olympic final, where he and Nathan Cohen came from the back of the field to win gold. He explains why Nathan told him they were “in the mix” when they weren’t, how rehearsing failure kept them calm and why complete trust mattered more than knowing their true position.

He also speaks candidly about returning to rowing after the Olympics, losing the career and identity around which he had built his life, and the unexpected opportunity that eventually led him to Emirates Team New Zealand.

For leaders, this episode offers a clear warning: when we confuse compliance with capability, we risk losing the people with the most to contribute.

It is also a reminder of what becomes possible when someone is given belief, trust and a fair opportunity.

Who are you missing?

Learn more about Aegis Leadership:https://www.aegisleadership.co.nz

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Follow Joe Sullivan:https://www.instagram.com/sullivannz/

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Pressure rarely arrives when life is orderly. When it hits, the quality of your preparation matters more than how confident or motivated you feel.

Dougal Allan is a two-time Coast to Coast champion, endurance coach and America’s Cup winner. Across more than 20 years of elite competition, he learned how to remain present through pain, recover from failure and perform when the stakes were at their highest.

In this conversation, Dougal explains why the process matters more than the finish line, what a failed Team New Zealand power test taught him about comparison, and how trust and role clarity operate inside a world-class team.

He also shares how years of preparation allowed him to perform during the America’s Cup while facing significant upheaval in his personal life.

This episode explores how to build preparation that survives pressure, uncertainty and self-doubt, so you can continue delivering when others depend on you.

ABOUT DOUGAL ALLAN

Website: https://dougalallan.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dougal_allan/

Lake Hāwea Epic: https://www.lakehaweaepic.co.nz/

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Marius van der Pol has operated inside two environments where weak leadership is quickly exposed: the NZSAS and Emirates Team New Zealand.

In this conversation, Marius explains why effective leadership is not about having every answer. It is about setting clear standards, remaining calm under pressure and trusting capable people with genuine ownership.

He shares what happened when he encountered a problem effort alone could not solve, why micromanagement removes accountability and how calm communication helped Team New Zealand respond to setbacks and dangerous moments.

Marius also discusses discipline, fear of judgement and why taking a chance on someone’s potential can create extraordinary commitment.

This is a practical conversation for leaders learning to relinquish control without lowering their standards.

CONNECT WITH AEGIS LEADERSHIPLeadership coaching, team development and decision-making under pressure:https://www.aegisleadership.co.nzSubscribe to Fireside Leadership Podcast for genuine conversations and practical ideas that will help you become a better leader tomorrow.With thanks to Dark Horse Coffee for supporting Fireside LeadershipCheck out their new blends at https://darkhorsecoffee.co.nz/