Leadership Performance Under Pressure

Epizodes

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  Ep#230 Reach Top 5% Leadership Performance 24.06.2026 14min

  Most leaders work harder when results stall. The top 5% do something different. In this episode, Dex explores the habits, mindset shifts, and practical changes that separate exceptional leaders from the crowd. Through real client examples, you'll discover how better leadership doesn't come from more effort, but from removing obstacles, improving people skills, increasing energy, and creating stronger systems that make success easier and more sustainable. When you lead from awareness,...
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  Ep#229 How to Get Your Team to Succeed Without You 17.06.2026 14min

  Stop being the hero, start building heroes. The strongest leaders aren't the ones who solve every problem. They're the ones who develop others to solve problems without them. In this episode, Dex explores why high-achieving professionals often become the bottleneck in their teams, the hidden costs of being indispensable, and five practical ways to build ownership, initiative, accountability, and leadership capacity in others, for a team that excels. ----------------------------------- ...
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  Ep#228 How to squeeze 30% more discretionary effort out of your team 10.06.2026 22min

  Discretionary effort is the gap between what people have to give and what they choose to give. Research consistently shows that most leaders are leaving 20–30% of their team’s capacity on the table — not because of skill shortages, but because of environment. In this episode, we draw on six of the world’s most influential thinkers on leadership and performance to give you a practical, layered framework for unlocking the effort your team already has inside them. The question isn’t how to pus...
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  Ep#227 10X - How to Lead Bigger 03.06.2026 19min

  Leadership growth isn't about working harder. It's about thinking bigger. MUCH bigger. In this episode, Dex shares five practical shifts that help professionals and leaders create more influence, impact and freedom at work. Learn how to take ownership of your future, define a compelling direction, stop wasting energy on other people's opinions, focus on your highest-value contribution, and communicate in a way that consistently produces results. If your career feels stalled, pressured or smal...
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  Ep#226 The Fatal Mistake Of Being Too Available 27.05.2026 18min

  If your success comes from technical excellence but also being dependable, capable, and always available, this episode is for you. Dex explores how chronic overload quietly erodes clear thinking, emotional regulation, creativity, and decision quality in high performers. Modern work culture rewards urgency and over-functioning, but the future belongs to leaders who can stay calm and think strategically under pressure. Learn the practical shifts that restore energy, authority, pers...
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  Ep#225 Neuroscience Proves These Leadership Habits Damage Your Brain 13.05.2026 25min

  Your leadership habits are reshaping your brain right now — for better or worse. Dex breaks down the neuroscience behind five common leadership behaviors that damage brain health. High performers often normalize habits that steadily erode their sharpness, resilience, leadership presence, and even future cognitive health — while still believing they’re “doing what it takes.” -How chronic stress shrinks the brain’s decision-making centers -Why overwork initially improves performance before turn...
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  Ep#224 Best Way to Fix Burnout 06.05.2026 31min

  Burnout doesn't fix itself — and changing jobs won't solve it either. In this episode, Dex breaks down the three core drivers of burnout (exhaustion, fed up, and anxious), why high achievers are most vulnerable, and the precise internal shift that makes lasting recovery possible. Why burnout is skyrocketing — and who's most at riskThe 3 things being stripped from high performers: efficacy, belonging, and performanceWhat separates people who burn out from those who don'tHow to fix exhaustion, ...
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  Ep#223 The worst mistake leaders make on bad days (OCEAN) 29.04.2026 19min

  If you're having a bad day - foggy brain, short fuse, overcooked - as a leader, it's helpful to recognise that and adjust. Don't keep pushing for new decisions, quick output and critical conversations, as if you're at your best. You can measure your OCEAN scores, but they don't tell the whole story! In this episode we'll explore how circumstances might overtake your normal leadership personality and strengths, and how not to compound the problem. Resources: The Power of Introverts ...
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  Ep#222 AI Brain Fry - Why You Can’t Think Straight Anymore 15.04.2026 14min

  AI is making work faster — but it may also be making your thinking weaker. In this episode, we break down the hidden cognitive cost of AI: how small, everyday reliance is quietly eroding focus, depth, and decision-making in high performers. At the same time, companies are racing to adopt it, pouring in investment without clear ROI — and no one’s entirely sure what “good” looks like yet. Or if they'll lose their job. Yet the pressure builds: use it more, move faster… don’t fall behind. This ep...
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  Ep#221 Resentment is Burning You Out 08.04.2026 8min

  Resentment might be the clearest early warning sign of burnout—and most people completely miss it. In this episode, we break down why resentment shows up, why it sticks around, and how it quietly drains your energy, focus, and performance. Resentment isn’t weakness. It’s a signal that something feels wrong and you don’t feel able to resolve it. Left unchecked, it keeps your nervous system on high alert, fuels overthinking, and blocks recovery. You’ll learn: What resentment actually is (...
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  Ep#220 ADHD as a Leadership Superpower 25.03.2026 10min

  Listen if you’ve ever wondered why you perform best under pressure, struggle with consistency, or feel like your focus doesn’t always match your ambition. In this episode, Dex explores a common but often unspoken pattern among high-performing leaders — traits associated with ADHD — and how they show up in leadership, performance, and burnout. This is not about diagnosis. It’s about recognising a leadership operating style, understanding its strengths, and learning how to work with it more ef...
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  Ep#219 Radical New Hope for Teen Depression 18.03.2026 46min

  Content Warning This episode includes discussion of depression and suicidal ideation. If you are currently in distress, please seek support from your local crisis services before listening. Dr Tim Strauman outlines an exciting new approach to tackling teen depression. We dive into how schools, hospitals, and social services can work together to prevent suffering before it escalates, empower teens to understand their own emotional patterns, and build real-world skills to support mental well-be...
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  Ep#218 The 5 Leadership Skills That Matter Most in 2026 11.03.2026 13min

  What will leadership actually look like in 2026? Technology is accelerating everything, but the leaders who win won’t simply be the most technical or the fastest decision-makers. They’ll be the ones who know how to lead people well in an environment of constant change. In this episode, Dex Randall breaks down five leadership traits that separate high-performing leaders from the rest: human-centred performance, AI fluency, disciplined focus, decisiveness under pressure, and the ability to crea...
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  Ep#217 CORTISOL CRISIS: Chronic stress, health and aging 04.03.2026 27min

  Dex Randall explains how chronic stress keeps the body in survival mode through ongoing cortisol activation, damaging brain function, health, and longevity even when you feel “fine” today. He contrasts normal stress (fight/flight followed by reset) with chronic stress (no reset). Over the long term, stress dysregulates the nervous system, increases inflammation, accelerates aging, and is linked to diseases including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, depression, and neurodeg...
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  Ep#216 Understanding Anxiety in under 10 minutes 25.02.2026 9min

  Anxiety is not a flaw — it’s a future-focused alarm system that can become a learned habit in the brain and body. In this fast, practical episode, Dex breaks down what anxiety really is, why it becomes chronic, and the hidden loops that keep it alive. You’ll learn why logic alone can’t switch it off, what makes it addictive, and how early environments shape your threat response. Most importantly, discover simple, real-time ways to calm your nervous system, regain sov...
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  Ep#215 Willpower Doesn't Make New Habits Stick 18.02.2026 19min

  What if high-performance habits didn’t require more willpower? Learn a practical 5-step system for leadership change—starting with identity, shrinking habits into micro-behaviours, engineering your environment, rewarding consistency, and focusing on one keystone habit that creates a ripple effect. Stop forcing new behaviours and start becoming the leader your goals demand. Fasttrack your leadership skills with Dex AI Coach: https://app.coachvox.ai/share/DexRandall Subscribe for more leaders...
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  Ep#214 EQ - The Leadership Upgrade AI Can’t Replace 12.02.2026 16min

  Overview Emotional intelligence is one of the most sought-after — and least taught — leadership skills. Learn how high-achieving professionals become trusted leaders through emotional awareness, authentic connection, and stronger communication. Key Takeaways Why the solo high-achiever mindset doesn’t scale to leadershipSimple ways to stay calm and non-reactive during conflictWhy psychological safety drives engagement and performanceRefs The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety — Timothy R. Clark...
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  Ep#213 Leadership Signals: High-Impact Cadence Shift 28.01.2026 2min

  Quick announcement for loyal listeners: after publishing every week since September 2021, I’m shifting the podcast’s cadence. Going forward, episodes will drop only when there’s something genuinely impactful and possibly contrarian to share. Fewer episodes, higher signal — same commitment to depth. This episode explains the change, why it matters for you as a leader, and how it frees space for me to focus on new projects and coaching. If you’re here for in-depth leadership analysis, understan...
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  Ep#212 Leadership from the Gap vs the Gain 21.01.2026 20min

  January optimism fades fast. Goals wobble. Energy drops. And that familiar voice shows up: “I should be further along by now.” In this episode, Dex explores why high-achieving leaders often get stuck leading from the Gap — measuring themselves against a moving ideal — and how shifting to the Gain changes performance, energy, and impact without relying on willpower. This is a grounded conversation about leadership, not a hype-up. In this episode What “the Gap” is and why high performers live t...
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  Ep#211 Fix Your Leadership Blind Spots 15.01.2026 17min

  Every leader has blind spots. Not because they’re careless or incompetent — but because they’re human. In this episode, Dex shares a formative leadership mistake from early in his career and uses it to unpack how beliefs, biases, and unexamined assumptions quietly shape leadership decisions. Often at a cost. You’ll explore why blind spots exist, how they show up under pressure, and the practical signals that tell you when one is running the show. Dex also explains why self-awareness alone isn...