Leaders Performance Podcast

When Bianca Rech shares a decision with FC Bayern’s players, she knows instantly how it has landed. “You feel it,” says the Director of Bayern’s women’s programme. “You already know when you look at their faces. You’re like ‘I think she doesn’t like it’, ‘yeah, she likes it’ and ‘she needs a bit of proof’. It’s like sometimes I see myself sitting on the other side.” The ‘other side’, as Bianca tells Teamworks’ Andrew Trimble and Leaders’ John Portch, refers to her transition from a Germany int

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but does that hold up in the world of elite sports performance? “The issues I’ve seen here, they’re very rarely – almost never – [a result of] things getting missed,” Simon Rice, the Vice President of Athlete Care at the Philadelphia 76ers, tells Teamworks’ Director of Athlete Performance Andrew Trimble and Leaders Performance Institute Editor John Portch. “Where we run into slight problems is everyone trying to do the right thing with r

Lachlan Penfold’s time at the Golden State Warriors was eye-opening in numerous ways. Chief amongst them was his realisation that joy is crucial in a high performance environment. “Joy in a professional sport? That’s a bit strange,” thought Penfold, but it was one of the team’s trademarks and no-one embodied it better than their Head Coach Steve Kerr and illustrious point guard Steph Curry. “The player that embodies it better than anyone in world sport is Steph Curry in terms of just the abso

Flo Laing does not miss a beat in explaining what she’s most excited about heading into 2025. “It’s got to be the World Cup,” says Scotland women’s Lead Physiotherapist. The competition will be hosted across the border in England and starts in August. Laing says it has been the Scotland team’s “north star” for several years. During the course of our conversation – the second of three in this Keiser podcast series – we spoke about her work in women’s rugby at a time where the sport is starting

Duncan French, the Senior Vice President of the UFC Performance Institute, is describing the aftermath of a bout. “If an athlete has gone through the fight pretty well and won, then it might be a very simple kind of cool down in one of the back rooms in the locker room and just do some light work to bring themselves back down again,” he says of the victor. “If an athlete’s had a pretty significant amount of trouble, that’s a very different strategy.” Mixed martial arts is, as he adds, “a spor

Dan Jackson is the General Manager of Player Development & Leadership at the Adelaide Football Club, but he is quick to dispel any notions that he is a guru. “I can’t teach leadership,” he tells the Leaders Performance Podcast. “I can help unlock what’s already in there.” On that note, he is certain that leaders are not born. “Leadership is 100 per cent made, but it’s made from a very young age.” Beyond the origins of leadership, Dan spoke to Henry Breckenridge and John Portch about the impor