Better Under Pressure

In this episode, I’m talking to Matt Chavlovich, a former prolific goalkeeper and captain in professional football (soccer) in the US, he is now a speaker, advisor, and transformation coach. In his 30-year career, Matt has been a leader in the world of sports and the world of business. He has held leadership positions in organisations ranging from the MLS and Hasbro to Adidas and the American Cancer Society. 

In our conversation, Matt shares:

• The transferrable skills of sport in business,
• Why he has no time for regrets,
• And how the 14-year-old Matt dealt with adults telling him not to come home if he’d lost a match.

Outline📍
00:00 Intro
02:13 Can you remember when you first experienced pressure?
05:52 One of the biggest ways I have carved my mindset on how to deal with pressure
08:54 Leaders attract you to want to go into that level of performance
10:05 Survival vs the idea of pressure being progressive and efficient in the use of energy 
13:04 Do you remember using pressure as a force for improvement?
15:54 Learning what I enjoyed
19:17 Confidence, Clarity, Conviction 
21:54 Insight 1: Lessons learned 
23:25 What’s the role of the body in your ability to deal with and be better under pressure?
26:10 How was the jump between the elite sport that you were playing and corporate life?
29:14 No pressure is bigger than my focus
37:55 What do you do when you witness people close to you struggling with pressure?
42:30 Insight 2: Lessons learned 
44:38 Is the idea of  “How can I not do the expected” difficult?
49:56 Pressure allows you to be better
51:17 How did you learn to repel the negative voices?
56:37 Who do you want to be on top of that skill?
01:02:44 What 2 pieces of advice would you pass forward on how to be better under pressure?
01:04:43 Outro

In this episode, I’m talking to Sigga Sigurdardottir, a global exco level Chief Customer Officer and digital change agent who has been pioneering customer-led digital transformation and innovation globally in the financial services industry over the last 20+ years. She has championed partnering with start-ups, fintech and digital players throughout her career, delivering outstanding experiences for consumers. 

She spent 14 years leading digital transformation and change for American Express, working in 4 different continents. She then spent 4 years as Santander UK’s Chief Customer and Innovation Officer moving the organisation to greater customer focus and innovative delivery methods. That was followed by 3 years as Chief Customer Officer at Tesco Bank, improving the NPS significantly and driving profitable growth of the lending business. She has just joined Experian as MD of the consumer business for the UK. 

Sigga sits on the Women in Fintech Powerlist and on the board of Autotrader Group PLC and Frumtak Ventures. Known for her passion for innovative leadership and diversity and inclusion, Sigga has been named in Marketing Week’s top 50 Customer Experience professionals, recognised by Empower as a top ethnic minority advocate and acknowledged by the FT and HERoes as a champion for women in business. 

In our conversation today, Sigga shared:

• When her tendency to shield others from pressure became a problem,
• Why she chose to step away from her job for six months,
• The impact of what she wrote on a piece of paper back in her 20s.

Outline📍
00:00 Intro
02:48 Do you remember the first time you experienced pressure?
04:40 Has pressure always been a force of good for you?
05:20 How do you recognise when the pressure turns negative?
06:11 Dealing with 2 bosses that are polar opposites
08:13 What do you do when you aren’t at your best with pressure?
11:35 Can you give 1 example of when the pressure rose high?
14:35 Highlight 1: Lessons learned 
15:57 How has your personal life been affected by your senior professional position?
21:23 When you’re in moments of pressure, how do you expand your mind?
23:25 What does vulnerability mean to you?
26:48 What practice is in your fundamental took kit for being better under pressure?
29:00 Highlight 2: Lessons learned
30:19 How do you try and understand what matters to your team?
33:34 What 2 pieces of advice would you pass forward on how to be better under pressure? 

In this episode, I’m talking to Sebastian Bates, founder of The Warrior Academy, an award-winning global martial arts organisation which has so far been responsible for developing the character of 25,000 children across three continents. Social enterprise and philanthropy are a part of Sebastian’s charity work at the Bates Foundation. He is also a two times best-selling author in the field of character development and anti-bullying. 

Having studied six styles of martial arts for 25 years and competing in four of them at a national level, Sebastian is a former international professional fighter. He is also an experienced wingsuit base jumper with over 500 jumps worldwide to his name. He was part of an elite group of extreme sports athletes pushing forward human flight until July 2014, when during a wingsuit base jump in Switzerland, his parachute collapsed when he was 50 feet from the ground.

He survived the fall but not without devastating damage to his lower body, prompting surgeons to say that he would never walk again. Unsurprisingly, Sebastian defied the odds by rebuilding his body piece by piece through a gruelling rehabilitation process and made a full recovery. He is now on a mission to inspire a generation to make a global impact.

In our conversation, he discusses,

• Why he is thankful for negative thoughts,
• How he translates pressure into performance
• And, what happened when he came upon a group of gamblers in Thailand

Outline📍
00:00 Intro
02:54 When do you remember first experiencing pressure?
04:43 Positive view of pressure at a young age
08:00 Pressure and success: How do you build a solid foundation?
09:33 How did you start to learn on your own?
12:11 Insight 1: Lessons learned
13:08 Was your reward always intrinsic?
16:16 The toughest pressure you had to deal with
22:32 Body & signs: the beginning of pressure
25:02 Insight 2: Lessons learned
26:17 Big & little base jumps
29:22 The connection between pressure & fear
36:40 The practice of getting out of scarcity into possibility.
39:27 How do you manage other people’s pressure?
44:58 Insight 3: Lessons learned
46:19 What 2 pieces of advice would you pass forward to be better under pressure?
53:03 Outro

In this episode, I’m talking to Tendi Sherpa - who has been guiding people to the summit of Everest and down again now for 18 years.  After initially training to be a Buddhist monk, he started work as a porter for treks around Nepal aged just 13, carrying around 43 kg for up to 15 hours a day for over 3 weeks at a time – and wearing flip-flops while he did.

A year later, he climbed his first mountain in the Himalayas alongside his father, also a sherpa, and got his first chance to climb Everest aged 19. In 2004, by age 20, Tendi summited Everest for the first time – an experience that secured what he calls his “dream to become a professional mountain climber and guide”.

Over the last 18 years, he has summited several mountains in the Himalayas and Mount Everest, specifically, 14 times – including doing it twice in one week! He was in the middle of an Everest expedition when the 2014 avalanche killed 16 sherpas including several of his friends and in 2015 when an earthquake halted that one.

He has now summited mountains on 5 continents and is constantly raising money through the Tendi Sherpa Foundation to bring education to the people of his village. I met him on a trek in 2018 to raise funds so they could build a village school.

In our conversation he discusses,

• How resilience was nurtured in him from the age of 5,
• Why his Buddhist education supports him on the mountain
• And why he will happily turn back and start again

Outline📍
00:00 Intro
04:19 How many times have you summited Mount Everest?
05:20 Can you remember the first time you experienced pressure?
13:21 How did you learn to have the “I will do this! I can do this” mindset? 
16:12 Journey from childhood to adulthood: Pressure coming from all sides of life 
22:06 How do you consciously take your inner knowledge into your pressure moments?
26:55 Being able to turn back so that you can go forward again tomorrow with new energy 
30:24 Insight 1: Lessons learned
32:33 Can you talk about your relationship with the mountain?
35:10 The villages energy & the celebration of seeing new faces for the first time
41:03 The basic fuel people need in order to have the right mindset
42:45: Insight 2: Lessons learned
44:16 Between life and death situation
50:00 How do you other people in your team, who are feeling more pressure than you?
51:51 What would be your advice to people, on how to be better under pressure?
54:10 Outro

In this episode, I’m talking to Rachel Joyce - an award-winning novelist and playwright. Over the course of a 20-year career as an actor, performing leading roles for the RSC, National Theatre and Cheek by Jowl, she was always writing. Alongside radio drama, she also wrote the Sunday Times and international bestsellers, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy. Her latest novel, Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North completes the trilogy. Rachel is also the author of the bestsellers, Perfect, The Music Shop and  Miss Benson’s Beetle.

Her books have sold over 5 million copies worldwide and have been translated into thirty-six languages.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and is now a major film - for which Rachel wrote the screenplay - starring Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton, due for release in April 2023,

In this conversation she shares:

• Why she found herself crying on the beach
• What helps her feel 30ft tall and 30ft wide
• And the power of an unspoken contract

Outline📍
00:00 Intro
02:30 When do you first remember experiencing pressure?
04:54 What did you do with that extreme sensation?
09:15 Why did you go from writing to acting?
11:50 On-stage connection and confidence in front of an audience
17:06 Insight 1: Lessons learned
18:26 Shifting the sense of power to its source
21:35 The Rachel costume
27:16 Social media
29:48 Did you feel more pressure in the process of turning your book into a film?
34:05 Wearing a metaphoric protective layer 
36:24 Insight 2: Lessons learned 
37:25 Pay forward advice from Rachel on how to better be better under pressure
40:40 Outro

Zani Mashinini works at The South African Reserve Bank. Leading a team of HR specialists.

Prior to that, she worked for organisations like Unilever, Pearson, Bank of New York and the South African National Treasury.

As well as a leader in the field of HR, Zani is also a speaker, coach and mentor who thrives on creating organisational transformation programmes that improve the workplace experience for all.

She has been awarded a Master of Management from The Wits Business School and recently received an Excellence Award for her contribution to the Human Resources industry.

During our conversation, Zani shares 

Why the phrase NO CHOICE became a source of power

What she means by ‘bad day behaviour’ and 

How a tea bag helped her change

 

Outline📍
00:00 Intro
02:10 What do you remember first experiencing pressure?
03:27 What do you was the source of that pressure? 
06:00 Reflecting on your first experience of pressure, is it a positive or negative force? 
10:00 How do you end your week and allow yourself to switch off?
15:14 Insight 1: Lessons learned
17:55 How did the positive self-talk evolve during your studies as a young mother? 
19:40 What are the red flags that alert you of negative pressure?
21:25 What is your tea?
26:00 Women’s advancement in corporate cultures
28:50 As a leader, how do you make sure your pressure is a source for good? 
37:24 Insight 2: Lessons learned
38:47 How do you manage pressure in a team?
42:20 Preparing for an important call or a meeting
47:40 How do you evolve with your pressure?
54:05 What 2 pieces of advice would you pass forward to be better under pressure?
01:00:22 Outro