Setting the conditions for the year ahead

But performing at our best rarely comes from setting goals alone. It comes from setting the right conditions, and I’ve seen less about that.

Of course, when I was training, I had big goals and ambitions – getting to the Olympics, winning the World Championship – but that was never going to be achieved in isolation.

The question we asked was:

‘what needs to be true for me to perform well, consistently, when it matters?’

For me, the answer wasn’t ‘train harder’. It was a collection of conditions that had to be met long before race day.

For me, it was mindset, focus, recovery, and standards.

Mindset – not just ‘positive thinking’ – but the courage to try new approaches and training methods in order to get an extra 1%

Focus – the discipline to say ‘no’ to the noise and ‘yes’ to the specific blocks of training that were going to make the difference come race season.

Recovery – recognising that I needed to slow down off the water in order to maximise speed on the water. Recovery doesn’t pause progress, it’s a strategy for sustaining it.

Standards – the intensity of the final interval when your lungs are burning and your arms are stacked with lactic acid. If standards erode in training, performance collapses on race day.

Leadership is no different.

I’ve never worked with a senior team where performance broke down because of a lack of ambition. Performance has broken down because attention has been pulled in too many directions, or there has been a reluctance to keep evolving and try new methods and approaches. Sometimes it’s been because standards have quietly eroded under pressure.

Resetting performance means making deliberate choices about:

• What approaches need to stay and what needs to change and evolve
• What genuinely requires your attention
• Which standards are non-negotiable, even when things get busy

This isn’t about doing more. It’s about being intentional about where you put your energy, effort and focus.

In elite sport, the early phase of the season is about alignment, not intensity. You set the rhythm you’ll rely on later, when pressure is higher.

Teams that skip this step often find themselves first reacting, then firefighting as performance slips away.

So instead of setting another list of goals, try asking yourself three questions:

• What will I protect because it directly affects my performance?
• What will I simplify because it drains energy without improving outcomes?
• What standards will I personally hold, even when it would be easier not to?

High performance is not something you chase. It’s something you set up.

And you can start that work today.

I share practical thinking on high performance — how it’s built, sustained, and protected when pressure increases. 

Please contact me to start the conversation about how I can support your high-performing team.