Andrew May - Workplace Performance Coach, Author & Keynote

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Andrew May - Workplace Performance Coach, Author & Keynote

Andrew May is The Expert in Workplace Performance & Productivity. // Coach. Author. Keynote // LIKE For Inspiration On The Way You Think, Work, Eat & Move.

03/11/2026

The strongest AI capability in a team may not sit with the most senior person.

Leadership is not diminished by that. Its job becomes clearer: establish context, standards, permission to challenge and accountability for the outcome.

The human side of AI adoption matters as much as the technology.

Read the Leadership Capacity and AI blog via the link in my bio.

29/10/2026

After a big day, I can be home and still be replaying the meeting in my head.

So before I walk inside, I sit in the parked car for three or four minutes, eyes closed.

My neighbour walks his dog around that time. I can tell he wants to check I’m okay.

I am. I just don’t want to carry the working day through the front door.

What helps you switch off after work?

I’ve shared what works for me in the latest blog Ramping Up Is the Easy Part. Link in bio.

27/10/2026

The ability to generate an answer is becoming less scarce.

The ability to evaluate context, challenge assumptions and stand behind a consequential decision is becoming more valuable.

AI can support the analysis. Accountability still sits with the leader.

Read the blog via the link in my bio.

22/10/2026

In my leadership capacity masterclass, I play a short clip of two stick figures at a water cooler.

"What do you do?"

"Meeting, email. Meeting, email."

It gets a laugh every time, because people recognise their own week.

Some of those habits were copied from one leader to the next. Others were chosen for circumstances that have changed. Over time, people stopped questioning whether they still served the work.

Any team can choose its week on purpose instead.

I've written more about it. Blog link in bio.

15/10/2026

AI can generate a plausible answer in seconds.

Mental Agility helps leaders create enough space to evaluate it, update their thinking and choose deliberately.

It is built through cognitive flexibility, attentional control and emotional regulation.

Read the blog: https://performanceintelligence.com/mental-agility-age-of-ai/?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_campaign=leadership_capacity_ai&utm_content=andrew_blog2_quote_tile

24/09/2026

AI can make work faster. It cannot automatically create the energy, judgement, work design or trust required to use that speed well.

That is the Leadership Capacity challenge I am exploring in our new series.

Read the campaign via the link in my bio.

18/09/2026

I spent the first part of my career as an athlete and strength and conditioning coach.

So I never needed convincing that exercise mattered to performance.

Then I read Spark by Harvard psychiatrist Dr John Ratey.

What changed wasn't my belief in exercise. It was my understanding of what exercise was doing to the brain.

That changed the way I thought about performance then, and it still shapes the way I work with leaders today.

Because we're asking the brain to do a lot.

Focus. Make decisions. Regulate emotion. Solve problems. Move between completely different conversations and demands, sometimes within minutes.

I've written about what John's work changed for me, what I've learned since, and why I think the connection between exercise and the brain deserves far more attention in the way we think about performance.

Read the blog → https://performanceintelligence.com/exercise-and-the-brain/

11/09/2026

I once told a junior staff member a deadline had been missed. Fair, direct, nothing personal. They said the conversation wasn't psychologically safe. That mix-up happens more than people realise.

Psychological safety was never meant to mean avoiding hard conversations. It's the trust that lets you have them properly.

I talked conflict with Tim Duggan on the podcast recently. He's built a simple way to map where any disagreement actually sits: how much trust exists, how aligned your values are. It matched something I've believed for years. Prepare for conflict the way athletes prepare for pressure, long before you need it. I've written more about it.

Read blog here: https://performanceintelligence.com/psychological-safety-and-conflict/

10/09/2026

Two people can experience the exact same situation and have completely different responses. One sees pressure as a threat. The other sees it as a challenge. The workload hasn't changed. The deadline hasn't changed. The interpretation has. That's important because our perception of pressure influences our physiology, emotions and behaviour. When people believe pressure is something happening to them, performance often declines. When people view pressure as something they can navigate, capacity tends to increase. The way we interpret events often matters as much as the events themselves.

04/09/2026

We use the word burnout a lot, and I think we use it too loosely.

Sometimes you’re not burnt out. You’re tired, under-recovered or operating without enough capacity for what you’re asking yourself to do.

I’ve experienced that more than once.

My warning signs are pretty predictable now: concentration gets harder, I lose some of my creative edge and I find it difficult to properly switch off.

The problem is that I can still function pretty well while all of that is happening.

That’s what makes depletion so easy to rationalise.

Jessica Spendlove described the progression as “whispers, nudges and pushes” when we recorded the podcast recently. It immediately resonated.

I’ve written more about my own experience, why being able to tolerate a high workload shouldn’t be confused with sustainable capacity and why knowing your own early signs matters.

Latest blog via the link: https://performanceintelligence.com/signs-of-depletion-high-performers/

Address

6 Middlemiss Street
North Sydney, NSW
2060

Website

https://performanceintelligence.com/, https://linktr.ee/andrewmay

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