The HOW of High Performance

Sally Henderson
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For years, leadership books have been fixated on WHY? This is no longer enough. Whether you succeed or fail, thrive or burn out all comes down to HOW you lead when the pressure is on, HOW you manage your energy, and HOW you show up when the stakes are high. When you reach senior level, you’re expected to have leadership nailed: clarity on your role, emotional regulation, sustainable drive and a leadership style you've actively future-proofed. In reality, you’re a work in progress. And you’re busier than ever: how do you even start to fill the gaps? Sally Henderson, High-Stakes Leadership Mentor, guides you through The REAL Method, a toolkit created from 25 years of real-world research and used by C-suite executives to master how they lead. Accelerate your growth, gain true clarity, greater inner confidence and set work-life boundaries that work. You’re a high performer, but even the best can get better. Master your HOW.

  1. 5d ago

    Sally Henderson with Catherine Bond Muir on turning a conversation in a bar into the first women's motor racing series to race alongside Formula One

    Catherine Bond Muir is an IP lawyer turned investment banker turned founder of the W Series, the first women's single seater motor racing championship, which raced alongside Formula One and became the most watched women's sport on Sky before going into administration. In this episode of The How of High Performance she talks about what it took to convince the world that women's motor racing deserved a global stage, the recruitment instinct that mattered more to her than any CV, and the moment her team clapped her out of the office that told her more about her leadership than any metric ever could. Catherine shares what she learned about judgment when you're spinning ten plates and decisions can't wait, and her advice to fellow senior leaders is refreshingly blunt and impossible to forget. About the Show The How of High Performance is a podcast hosted by Sally Henderson, High Stakes Leadership Mentor, Author, TEDx and Keynote Speaker with 26 years of experience mentoring senior leaders. Why you lead gets all the attention, but it's HOW you lead that makes the real difference, especially when the stakes are high and the pressure is permanent. Every episode, Sally talks with a leader who has been tested in leadership and in life, with guests spanning C-suite business, Olympic sport, academia and the military, and asks them to share what they learned about their HOW under pressure. Please follow or subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other senior leaders find the show. Sally's book The How of High Performance is available at amazon.co.uk and from all good bookshops. Visit sallyhenderson.co.uk or connect with Sally on LinkedIn.

  2. Sep 24

    Sally Henderson with Kathryn Bishop on building something from scratch when the deadline is fixed and 800 years of history is watching

    Kathryn Bishop CBE has spent her career getting things done across the private and public sectors as a consultant, line manager, non executive director and chair. In this episode of The How of High Performance, she shares what it was like to be appointed the first chairman of the Welsh Revenue Authority when London delegated tax raising powers to Cardiff for the first time in 800 years, and what she told her husband when January came and the go live date was three months away. Kathryn talks about leading a group of schools through COVID when students were weeks from their exams, why she's so passionate that five minutes looking out of the window might be the thing that makes the real difference when the pressure is at its highest, and the crucible moments that burn away everything that doesn't matter and leave you with a clearer view of who you actually are as a leader. About the Show The How of High Performance is a podcast hosted by Sally Henderson, High Stakes Leadership Mentor, Author, TEDx and Keynote Speaker with 26 years of experience mentoring senior leaders. Why you lead gets all the attention, but it's HOW you lead that makes the real difference, especially when the stakes are high and the pressure is permanent. Every episode, Sally talks with a leader who has been tested in leadership and in life, with guests spanning C-suite business, Olympic sport, academia and the military, and asks them to share what they learned about their HOW under pressure. Please follow or subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other senior leaders find the show. Sally's book The How of High Performance is available at amazon.co.uk and from all good bookshops. Visit sallyhenderson.co.uk or connect with Sally on LinkedIn.

  3. Sep 17

    Sally Henderson with Ali Riley on putting her career on the line to force change and why your time in the sun should never be about you

    Ali Riley is captain of Angel City Football Club and the New Zealand women's national team, a role she's held through World Cups, Olympic Games and some of the toughest moments in women's sport. In this episode of The How of High Performance, she opens up about what happened when she stood up against a coach whose behaviour was causing real harm to her and her teammates, knowing it could end her international career, and why she did it anyway because the risk of staying silent felt far greater than the risk of speaking out. Ali talks about what it really means to lead as a captain when so much is outside your control, why the most powerful leadership she's experienced has always been rooted in service rather than status, and the Māori philosophy that has guided every decision she's made as a leader. About the Show The How of High Performance is a podcast hosted by Sally Henderson, High Stakes Leadership Mentor, Author, TEDx and Keynote Speaker with 26 years of experience mentoring senior leaders. Why you lead gets all the attention, but it's HOW you lead that makes the real difference, especially when the stakes are high and the pressure is permanent. Every episode, Sally talks with a leader who has been tested in leadership and in life, with guests spanning C-suite business, Olympic sport, academia and the military, and asks them to share what they learned about their HOW under pressure. Please follow or subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other senior leaders find the show. Sally's book The How of High Performance is available at amazon.co.uk and from all good bookshops. Visit sallyhenderson.co.uk or connect with Sally on LinkedIn.

  4. Sep 10

    Sally Henderson with Bejay Mulenga on leading a team through chaos, knowing when to ask for help and why he always tells the DJ to put the music on

    Bejay Mulenga MBE is a speaker, advisor and serial entrepreneur who has supported over 50,000 young entrepreneurs and now runs plant based food business Seeds of Wild. In this episode of The How of High Performance, he shares what happened when personal loss hit in the middle of delivering a national tour for Meta, and how being honest with his team about not being okay opened up a completely different kind of leadership culture. Bejay brings high stakes to life through the lens of real time entrepreneurship, including managing a 200 person wedding when the venue, the weather and the plan all fell apart at once, and talks about why journaling and observation are the most underused tools in any leader's kit. About the Show The How of High Performance is a podcast hosted by Sally Henderson, High Stakes Leadership Mentor, Author, TEDx and Keynote Speaker with 26 years of experience mentoring senior leaders. Why you lead gets all the attention, but it's HOW you lead that makes the real difference, especially when the stakes are high and the pressure is permanent. Every episode, Sally talks with a leader who has been tested in leadership and in life, with guests spanning C-suite business, Olympic sport, academia and the military, and asks them to share what they learned about their HOW under pressure. Please follow or subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other senior leaders find the show. Sally's book The How of High Performance is available at amazon.co.uk and from all good bookshops. Visit sallyhenderson.co.uk or connect with Sally on LinkedIn.

  5. Sep 3

    Sally Henderson with Greg Levine on going from launching McLaren to leading Vitality UK and the five step playbook he uses every time the stakes are high

    Greg Levine was part of the small team that launched McLaren globally before making a complete career shift to lead Vitality UK. In this episode of The How of High Performance he shares the five step playbook he comes back to every time a high stakes moment lands and why he believes the leaders who get it wrong are almost always the ones whose ego needs to prove they're the smartest person in the room. Greg talks about what he's learned about giving high performers the space to fail without beating them up for it, how paranoia has quietly been one of his greatest leadership instincts, and the story his wife, a clinical psychologist, first told him about fear that he now shares with every new person who joins his team. About the Show The How of High Performance is a podcast hosted by Sally Henderson, High Stakes Leadership Mentor, Author, TEDx and Keynote Speaker with 26 years of experience mentoring senior leaders. Why you lead gets all the attention, but it's HOW you lead that makes the real difference, especially when the stakes are high and the pressure is permanent. Every episode, Sally talks with a leader who has been tested in leadership and in life, with guests spanning C-suite business, Olympic sport, academia and the military, and asks them to share what they learned about their HOW under pressure. Please follow or subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other senior leaders find the show. Sally's book The How of High Performance is available at amazon.co.uk and from all good bookshops. Visit sallyhenderson.co.uk or connect with Sally on LinkedIn.

  6. Aug 13

    Sally Henderson with Nishma Patel Robb on pressing the big red button on her life and why reinvention is the highest stakes act of all

    Nishma Patel Robb spent 30 years in marketing and media, the last ten as Senior Director of Brand and Reputation Marketing at Google, before walking away to build Glittersphere and co-found Hera, the UK's first female led podcast network. In this episode of The How of High Performance she talks about the YouTube brand safety crisis that put her on the front pages and the choice she made in that room that defined her leadership, and why she traded financial security, prestige and a path well trodden for a feeling and an instinct that she chose over everything life had taught her to hold on to. Nishma shares what she's learned about the difference between being polished and being prepared, and her advice to fellow senior leaders is rooted in something most people in positions of power get wrong every day. About the Show The How of High Performance is a podcast hosted by Sally Henderson, High Stakes Leadership Mentor, Author, TEDx and Keynote Speaker with 26 years of experience mentoring senior leaders. Why you lead gets all the attention, but it's HOW you lead that makes the real difference, especially when the stakes are high and the pressure is permanent. Every episode, Sally talks with a leader who has been tested in leadership and in life, with guests spanning C-suite business, Olympic sport, academia and the military, and asks them to share what they learned about their HOW under pressure. Please follow or subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other senior leaders find the show. Sally's book The How of High Performance is available at amazon.co.uk and from all good bookshops. Visit sallyhenderson.co.uk or connect with Sally on LinkedIn.

  7. Aug 6

    Sally Henderson with Cath Bishop on coming ninth at the Olympics when she expected to peak and the complete rethink of success that changed how she leads

    Cath Bishop is a world champion and Olympic silver medallist rower, former diplomat who specialised in conflict negotiations, and author of The Long Win. In this episode of The How of High Performance, she talks about what happened when she came ninth at her second Olympics, a result she experienced as the most public failure imaginable, and how the 18 months of questioning that followed completely reshaped her understanding of success, identity and what it really means to perform under pressure. Cath draws on all three chapters of her career to explore why trust in high stakes negotiations only moves forward through relationship not logic, and what she's learned about helping leaders see the real culture in their organisations rather than the one written on the wall. About the Show The How of High Performance is a podcast hosted by Sally Henderson, High Stakes Leadership Mentor, Author, TEDx and Keynote Speaker with 26 years of experience mentoring senior leaders. Why you lead gets all the attention, but it's HOW you lead that makes the real difference, especially when the stakes are high and the pressure is permanent. Every episode, Sally talks with a leader who has been tested in leadership and in life, with guests spanning C-suite business, Olympic sport, academia and the military, and asks them to share what they learned about their HOW under pressure. Please follow or subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other senior leaders find the show. Sally's book The How of High Performance is available at amazon.co.uk and from all good bookshops. Visit sallyhenderson.co.uk or connect with Sally on LinkedIn.

  8. Jul 30

    Sally Henderson with Marg Jobling on why "the worst they can do is sack me" is the mindset that has shaped how she leads through every high stakes moment

    Marg Jobling is Group CMO at NatWest, having held senior roles across Unilever, Sara Lee, Cadbury, Birdseye and Centrica, spanning blue chip, private equity and regulated business. In this episode of The How of High Performance, she shares why she gets her energy from figuring people out and how that skill has been the difference in every high stakes boardroom moment of her career. Marg talks about the philosophy that has kept her grounded through decades of leading at the top, what she's learned about managing your own energy when you're the person everyone else is reading, and why she believes that if you back yourself and get on with it, people will follow you. About the Show The How of High Performance is a podcast hosted by Sally Henderson, High Stakes Leadership Mentor, Author, TEDx and Keynote Speaker with 26 years of experience mentoring senior leaders. Why you lead gets all the attention, but it's HOW you lead that makes the real difference, especially when the stakes are high and the pressure is permanent. Every episode, Sally talks with a leader who has been tested in leadership and in life, with guests spanning C-suite business, Olympic sport, academia and the military, and asks them to share what they learned about their HOW under pressure. Please follow or subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other senior leaders find the show. Sally's book The How of High Performance is available at amazon.co.uk and from all good bookshops. Visit sallyhenderson.co.uk or connect with Sally on LinkedIn.

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Trailer

About

For years, leadership books have been fixated on WHY? This is no longer enough. Whether you succeed or fail, thrive or burn out all comes down to HOW you lead when the pressure is on, HOW you manage your energy, and HOW you show up when the stakes are high. When you reach senior level, you’re expected to have leadership nailed: clarity on your role, emotional regulation, sustainable drive and a leadership style you've actively future-proofed. In reality, you’re a work in progress. And you’re busier than ever: how do you even start to fill the gaps? Sally Henderson, High-Stakes Leadership Mentor, guides you through The REAL Method, a toolkit created from 25 years of real-world research and used by C-suite executives to master how they lead. Accelerate your growth, gain true clarity, greater inner confidence and set work-life boundaries that work. You’re a high performer, but even the best can get better. Master your HOW.

Information

  • Creator
    Sally Henderson
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    22
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Sally Henderson
  • Show Website
    The HOW of High Performance