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Mental skills coach Andrew May’s work with sports stars like the Wallabies and boxing champions has taught him that there is a way to increase your capacity to handle the hard yards of leadership.
Mental skills and leadership coach Andrew May works with professional athletes and high-functioning executives, but he doesn’t hesitate when asked which group has the toughest gig.
“It’s harder, in many respects, to be an executive. Some work 90 to 100 hours a week,” says May, who has worked with top CEOs including CommBank’s Matt Comyn, as well as leading sporting teams such as the NRL’s Manly Warringah Sea Eagles. “If you want to be a CEO, you’re not going to work a 40-hour week. So let’s build your physiological capacity so you have that resilience or hardiness to go to the next level.”
Finding purpose at work
May helps executives distinguish between their performance-based identities (job title) and their purpose-based identity (inner values). “With some leaders, their purpose-based identity is small or sometimes nonexistent,” he says.
May finds that when leaders work on their personal values, their work performance improves as well. “There are studies on the fact that people with a clearly articulated purpose make more money, are more resilient or robust, and live longer. When you’re clear on your [inner] purpose, it’s your compass.” Nevertheless, finding your purpose is no easy task. “It takes months, a really specific deep dive and lots of reflection and homework.”
Increasing leadership capacity in three steps
Executives can lower stress by increasing their bandwidth or “leadership capacity”, which starts “from the inside out”. May assesses a client’s physiological capacity by testing numerous health metrics, including bio-age, vitamin levels and heart rate variability. “Physical activity is not about the way you look,” he says. “It unlocks cognitive performance, creativity and the ability to regulate your emotions.”
He adds a “strategic recovery program” into the executive’s day, teaching them how to “recharge on the run”. It could be breathing exercises in between meetings or humming to reduce stress. “It’s the reason a tennis player bounces a ball for 20 seconds before serving or the cricketer pats the wicket before a ball comes at their head at 100kmh. It’s down-regulating and getting ready to go up again.”
Finally, May works on clients’ mental agility, using cognitive techniques and practices to help them become more adaptable. “Just as you can train your body to be fit, fast, flexible and strong, you can also train your brain.”
How are you showing up?
Being good at your job is not enough in today’s workplace, says May, citing a recent example of a client who was highly intelligent, with flawless work, but failed to properly connect with others. His physiological data was also poor — high resting heart rate, poor nutrition, inflammation in the body and too much alcohol as a soothing mechanism.
In addition to working on his physiology, May connected the client with a mentor within an organisation, someone the man respected, to “reverse engineer” the necessary changes.
“His theme, or mantra, was: Don’t be an a***hole,” says May with a laugh. “He’s a really nice and caring person, but hadn’t been able to make the connection that if he turned up in a room tired, angry and cranky, then 15 minutes later, everyone else would also be tired, angry and cranky.”
The result? “It’s still in play, but there’s been a huge shift in that person. It’s totally changed the way he shows up.”
This article first appeared as 'Be a better boss' in the June/July 2026 Issue of Company Director Magazine.
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