Without outside ‘help’…

Even successful leaders often operate on autopilot, reacting to external pressures and demands. When time is short, it’s easy to make choices that seem practical today but feel misaligned in the long run.

At Cadence, uncovering values is a core part of self-awareness work. When we help leaders align with what really matters to them, complex decisions become clearer, threats transform into opportunities, and reactivity gives way to a clearer sense of purpose.

Here’s a great conversation about the self-awareness / resilience connection, along with my favourite tool for defining and living your values so your leadership and life are shaped by conviction, not circumstance.

CADENCE CURATION

Listen: Steve Peters — The Brain Expert Behind Elite Athletes and the Top 1% | Podcast (1h20)

Psychiatrist and performance coach Professor Steve Peters has spent decades helping elite athletes such as the British Olympic Cycling Team manage their minds under pressure. His key insight? True peace of mind and high performance come from self-awareness, and living your values, not just physical training.

Listen to the whole conversation or jump to learn

• The relationship between values and peace of mind, and why behaviour is key (3:23)
• Our three distinct brain systems — primitive (chimp), human and computer — and how learning to switch is key to resilience (13:15)
• How we can retrain our brain through deliberate practice (17:03)

How to deal with pressure, with an example from high-performance sport (54:02)

CADENCE TOOLKIT

Tool: Living Your Values

If you don’t know what you truly value, it’s much harder to make choices you feel confident about. Use this Cadence tool to

• Identify your core values
• Reflect on what living your values looks like
• Start aligning your decisions and life more closely with what matters to you

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

If you don’t define your direction, someone else will!