The Lost Art of Leadership and Sustaining High Performance with Jez Rose

Jez Rose joins Richard Reid on The Business of Thinking podcast to discuss his multifaceted career - from speaker and author to ceramic artist and the first certified carbon neutral honey farmer. Informed by personal experiences with loss, Jez explores the philosophy of "going all in" on life.

He delves into the psychology of high performance, arguing that the focus must shift from achieving it to sustaining high performance, which requires embracing self-reflection, pausing, and removing the unnecessary (both physical objects and influences).

Key Takeaways

• Sustaining High Performance is the Sweet Spot: Achieving high performance is possible, but the real secret is sustaining it, which is much more difficult than constantly pushing for more.
• The Power of Pause and Reset: The most powerful notion is giving yourself permission to stop, press pause, and reset to re-evaluate and remove what no longer serves you in both work and life.
• Leadership is Psychology and Behavioural Science: Effective leadership fundamentally requires understanding people's psychology, knowing what motivates team members, and modeling vulnerability rather than pretending to have all the answers.
• You Have Enough: The powerful, core Buddhist realization that you are enough and you have enough brings mental clarity and freedom by removing constant consumption and comparison.

Episode Highlights

• Jez Rose's accidental journey to becoming the first certified carbon neutral honey farmer, aligning his environmental commitment with the difficulty of "doing the right thing" in leadership and sustaining high performance.
• How an experience as a critical care paramedic trainee informed his "all in" philosophy, based on the uncertainty of the next day.
• The "Seasonal Change Model" suggests that navigating change involves four phases that mirror nature's seasons, helping to identify where you are and what comes next.
• The tragic common pattern in businesses where high-performing teams are exhausted because leaders keep pushing for "a bit more" without focusing on sustainability.
• The story of a diabetic employee receiving a massive chocolate hamper as a generic award, illustrating a failure of leadership to know what truly motivates or reinforces an individual's behaviour.
• The quote by Lao Tzu, "To hold, you must first open your hand, let go," highlights the immense trust required to let go of comfortable but unhappy situations in life.

Key Timestamps

• 00:00:51:09 Jez Rose's accidental honey farm and being carbon neutral
• 00:03:41:00 Why "going all in" on life is his philosophy
• 00:10:29:23 The power of pressing pause and a blank new page
• 00:15:46:12 The tragedy of high performance and sustaining it
• 00:17:38:07 The importance of knowing what drives individual team members
• 00:27:20:14 The Seasonal Change Model for navigating life changes
• 00:36:19:12 Leaders and the struggle with imposter syndrome
• 00:43:59:07 Final advice: you have enough and it's never too late to start again

🔗 Connect with Jez Rose

Website: thejezrose.com

LinkedIn: @thatjezrose

Instagram: @thatjezrose

Tik Tok: @thatjezrose

YouTube: @thatjezrose

⭐️ Connect and Subscribe

Thank you for joining us on The Business of Thinking podcast. If you enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe and leave a rating! It helps us bring more insightful content on the psychology of high performance. Find more about Richard Reid’s work at www.richard-reid.com.

Production Credit: Edited and produced by @the32collective_ /