Work and Wellness

Your team is watching you. Every micro decision you make, every emotion you walk in with, every conversation you avoid — they notice all of it.

In this episode, I sit down with Anton Guinea, leadership coach and host of the Find Your Influence podcast, to explore how leaders influence their teams in ways that go far beyond what they say in meetings. We get into emotional contagion, the difference between influence and manipulation, what 1600 coaching conversations revealed people need most from their leaders, and how to lead with confidence when everything feels like it is falling apart.

KEY TOPICS

Why your emotional state is contagious and how it shapes your entire team's day
The difference between influence, impact and inspiration and why the best leaders are chasing the last two
What 1600 coaching sessions revealed: the three things people need most from their leaders
The micro decisions leaders make that set the standard without saying a word
How to have difficult conversations without the feedback sandwich
Radical Candor: care personally before you challenge directly

ABOUT ANTON
Anton Guinea is a leadership coach, researcher, speaker and author based in Australia. He is the host of the Find Your Influence podcast and has conducted over 1600 one-on-one coaching and leadership training sessions. Anton works with leaders and organisations across safety, culture and performance, with a particular focus on the human side of leadership — how leaders show up, how they influence, and how they build environments where people feel cared for, valued and supported.

CONNECT WITH ANTON
https://antonguinea.com.au/

In this episode I sit down with May Samali, founder of Human Leadership Lab and Fellow of the Institute of Coaching at Harvard Medical School, to explore the human capabilities that no algorithm will ever replicate. Because the skills that got us promoted, perfectionism, having all the answers, pushing through, are often the very same skills that now hold us back as leaders.

We get into what it really means to lead with self-awareness, why psychological safety has been completely misunderstood, how to lead through uncertainty, and what sustainable high performance actually looks like when you stop performing and start being human.

KEY TOPICS
What human leadership actually means and why every person is a leader regardless of title
The skills that get us promoted that become liabilities when we lead others
Why psychological safety does not mean making everyone comfortable and what it actually requires
How to lead through uncertainty without pretending you have answers you don't have
The ABC framework of human leadership: adaptability, bravery and compassion
Why wellness is a performance strategy, not a nice to have
What AI will never be able to do and the human skills it is quietly eroding
What May now believes about leadership that she didn't believe ten years ago

ABOUT MAY
May Samali is the founder and CEO of Human Leadership Lab, a Fellow of the Institute of Coaching at Harvard Medical School, and an executive coach, facilitator and researcher. Her career has spanned corporate law, venture capital, entrepreneurship and leadership development. May works with leaders and organisations to build the human capabilities needed to lead and thrive in a complex, rapidly changing world, with a particular focus on sustainable high performance and what it means to lead with self-awareness, bravery and compassion as AI continues to reshape how we work.

CONNECT WITH MAY
LinkedIn: May Samali
Website: humanleadershiplab.com

What does it actually cost to be ambitious and is it worth it?

In this episode, I sit down with Kelly Barrett, founder of Underwear for Humanity, to talk about one of the most honest conversations I've had on this show. Kelly grew up in commission housing, moving every six months, hiding from real estate agents. That instability built a tenacity that would take her to the London College of Fashion, through corporate life, two business closures and ultimately to one of Australia's most quietly radical purpose-led brands.

This is a conversation about ambition, identity, burnout and what it really means to build a successful life, not by society's definition, but your own. Kelly doesn't have everything figured out. She oscillates between trust and panic, between hustle and rest, between the woman she wants to be and the workaholic she knows she can become. And that honesty is exactly what makes this episode worth listening to.

Key Topics
How growing up with financial instability shaped Kelly's ambition and resilience
Why closing Silent Arrow, a business deeply tied to her identity, was both heartbreaking and clarifying
The kookaburra moment in Byron Bay that became the beginning of Underwear for Humanity
Why martyrdom in business is not a virtue and what it actually costs you
How Kelly reckons with being a hard worker when that hard work has come at a personal cost

About Kelly
Kelly Barrett is the founder of Underwear for Humanity, a purpose-led underwear brand embedding social and environmental responsibility into every part of its business model. With over 20 years designing underwear and bras, Kelly co-founded Starcorp in 2009 which became the second largest supplier to one of Australia's largest retailers. She then founded feminist lingerie brand Silent Arrow before launching Underwear for Humanity, where every purchase provides a free pair of underwear to someone in need. A multiple award winner including Banksia and Planet Arc, Kelly is proving that business can be both commercially viable and genuinely good.

Connect with Kelly
Website: underwearforhumanity.com.au
Instagram: @underwearforhumanity

Keywords: ambition, entrepreneurship, burnout, purpose, identity, impact business, sustainability, resilience, women in business, success

What if happiness isn't something you find — it's something you build?

In this episode, I sit down with Declan Edwards, happiness researcher, TEDx speaker, author of How to Be Happy and founder of BU Happiness College, to completely reframe how we think about happiness. Because most of us are chasing it the wrong way, waiting for the right achievement, the right milestone, the right moment, when the research tells us something completely different.

Declan has spent over a decade studying the science of happiness and translating it into practical skills anyone can learn. We get into what happiness actually is beyond joy and excitement, why the arrival fallacy is keeping so many high achievers stuck, what the 80-year Harvard study found about what actually makes a good life, and the three free practices that Declan believes would change the world if everyone did them.

This one is warm, deeply human and full of things that will shift the way you think about your own life.

Key Topics
Why happiness is not just joy and the slower deeper forms we chronically undervalue
The arrival fallacy — why "I'll be happy when" is keeping so many high achievers stuck
What the 80-year Harvard study found is the single biggest predictor of a happy life
Three free practices under five minutes a day that Declan says would change the world
Why happiness is measurably contagious up to three degrees of separation

About Declan
Declan Edwards is a happiness researcher, TEDx speaker, author and founder of BU Happiness College — built on the belief that happiness is a skill anyone can learn. He has spoken at the United Nations and the Red Cross, and his work has been featured in Harvard Business Review and Psychology Today. He is the host of the How to Be Happy podcast and author of the book of the same name.

Connect with Declan
Socials: The Happiness Guy
BU Happiness College
Podcast: How to Be Happy at Work
Happiness Scorecard and Burnout Scorecard

When did you last let your brain be bored?

In this episode, I get into something that I think is one of the most underrated reasons why so many of us feel mentally exhausted — and it has nothing to do with how hard we're working. It's how constantly connected we are.

We have eliminated boredom from our lives almost entirely. We scroll while we wait, listen while we walk, check emails while we eat and reach for our phones before we've even gotten out of bed. And our brains are paying the price.

This episode is packed with research on what constant connectivity is actually doing to our attention, our sleep, our mental health and our performance and five practical experiments you can run this week to give your brain the space it's desperately craving.

Key Topics
Why our brains are exhausted and why constant connectivity is the culprit
The myth of multitasking — what your brain is actually doing and why it costs you
Why even notifications you don't answer are draining your cognitive capacity
The brain drain effect — why your phone doesn't need to be in your hand to be distracting
Workplace telepressure — the invisible pressure to always be reachable and what it costs
What a 2025 study found when people blocked mobile internet for two weeks
Five practical experiments to become more intentional about your technology use

Keywords
phone addiction, focus, attention, burnout, mental health, productivity, sleep, social media, wellbeing, digital boundaries