Keeping It Real with Jac and Ral
Sep 27, 2026 · 34 min · 11 segments
Are you drawing down on your personal energy reserves faster than you’re replenishing them? In Part 2 of our deep dive with neuroscientist and DNA expert Alessandra Edwards, we unpack why caffeine…
Alessandra EdwardsGuestGabrielle DolanHost
Jac PhillipsHost
And particularly in a workplace, you know, where we've got a high performing leader, perhaps, you know, who's a 5am club, you know, who's done a workout before they get to work, is then cycled to work, you know, who's then doing breath work in their lunch hour and is then still on email at midnight.
And you go, oh my God, I just need to be like that when I'm I just, it's just not possible either physically, genetically or physiologically, physiology, that one.
If we know that others are different to us, how do we get okay with that? How do we say, well, okay, that's them, not me.
And what do I need to do to focus on me being able to perform better, but based on what I need? Yeah.
great question, Jack, because really if we stop and think about it, if we, I'll give you my points on that, but really if we stop and think about it, if we truly could answer that question and actually implement the answer, we would never have wars.
You know, we would just be all incredibly curious and alert and present and respectful and empathetic to each other's differences.
Within the context that you described, I would say the first thing that I advise leaders of teams, especially when they're observing that the teams are not performing because they're noticing like, oh, this person is just not always present or engaged, or they seem really tired or all these things going on, is number one, to remember that what might give high performance to you might not be what gives high performance to someone else.
So really, truly establishing the awareness that this is a biological fact.
And whilst there is truth to the fundamentals of well-being, of course, we all need sleep.
We all need fresh air, you know, access to good quality food, all those things.
Number two is also respect autonomy, which I think really beyond the biological flexibility, it is something that I think all leaders should really understand.
We know that micromanaging does not bring the best in people and they're actually helping people grow and helping people understand how they work best and then facilitating environments that help deliver that.
is definitely where you're going to get the highest performance out of your team.
So what I mean by this is, for example, let's think of a simple difference that we can all relate to, right? The circadian clocks, circadian rhythms that are really different for everybody.
And particularly in a workplace, you know, where we've got a high performing leader, perhaps, you know, who's a 5am club, you know, who's done a workout before they get to work, is then cycled to work, you know, who's then doing breath work in their lunch hour and is then still on email at midnight.
And you go, oh my God, I just need to be like that when I'm I just, it's just not possible either physically, genetically or physiologically, physiology, that one.
If we know that others are different to us, how do we get okay with that? How do we say, well, okay, that's them, not me.
And what do I need to do to focus on me being able to perform better, but based on what I need? Yeah.
great question, Jack, because really if we stop and think about it, if we, I'll give you my points on that, but really if we stop and think about it, if we truly could answer that question and actually implement the answer, we would never have wars.
You know, we would just be all incredibly curious and alert and present and respectful and empathetic to each other's differences.
Within the context that you described, I would say the first thing that I advise leaders of teams, especially when they're observing that the teams are not performing because they're noticing like, oh, this person is just not always present or engaged, or they seem really tired or all these things going on, is number one, to remember that what might give high performance to you might not be what gives high performance to someone else.
So really, truly establishing the awareness that this is a biological fact.
And whilst there is truth to the fundamentals of well-being, of course, we all need sleep.
We all need fresh air, you know, access to good quality food, all those things.
Number two is also respect autonomy, which I think really beyond the biological flexibility, it is something that I think all leaders should really understand.
We know that micromanaging does not bring the best in people and they're actually helping people grow and helping people understand how they work best and then facilitating environments that help deliver that.
is definitely where you're going to get the highest performance out of your team.
So what I mean by this is, for example, let's think of a simple difference that we can all relate to, right? The circadian clocks, circadian rhythms that are really different for everybody.
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