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Leading Awake is where top executives, founders, and senior leaders drop the mask and get real about the human side of leading at the highest level. The high-pressure, high-stakes moments where leadership actually counts. The decisions, conversations, and responses that can't be taken back. Each episode brings three of them into the kind of unscripted, honest conversation that doesn't usually happen in public.
**Gilan Gork** [00:00]
Think about the world that you're leading in right now. The pace, the uncertainty, the decisions landing on your desk before the last one's resolved, teams stretched, expectations rising, and the ground underneath your feet never quite feeling as stable as you'd like. In that world, here's a question worth sitting with for a moment. When was the last time you were in a high stakes moment? And you felt completely clear. Not just composed on the outside, not just managing the situation, but actually clear, seeing what's really there without the noise, without the assumptions or stories, without the weight of everything else pressing in. For a lot of leaders who I speak to, when they're really honest, that clarity is rarer than it should be. And not because they're not capable. Not because they don't have the experience, but because in a world that never really slows down, the pressure seems to compress something in us. It narrows the lens. It takes a mind that's capable of seeing broadly and wisely and squeezes it. And so the question is how do you get that clarity back reliably when the pressure is on? And that's what this show is about. And so I just want welcome you to episode one of Leading Awake. I'm Gilan Gork, and this is a show for leaders who want to see situations more clearly, connect more deeply, and ultimately to respond and to lead more wisely. And that counts especially in high-stakes situations. Now There's no shortage of leadership content out there. There's frameworks and models, there's AI generated advice and a hundred LinkedIn posts a day telling you what great leaders do. This is about real dialogue, real unscripted conversation with senior leaders who are willing to drop the mask and talk honestly about what it takes to lead at the highest levels today. The dialogue that doesn't usually happen in public.
**Gilan Gork** [02:16]
So a little bit about me, because if you're new here, you might not know who I am, and my background is a bit unusual. I started out as a professional mentalist. Now, most people only know that term from the TV show, and that character is loosely based on people like me, the whole bunch of Hollywood thrown in. I built my early career presenting what looked like mind reading, ciphering people's thoughts or seemingly predicting what they'll do or say before they even consciously know what will happen. And While there's nothing psychic about what I do, I and I'll I'll leave the full explanation behind mentalism for another day. What I will say is this to do what I do, you have to understand very precisely how people think. You know, the assumptions they make without realising it, the patterns they follow predictably, the ways their minds fill in gaps, jumps to conclusions, and leads them somewhere that you've quietly prepared for them to arrive. And so it turns out that's not such a strange foundation for leadership work. Because when you strip away the showmanship, what you're left with is a pretty rare lens on human behaviour. Over the past two decades, that work took me into boardrooms and onto stages in more than 40 countries. Even sharing my influence models with the likes of NATO. What kept pulling me deeper wasn't the performance side of leadership, but it was really the inner side. You know what happens inside a leader's mind and nervous system when the stakes are high? What shapes the way that they perceive, decide, and respond? So that curiosity eventually became a whole body of work around the neuroscience and psychology of self-awareness, situational perception, decision making under pressure, and the inner habits that either help or hinder a leader when it matters most. And this podcast, Leading Awake, Is where I get to explore all of that out loud with some of the most interesting and honest leaders I know. So what exactly is this show? Well, the core format in season one is the executive roundtable. And here I bring together around three senior leaders at a time, mostly C-suite from some of the largest and most significant organizations in South Africa: banking, insurance, manufacturing, retail, agriculture, tech.
**Gilan Gork** [04:40]
Creative industries and more, these people are running large, complex businesses, leading thousands of people, making calls every single day that have real consequences. But what I find every single time is that no matter the industry, no matter the title, the deeply human challenges of leadership are remarkably consistent. The pressure to have all the answers, right? We felt that before. The moments of self-doubt that nobody talks about. The tension between who you actually are and who the role seems to demand you become. The weight of responsibility. And what that does to a person over time. One of the execs said to me after our session, and I'll never forget this, he said, I didn't realise how many others felt the same way. I thought it was just me. This was a seasoned executive. And that's why these conversations exist. Because it's not just you. And the more we can get real about the human experience of leading at this level, the better we all are, and the better the world will be. In season one, we go into things like what it means to lead big disruptive change and why it can often feel like you're pushing water uphill, even when everybody says that they're on board. We explore purpose and what happens when that starts costing you something real. We talk about what stretched thin but still leading actually looks like from the inside. We get into the tension between staying true to who you are and meeting the expectations of the role. We look at what happens to trust and team dynamics when everything feels urgent all the time. And we sit with one of the harder questions in leadership. How do you decide wisely when you genuinely don't have enough information? Now these aren't abstract conversations. They come from real people sharing real experiences. And my guess is you'll hear yourself in more than one of them. Before I let you into episode one of season one.
**Gilan Gork** [06:48]
I just want to tell you about something that really sits at the heart of the show. This podcast will give you perspective. And I think honest conversation has enormous value. But there is a difference between understanding something intellectually and as a concept and actually having access to it as a skill when the pressure is on, in the moment when the stakes are high. The 14 day Peak practice programme that I've developed is where the building of that capacity really starts. It's 10 to 15 minutes a day structured specifically to help leaders develop the inner capacity to see clearly and respond wisely in real moments, not just in the moments where things are calm. The programme is structured, it's practical, and it's really being built for people who have very little time for anything that doesn't actually work. And if that's something that you want to explore, just head to peakawake.com. I'll also put the link in the show notes. And you can start in under 15 minutes a day. And I really do think that it'll be one of the more useful things that you do this year as a leader. Okay, so let me close this episode out simply by saying that this show exists because I believe that the quality of a leader's inner state what they can see, how steady they are, how present they are in moments that count matters enormously. Not just for their own well being, but for every person who works with and for them. You see, the leaders in these conversations are running banks, insurers, manufacturers, retailers, and organizations that touch millions of lives. So the way that they see and decide and lead doesn't just affect them and their teams. It shapes the organizations that shape our society, our country, and even the world. When leadership is reactive and short-sighted, that ripples outward into society. When it's clear, humane, and wise, people thrive. And the benefits of that last far longer than any single quarter or strategy cycle. That's the bigger reason this show exists. And it's why the inner work of leadership is certainly not a soft topic. It actually might be the most consequential one that there is.
**Gilan Gork** [09:05]
I hope what you find in these conversations is something that you recognise. You know, a moment where you think, yes, that's exactly what I've been navigating, and I've never quite heard it said out loud like that. So again, welcome to Leading Awake. Season one starts now. Let's get into it.