Safe to Practise: Building Professional Standards in Performance Lifestyle, with Jo Harrison

What does it really take to be safe to practise when there is no external accrediting body to lean on?

In this episode of the Win Well Podcast, Dawn Sanders is joined by her dear friend and Win Well co‑founder Jo Harrison. Jo has spent over 23 years in elite sport, including a decade with British Cycling and a decade heading up the Performance Lifestyle team at the UK Sports Institute (formerly the English Institute of Sport). She now works in professional tennis at the LTA alongside her role at Win Well.

Jo takes us back to the early days of performance lifestyle, when practitioners walked into rooms with world champions but had no real way to define or defend their own practice. She shares how she and her team built the Safe to Practise framework from the ground up, co‑creating it with practitioners so it elevated their work rather than adding red tape.

In this episode we explore:

- Why safe to practise matters for the organisation, the athlete and the practitioner

- Standardising athlete notes and using data to tell your story, including the myth about athlete engagement across an Olympic and Paralympic cycle

The "golden thread" of professional training: Level 7 coaching and mentoring, safeguarding and mental health first aid

- How a professional identity reduced staff turnover and turned advisors into performance lifestyle coaches

Confidentiality and contracting in and out with athletes, and why it is so often challenged

- The critical role of supervision and technical leadership in managing risk and sharing the emotional load

- Protecting your value, intellectual property and athletes when working with commercial partners

- Why practitioner wellbeing has to be a non‑negotiable, and how to be intentional rather than reactive about it

- Practical first steps for individuals, teams and clubs who can see gaps in their own practice

Who this episode is for:

Player care, performance lifestyle, welfare and wellbeing practitioners in sport; performance staff and heads of service in Olympic, Paralympic and professional sport environments; wellbeing business partners, HR and learning and development professionals; and coaches and mentors working in business who want to practise safely, confidently and sustainably.

Get in touch: To explore what safe to practise means for you, your team or any other human performance support, including mentoring and supervision, email [email protected] or visit www.winwell.org.uk

#WinWellPodcast #WinWell #SafeToPractise #PerformanceLifestyle #PlayerCare #AthleteWellbeing #PractitionerWellbeing #Supervision #CoachingAndMentoring #Safeguarding #EliteSport #HighPerformance #SustainablePerformance #HumanPerformance #AthleteCareerDevelopment #LearningAndDevelopment #Wellbeing #Dualcareers #Playerdevelopment

Change and uncertainty are constants, whether you're an elite athlete facing a career-defining transition or a leader navigating shifting priorities in business. In this solo episode, I draw on over twenty years working across Olympic and Paralympic sport, professional football, and senior business coaching to explore how the most capable people actually sustain themselves through periods of genuine uncertainty, rather than just pushing through them.

I share what I've learned sits underneath real resilience, how identity, values, and a sense of control (or the loss of it) shape how well someone copes with change, and why the same patterns show up again and again whether the arena is a stadium or a boardroom.

If this resonates and you want to see where your own strengths and friction points sit right now, I've built a free Sustainable Performance Audit. Email me at [email protected] for free access.

More about WinWell: www.winwell.org.uk

#ChangeAndUncertainty #HighPerformance #SustainablePerformance #ExecutiveCoaching #EliteSport #Resilience #WinWellPodcast #LeadershipDevelopment

🎙️ Win Well Podcast with Double Olympic Gold Medallist Lizzy Yarnold

In this powerful episode, double Olympic Champion Lizzy Yarnold takes us inside the realities of her journey to Pyeongchang — racing through illness, burnout and the pressure of defending her title.

Her story is one of resilience, vulnerability, and humanity and a reminder that even the greatest champions are still just people learning to breathe, trust, and keep moving forward.

As Lizzy reflects, “That medal was about resilience, not perfection. You can plan and plan, but things will go wrong because we’re all just human.”

This episode goes beyond the skeleton track, exploring how courage, humility, and self-belief shape not only performance, but life itself.

For further information on how we can support you and your team to Win Well through Performance Lifestyle coaching, mentoring, training and recruitment visit www.winwell.org.uk and for executive coaching and public speaking from Lizzy Yarnold visit www.lizzyyarnold.com

In this episode we are joined by Jen Coe, Performance Wellbeing Lead for the Barclays Women's Super League and Barclays Women's Championship.

Together we explore how holistic care, intentional wellbeing strategies and human connections are transforming women's football.

Jen discusses building cultures rooted in psychological safety and sustainable wellbeing, where care becomes a foundational pillar for success.

Listeners will gain insights into prioritising wellbeing in leadership, team culture and performance frameworks.

Whether you are a leader, coach, performance wellbeing coach, player care manager, part of a high-performance environment and looking to create a performance wellbeing culture this is a must listen to. I hope it will challenge you to refine and recreate what success means for you and your team.

For more information on how WinWell can support you or your team to create a Performance Wellbeing culture please visit www.winwell.org.uk or email [email protected]

In this episode Olympian, Coach and alopecia ambassador Toby Penty shares his journey of self-reflection and discovery throughout his time in elite sport.

Toby shares his insights on how athletes must mature quickly when entering high pressure environments, how he shifted from the individualism of a singles badminton player to giving, mentoring, listening and giving back, and the positive impact that had on his career.

We dive into his personal experience with alopecia, the loss of funding, trying to qualify for an Olympic Games during Covid, and how facing these challenges has shaped him both as an athlete coach and a person helping him grow in ways he never expected.

And as we wrap up, Toby shares the powerful metaphor 'you are a mirror' that will leave you with plenty to think about. Toby's resilience throughout his journey is something we can all learn from. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

For further information on how WinWell can support your performance wellbeing needs as an individual, team or business please visit www.winwell.org.uk

In this podcast we speak to Emma Deutsch, one of Nissan's most senior female engineers, speaking about how to WinWell as a leader showing the importance of mental health, wellbeing and self care in a data driven technological environment.

If you want to find out how to WinWell in your performance environment go to www.winwell.org.uk