Kate Naess
Kate Naess challenges the way we’ve been taught to think about high performance.
With over 20 years of experience spanning elite sport and corporate leadership, her work sits at the intersection of performance, mindset, and human sustainability. From her early career in dressage to representing Australia as a Paralympic triathlete, Kate understands firsthand what it takes to perform under pressure—and what it costs when performance isn’t built to last.
As an organisational psychologist, she brings that lived experience into her work with individuals, teams, and organisations who are navigating the realities of modern performance: high expectations, constant demand, and very little room to slow down.
Kate works with people who are already performing at a high level—but know something isn’t quite working.
Through her signature HYPE program, she helps redefine performance beyond constant output—building the emotional intelligence, awareness, and internal capacity required to sustain it.
Her work has been delivered across leading organisations including Deloitte, as well as elite sporting environments such as Triathlon Australia and North Melbourne Football Club.
Known for making high-performance principles practical and relatable, Kate supports leaders and teams to perform under pressure—without losing connection to who they are.
Because sustainable performance isn’t about doing more.
It’s about building the capacity to flourish while you do it.
HYPE Diary
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Just Stop
The subtle art of slowing down to speed up: what high-performance sport taught me about sustainable corporate performance There’s a moment in elite sport that rarely gets spoken about. It’s not the podium. It’s not the breakthrough performance. It’s not even the comeback story. It’s the moment an athlete—highly trained, deeply driven, and operating at…
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You Are Not Tired – You Are Leaking Energy
Most of us treat exhaustion as a single problem with a single solution. But human energy flows through four distinct domains — and learning how they feed each other might be the most useful thing you ever do for yourself. ◈Mind Focus, clarity, thoughts, beliefs ◉Body Physical vitality, movement, rest ◍Emotion Feeling, connection, expression ◎Spirit…
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From Endurance to Excellence Rethinking High Performance in Leadership
For most of my life, I’ve worked in high-performance environments. As an elite athlete. Inside corporate organisations. And now alongside executives and senior leadership teams. Different arenas. Different pressures. But one strikingly consistent pattern. High performance doesn’t break because people aren’t capable. It breaks because recovery is missing from the equation. What elite sport understands…
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The Corporate Elite: High Performance the Sustainable Way
Executives and senior leaders are the corporate world’s elite athletes. Just like top performers on the field, leaders in high-stakes environments must sustain focus, energy, and clarity to perform consistently at their best. But in the rush to deliver results, many forget a crucial truth: sustainable performance depends on recovery as much as effort. Learning…