For over 30 years, I've worked in HR and Leadership Development, and I've been lucky enough to work with a wide range of leaders, teams and organisations through growth, change, uncertainty and adversity. Last summer, I took some time to reflect on my experience and landed on a few key questions:
• Why do intelligent people make poor decisions?
• Why do some teams thrive whilst others struggle?
• Why does behaviour change seem so difficult?
• Why do people resist things that are logically positive?
• Why do trust, belonging and psychological safety matter so much?
• And why do we so often know what to do, but fail to do it?
I realised that many of the challenges of leadership are, fundamentally, human challenges. That curiosity led me to begin a Master’s in Applied Neuroscience at King’s College London. Not because I wanted to become a neuroscientist (I really couldn’t do dissections myself!) but because I wanted to better understand the relationship between the brain, behaviour and leadership.
It’s challenged some of my assumptions, reinforced some things I’ve observed throughout my career, and provided a robust scientific lens through which to view many of the issues leaders face every day.
What I’ve discovered is that neuroscience really does help to explain great leadership behaviours: why attention, emotions and trust matter, why we make the decisions we do, why change feels difficult, and why human connection remains at the heart of effective leadership; especially in an AI world.
Over the coming months, I'll be sharing some of the ideas, research and practical insights that have emerged from my experiences. Do let me know your thoughts!
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