The Leader's Brain: Updated and Expanded
The Leader's Brain: Updated and Expanded
Unlock peak performance by understanding what our brains are designed for and how to optimize within that design.
Our brains are more like Swiss army knives than computers, and the component tools can be measured, selected, and sharpened with insights from neuroscience. Doing so benefits all aspects of business and work and will improve health and wellbeing as well.
This edition of The Leader’s Brain is fully updated and expanded to address today’s challenges. With an all-new chapter on AI and new case studies and research insights throughout, the book will be of renewed interest to existing and new readers.
“The Leader’s Brain should be required reading for anyone leading and working with others.”
“It’s exceedingly rare to find a book that draws on data and established principles from the field
of neuroscience that is written by an actual neuroscientist, much less one of the top researchers in
the field. The Leader’s Brain by Michael Platt is that book. It delivers practical tools to guide
optimal decision making, creativity and innovation in the context of organizations of any size. It
also allows you to understand why these tools work while so many other commonly held
leadership tactics fall short. It all boils down to the inner workings of our social and decision-
making brain networks, which Platt clearly explains. The Leader’s Brain should be required
reading for anyone leading and working with others.”
—Andrew D. Huberman, Department of Neurobiology & Ophthalmology, Stanford
University School of Medicine and Host of the Huberman Lab Podcast
“Great leadership isn’t just about instincts—it’s about understanding how our minds shape the
way we connect, decide, and innovate. Which is why The Leader’s Brain is absolutely essential
reading for anyone who wants a science-based approach to becoming a more effective leader.”
—Laurie Santos, Professor of Psychology at Yale University and host, The Happiness Lab
podcast
“The Leader’s Brain belongs on your desk, your nightstand, and your prefrontal cortex.”
“If Ted Lasso had a PhD in neuroscience, he’d write a book like this. In The Leader’s Brain,
Michael Platt makes complex brain science as clear, practical, and relevant as a championship
locker room pep talk. The new AI chapter is a mind-expanding upgrade that turns neuroscience
into your leadership GPS for the exponential era. This isn’t just a leadership book—it’s a guide
to building Brain Capital and staying human in an increasingly automated world. If you want to
lead better, think smarter, re-wire and future-proof your brain, this is your playbook. The
Leader’s Brain belongs on your desk, your nightstand, and your prefrontal cortex.”
—Chris Nolan, 3x Emmy-winning director, Co-Creator of VUCA MAX and The Rise of
Humanness Podcast
“In a time when AI reshapes the rules and volatility defines the terrain, leadership requires more
than instincts—it needs cognitive range, emotional acuity, and the courage to challenge inherited
thinking (and engrained ‘systems’). Backed by science, The Leader’s Brain offers a blueprint for
leaders who thrive on ambiguity, build through trust, and move with purpose towards the
future.”
—Deborah Golden, Chief Innovation Officer, Deloitte
The Leader's Brain
A pioneering neuroscientist reveals how brain science can transform how we think about leadership, team-building, decision-making, innovation, marketing, and more.
Leadership is a set of abilities with which a lucky few are born. They're the natural relationship builders, master negotiators and persuaders, and agile and strategic thinkers.
The good news for the rest of us is that those abilities can be developed. In The Leader's Brain: Enhance Your Leadership, Build Stronger Teams, Make Better Decisions, and Inspire Greater Innovation with Neuroscience, Wharton Neuroscience Initiative director Michael Platt explains how.
“the leader’s brain is a mindset”
Neuroscience is providing answers to many of leadership's most vexing challenges. In The Leader's Brain, Platt explains:
Why two managers, when presented with the same set of information, make very different decisions; Why some companies (Apple) build strong social and emotional connections with their customers and others do not (Samsung); How some of the most significant events in sports history, like the "Miracle on Ice," contain insights for how to build a team; Why even some of the most visionary business leaders can make disastrous decisions, and how to fix that.
The Leader's Brain relates findings like these, and many more, to help enhance leadership in an ever-shifting world entering a "new normal."
In this fast-reading and engaging guide, you'll gain actionable insights you can put into practice as a leader. You will also learn what's going on in your team's brains when they are working in sync with one another, how you can tweak your message delivery to make sure others hear you, how to encourage greater creativity and innovation, and much more.