Hi everyone, and welcome back to my lunch table. This is the Bite-Size podcast where we explore big shifts in leadership mindsets and modern work culture. I'm Simon Hague, your host, leadership strategist and founder of my lunch table. Today's episode is part of our conscious leadership miniseries, and we're diving into what I'm terming a shift from hierarchical to brain-based leadership. So what if the key to better performance wasn't in working harder, but working with your brain? According to the World Health Organization's 2024 report, nearly 50% of today's workers are living with chronic stress. Burnout isn't a personal failing, it's a systems problem. And toxic leadership models, well, they're fueling this fire. So let's pull up a chair and. Pour your favorite drink. Let's explore how conscious leaders are turning to neuroscience, not just nice intentions to shape workplaces that protect mental wellbeing and elevate performance. This fourth shift in conscious leadership is about moving away from the old guard, the command and control style of leadership, and stepping into something more humane, more effective, and yes, more brain-based. Burnout isn't personal. It's structural. burnout isn't just about being overwhelmed or tired. It's what happens when people live in systems that are chronically misaligned with how human brains are wired to function. Nearly one in two employees globally report experiencing chronic stress. many leadership behaviors unintentionally make it worse. Constant urgency, lack of autonomy, micromanaging in the name of standards, always on type technology, which demands instant responses. the truth is if we're not designing our workplaces for how our brain works, to allow our brain to cool down, we're designing for dysfunction. let's think about how we can bring neuroscience and our understanding to the C-suite. This is where things get exciting. Conscious leaders are rewiring the way they lead using tools from neuroscience. Why should you care about this? Because your brains are under constant stress, even mild background stress. They become more reactive and less flexible. You are quick to judge, slower to learn, and more likely to misread situations. You go into a fight or flight type response. Dave White, a thought leader in this space, put it perfectly. When you're a stressed out leader who knows how to work with your brain, you become calmer. You're responsive and more able to see a situation from multiple angles. In other words, happier brain. Makes for better leadership. And let's be clear, this isn't about that soft, fuzzy feeling. It's about hard business outcomes, better decisions, clearer communication and healthier team dynamics. That's what the neuroscience is telling us. So what does brain-based leadership look like in action? It's not all yoga mats and beanbags, it looks like this. We're thinking about autonomy. We're letting people decide when and how they work best. We're looking for flexibility, trusting that different people, that different brains thrive under different connections. Everybody is unique in their requirement. Outcome focused, valuing what gets done, not how exhausted someone looks doing it. David White, calls this the shift from optics to outcomes and frankly, who wouldn't prefer results over appearances. Here's a quick scenario to bring it to life. Imagine you manage a team delivering a high stakes project. Instead of rigid deadlines and daily standups, you invite the team to shape their own working model with you as a supportive guide, not as the task master You introduce focus hours from 10 to 12 where no meetings are allowed and kick off weekly huddles with a stress in stress check-In the result you get higher morale, less sick leave and performance that's just sustainable and also smarter. So talking about this idea of focused hours. It is something I've used myself, whereby you can just do what you want to do at that particular moment in time, this frees up the mind from stressful situations around you. If you're not doing this at the moment, it's certainly worthwhile looking at it. you might be wondering, how do I begin to make the shift without disrupting everything overnight? So here's four micro shifts. You can start meetings with a simple question. Where's your energy right now? A check-in like this creates emotional awareness and psychological safety, and may affect the way the meeting is handled. Encourage your team to nominate at least two hours for deep uninterrupted work. No pings, no meetings, just space for real thinking. as a leader, don't disturb them. During that focus time. Trust them that they're going to be using that time for effective work, which they will be. Introduce white space time. Allocate 10 to 15 minutes a day when nothing is scheduled. This gives the brain's prefrontal cortex or PFC critical for strategy and executive function. A chance to breathe, replace time tracking with a short results journal. Ask your team to jot down what they achieved, what energized them, and what drained them. Two weeks of this can be an absolute game changer. So these four things are practical, low tech, high impact ways that you can make manual change within your organization. And do you know what? They ripple outwards in powerful ways. So what do we cover today? We've busted the myth that leadership is about control and grind. We've seen how conscious leaders are turning to brain science to create environments that reduce stress, unlock better thinking and drive meaningful results. This shift four, from hierarchical to brain-based leadership. Is not just a trend, it's actually a necessity for us to think about because real leadership doesn't ignore the mental health of its staff. It protects it, it doesn't demand more hours, it asks better questions. when you are a stressed out leader who knows how to work with your brain, you become calmer, more responsive, and that changes everything. If you are ready to make a change within your business and you are ready to bring brain-based leadership into your world, then. Follow those four very easy techniques. if you found this thought provoking, then go ahead and subscribe, share with, share It with Fellow Leader and leave us a quick review. It really helps us grow this community and we really do want to create a community of conscious change makers who are doing the right thing for the right reason. Thank you for joining me today So until next time, keep leading with curiosity. Compassion and your cortex fully online.