Preface
Acknowledgements

Introduction
How to read this book
Meet the coach
Meet the professionals

PART 1 – You

1 Can a marshmallow predict your success?
Possibilities
Prioritization
Picturing your goal
Starting with the end in mind
Prefrontal cortex
Practical prioritization
New information
Multi or mono
Your plastic brain
Reassuringly flexible
Enriching your potential
Action

2 Is your hippopotamus under attack?
Stress: the classic culprit
Predictability and stress
Perhaps pounding the pavements is the answer
Negative connotations
Checking out of stress and into normality
Hippo attack
Mirror neurons
Possibilities
Lack of control
Stress busting
Focus
Action

3 Learning how to influence what feels out of your control
States, emotions and feelings
To know or not to know
Controlling our feelings
Controlling our emotions
Practically possible
Why anchoring is vital
About the cup
The importance of smell
Action

4 The challenge of being everything to everyone
Possibilities
Distractions
Benefits of braking
Getting stuck
Strategic planning
Getting unstuck
Decision making
Filtering incoming data
Emotional area
Action

5 Is a busy brain a clever brain?
The brain in action
In one ear, out the other
Full head
Enriching your environment
Knowledge into practice
A leopard can change its spots
A lot of hard work
Practically possible

6 Getting results easily and with less effort
The neuroscience behind habits
The reality of the chocolate habit
Reprogramming a habit
How a faulty circuit can be fixed
What is possible
Neuroplasticity and habits
‘Damaged’ as a child
Neural Darwinism
Competitive plasticity
How you create new habits
Why bad habits sometimes return
Action

PART 2 – Your Colleagues and Clients

7 Working and living in balance
Work–life balance
Expectations: theirs and yours
Conflict
Causes of tiredness
Time versus energy
The importance of control
How the mind works optimally
Action

8 Upgrading your life one step at a time
What the brain has to do with getting stuff done
Brain areas of goal achievement
Getting specific
Real or imagined
The neuroscientist’s biggest kept secret
Motivation
Your state matters
Deserving a reward
Action

9 The minefield of motivating people
Motivating others
What motivates you
Some rewards motivate
Higher purpose
Power of expectations
Motivation zappers
Power of control
Power of certainty
Power of confidence
Mood and motivation

10 Transforming meetings
Personality problems
Unfairness
The two routes of fear
Problems with meetings
Memes
Remembering stuff
Feeling excluded
Action

11 Making every presentation count
Outcome
Engagement
How to engage people
Planning
Intentions
Priming
Mental rehearsal
Mirror neurons
Stress busting
Emotion
Death by PowerPoint™ and sleep-inducing notes
Body language

12 Appearing competent to others
Insights
How to predispose yourself to having more insights
Why you forget
Real or fabricated
Episodic versus semantic
Brain areas
Working memory
Emotions and memory
Unconscious memories
Priming

PART 3 – Your Company

13 Leading with your brain switched on
Leaders today
The synaptic circle
Confidence
Understanding status
Mirror neurons
Certainty
Culture
Celebration
Control
Connection
Contribution

14 Simply authentic sales
Decision making
Intention
Identifying pain
Unique calm
Prove gain
Credibility: stories and pictures
Emotions
Congruency

15 Managing people, managing brains
Managing people – a brain perspective
Trust
Predictability and ambiguity
Fairness
Social reward
Neuromanagement
Feeling
Thinking
The evaluator
The conflict manager
Interpreting
Action
Reward

References
Index

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