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Draft:The Leading Brain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Leading Brain
AuthorFriederike Fabritius and Hans W. Hagemann
LanguageEnglish
SubjectNeuroscience, leadership, performance psychology
GenreNon-fiction
PublisherTarcherPerigee (Penguin Random House)
Publication dateFebruary 21, 2017
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardcover, paperback), e-book, audiobook
Pages336
ISBN978-0143129356
OCLC952384510

The Leading Brain: Powerful Science-Based Strategies for Achieving Peak Performance is a 2017 non-fiction book by German neuroscientist Friederike Fabritius and psychologist Dr. Hans W. Hagemann, published by TarcherPerigee, an imprint of Penguin Random House.[1] The book applies findings from neuroscience and psychology to workplace performance and leadership, arguing that effective leadership can be treated as a science rather than an art.[1][2]

The book was named one of the best business books of 2017 in the management category by strategy+business.[3] A German-language edition was published by Campus Verlag in 2021 under the title Neurohacks: Gehirngerecht und glücklicher arbeiten.[4]

Authors and origin

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Friederike Fabritius is a neuroscientist who studied at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research and subsequently worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company.[1] Hans W. Hagemann holds a doctorate in psychology and is the founder and a managing partner of the Munich-based leadership consultancy Munich Leadership Group.[2][5]

Both authors developed the book while working together at the Munich Leadership Group (MLG), where Hagemann is the founder and a managing partner and Fabritius was a colleague at MLG.[6][2] According to the publisher, the book is based on the leadership programs the two had delivered to corporate clients internationally, so that the concepts it presents were developed and applied in the firm's client work before being written up for a general readership.[1]

Synopsis

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The book is organised in three parts comprising nine chapters.[7]

Part one, "Reaching Your Peak", addresses individual performance. The authors argue that of the more than one hundred known neurotransmitters, three are decisive for peak performance — dopamine, noradrenaline and acetylcholine — which they term the "DNA of Peak Performance".[7][3] Drawing on the Yerkes–Dodson law, they describe performance as peaking at an intermediate level of arousal and contend that this optimum varies between individuals, so that "there's no universal standard for optimum arousal".[7] Further chapters in this part deal with emotional regulation and with sustaining attention.[7]

Part two, "Changing Your Brain", concerns neuroplasticity and rejects the view that adult mental processes are fixed.[7] It covers the formation and replacement of habits — recommending an incremental, kaizen-style approach intended to avoid triggering the brain's threat response — as well as unconscious decision-making and learning.[7][8]

Part three, "Building Dream Teams", applies the material to groups. It proposes assembling teams from complementary thinking styles, using a typology of brain-chemistry-linked personality types derived from the work of Helen Fisher, and discusses trust and psychological safety.[7][9] In an interview about the book, Hagemann said that "in the end, there is one thing that determines the highest performance, and that is psychological safety".[2]

Publication history

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The hardcover edition was published on 21 February 2017 by TarcherPerigee.[1] A paperback edition followed on 20 February 2018 under the modified subtitle Neuroscience Hacks to Work Smarter, Better, Happier.[10] An unabridged audiobook narrated by Karen Saltus was released in 2017.[11]

The book has been translated into seven languages.[12] The German edition, Neurohacks: Gehirngerecht und glücklicher arbeiten, translated by Stephan Gebauer, was published by Campus Verlag on 13 October 2021,[4][13] accompanied by an audiobook read by Michael J. Diekmann.[14] Further editions have appeared in Spanish (El cerebro del líder, Sine Qua Non), Polish (Umysł lidera, ICAN Institute, 2018), Russian (Как думают победители, Azbuka Business, 2017), Korean (뇌를 읽다, Vintage House, 2018), Chinese (领导力科学, Posts & Telecom Press) and Japanese (覚醒脳の作り方, Direct Publishing).[12][15]

Reception

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Publishers Weekly reviewed the book ahead of publication, describing it as "concrete, energetic, and accessible" and calling it "a must-read for anyone who takes a science-backed approach to business", while noting that the authors convert complex neurochemistry into concrete actions.[16]

In strategy+business, critic Duff McDonald included the book in the magazine's "Best Business Books 2017" selection in the management category, characterising it as "a more traditional entry in the neuroscience-and-work realm" and summarising the authors' framework of dopamine, noradrenaline and acetylcholine.[3]

Greater Good, published by the University of California, Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, wrote that the authors "meld their business-world experience with findings from neuroscience" to set out how people can work "smarter, better, happier".[8] Knowledge at Wharton, the business journal of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, interviewed the authors about the book's central claims.[2] Writing as a contributor to Forbes, communications author Carmine Gallo listed it among ten books for leaders published in 2017.[17] The French management-review service Manageris described the book as concrete and didactic.[9]

In Library Journal, Sara Holder included the book in a curated list of leadership titles, describing it as "part leadership theory and part strategy for training your brain" and as a resource both for individual development and for building higher-functioning teams.[18] The book's framework was also taken up in the business press: Entrepreneur built an article around the authors' concept of an optimal "stress sweet spot",[19] and Inc. cited the book's discussion of decision-making under uncertainty.[20] In Korea, the brain-science magazine Brain reviewed the Korean edition.[15] Fabritius presented the book's framework in a 2019 Talks at Google lecture.[21]

Reviewing the German edition, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung wrote that the authors combined brain research and business expertise, and WirtschaftsWoche called the book well written and well structured.[22]

The broader field of "neuroleadership" to which the book belongs has attracted scholarly and journalistic scepticism. In a 2023 critical analysis for the German human-resources publisher Haufe, the journalist and psychologist Bärbel Schwertfeger examined the field and the authors' associated work, reporting criticism that neuroleadership models often restate established leadership theory in neuroscientific vocabulary.[6]

Academic reception

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The book has been cited in peer-reviewed management scholarship. In Human Relations, Peter Bloom and Martyna Śliwa discussed it within a critical examination of "hacking" discourse in the workplace, quoting the authors' aim that people should "work smarter, better, and happier".[23] Charles Kerns cited the book in work on team management and leadership presence, drawing on its argument that teams which fail to leverage behavioural diversity can lead to cognitive complacency.[24]

See also

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References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "The Leading Brain by Friederike Fabritius, MS and Hans W. Hagemann, PhD". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "What Science Says About Achieving Peak Performance". Knowledge at Wharton. The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. 9 May 2017. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 McDonald, Duff (7 November 2017). "Best Business Books 2017: Management". strategy+business. PwC. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  4. 1 2 "Neurohacks: Gehirngerecht und glücklicher arbeiten" (in German). Campus Verlag. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  5. ↑ Mockaitis, Pete (5 May 2017). "151: How to Get in the Zone…Every Day with Dr. Hans Hagemann". How to be Awesome at Your Job. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  6. 1 2 Schwertfeger, Bärbel (30 June 2023). "Neuroleadership – eine kritische Analyse". Haufe (in German). Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Fabritius, Friederike; Hagemann, Hans W. (2017). The Leading Brain: Powerful Science-Based Strategies for Achieving Peak Performance. TarcherPerigee. pp. Introduction, table of contents. ISBN 978-0143129356.
  8. 1 2 Allen, Summer (17 February 2017). "How to Hack Your Brain for Peak Performance". Greater Good Magazine. Greater Good Science Center, University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  9. 1 2 "The Leading Brain — Friederike Fabritius, Hans W. Hagemann". Manageris. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  10. ↑ Fabritius, Friederike; Hagemann, Hans W. (20 February 2018). The Leading Brain: Neuroscience Hacks to Work Smarter, Better, Happier. TarcherPerigee. ISBN 978-0143129363.
  11. ↑ "The Leading Brain (audiobook)". Audible. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  12. 1 2 "The Leading Brain — international editions". TheLeadingBrain.com. Retrieved 30 July 2026. Editions listed in Spanish, German, Korean, Polish, Russian, Chinese and Japanese. See also "The Leading Brain — editions". Open Library. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  13. ↑ "Neurohacks — Katalogeintrag" (in German). Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  14. ↑ "Neurohacks (Hörbuch)" (in German). Audible. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  15. 1 2 Jang, Seo-yeon (18 November 2018). 뇌를 읽다. Brain (in Korean). Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  16. ↑ "Nonfiction Book Review: The Leading Brain". Publishers Weekly. 5 December 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  17. ↑ Gallo, Carmine (19 December 2017). "Ten Of 2017's Best Books For Leaders Will Put You Ahead Of The Competition". Forbes. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  18. ↑ Holder, Sara (12 June 2018). "Read to Lead | 17 Books You Need". Library Journal. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  19. ↑ Van Edwards, Vanessa (16 August 2017). "Finding Your 'Stress Sweet Spot' to Perform at Your Best". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  20. ↑ Haden, Jeff (7 March 2018). "How Flipping a Coin Can Actually Help You Make Smarter Decisions, Backed by Science". Inc. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  21. ↑ "Fun, Fear, Focus: Peak Performance Recipe | Friederike Fabritius | Talks at Google". Talks at Google. 15 January 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  22. ↑ "Neurohacks — Pressestimmen" (in German). Campus Verlag. Retrieved 30 July 2026. Press quotations from Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, 5 December 2021, and WirtschaftsWoche, as reproduced by the publisher.
  23. ↑ Bloom, Peter; Śliwa, Martyna (2022). "Hacking work: Critically examining the implications of the new discourse and practices of hacking for work intensification and organisational control". Human Relations. 75 (5): 795–816. doi:10.1177/0018726721996763.
  24. ↑ Kerns, Charles D. (2019). "Managing Teamwork: A Key Leadership Practice". Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics. 16 (1). doi:10.33423/jlae.v16i1.1362.
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Category:2017 non-fiction books Category:American non-fiction books Category:Books about business Category:Popular science books Category:Books about psychology Category:Penguin Random House books

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