Why can intelligent, successful leaders see everything in the room except the one thing holding their company back? My guest this week is Nicolas Pokorny. He trained in neurobiology and neuroscience, then spent more than 30 years leading teams in global business. He's the best-selling author of The Mammoth in the Room and the founder and CEO of Mammoth Leadership Sciences. Nicolas looks at leadership the way a scientist looks at behavior. People do what gets them the outcomes they need, and a good leader works with that instead of pretending it isn't there. We start with how Nicolas got his first leadership job. He was good at building detail aids, so they handed him a team of eight. Sound familiar? From there we get into power plays that pass for strategy debates, why company politics aren't the enemy, and why the best leaders he's known could tell you the names of their people's kids. I think you're going to get a lot out of this one. What you'll hear: The mammoth in the room: the issue everyone in the meeting already knows and no one will name Why leadership is really about leading human behavior, not the business The evolutionary roots of leadership, and why followers matter as much as leaders Why span of control should never exceed six to eight people The law of reciprocity, and the difference between appealing to someone and manipulating them ABOUT NICOLAS POKORNY Nicolas Pokorny is the best-selling author of The Mammoth in the Room and the founder and CEO of Mammoth Leadership Sciences. He has a PhD-level background in neurobiology and neuroscience and more than 30 years of global business leadership. Over that time he has built high-performing teams and helped organizations turn human behavior into a competitive advantage. His approach draws on evolutionary science to explain how people behave in groups, and his philosophy is simple: do the right things rather than simply doing things right. He also hosts The Mammoth in the Room podcast, which looks at leadership lessons from history through the lens of human behavior. ABOUT LARRY OLSEN Larry Olsen is a Two-Time Vistage Speaker of the Year and Fortune 50/500 Executive Performance Advisor with 40+ years of client work at Toyota, PepsiCo, Starbucks, Harley-Davidson, Honda, American Airlines, State Farm, Frito Lay, Lexus, and Tropicana. He is the author of Get a Vision and Live It! and the founder of Performance Driven Neurology. IF THIS LANDED FOR YOU Some things in a room are true whether or not anyone says them out loud. Naming what's actually happening, not just what's comfortable, is the same lens Larry brings to every leadership conversation he has. How Leaders Think: https://larry-olsen.kit.com/how-leaders-think CONNECT WITH LARRY Email: success@larryolsen.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/larry-r-olsen CONNECT WITH NICOLAS POKORNY Website: https://mammothleadershipsciences.com/ Book: The Mammoth in the Room (Amazon) Podcast: The Mammoth in the Room (YouTube, Apple, Spotify) SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE New episodes of the Brain Vault Podcast publish every other Wednesday. #BrainVaultPodcast #MammothInTheRoom #LarryOlsen #NicolasPokorny #Leadership
Why can intelligent, successful leaders see everything in the room except the one thing holding their company back?
My guest this week is Nicolas Pokorny. He trained in neurobiology and neuroscience, then spent more than 30 years leading teams in global business. He's the best-selling author of The Mammoth in the Room and the founder and CEO of Mammoth Leadership Sciences. Nicolas looks at leadership the way a scientist looks at behavior. People do what gets them the outcomes they need, and a good leader works with that instead of pretending it isn't there.
We start with how Nicolas got his first leadership job. He was good at building detail aids, so they handed him a team of eight. Sound familiar? From there we get into power plays that pass for strategy debates, why company politics aren't the enemy, and why the best leaders he's known could tell you the names of their people's kids. I think you're going to get a lot out of this one.
What you'll hear:
ABOUT NICOLAS POKORNY
Nicolas Pokorny is the best-selling author of The Mammoth in the Room and the founder and CEO of Mammoth Leadership Sciences. He has a PhD-level background in neurobiology and neuroscience and more than 30 years of global business leadership. Over that time he has built high-performing teams and helped organizations turn human behavior into a competitive advantage. His approach draws on evolutionary science to explain how people behave in groups, and his philosophy is simple: do the right things rather than simply doing things right. He also hosts The Mammoth in the Room podcast, which looks at leadership lessons from history through the lens of human behavior.
ABOUT LARRY OLSEN
Larry Olsen is a Two-Time Vistage Speaker of the Year and Fortune 50/500 Executive Performance Advisor with 40+ years of client work at Toyota, PepsiCo, Starbucks, Harley-Davidson, Honda, American Airlines, State Farm, Frito Lay, Lexus, and Tropicana. He is the author of Get a Vision and Live It! and the founder of Performance Driven Neurology.
IF THIS LANDED FOR YOU
Some things in a room are true whether or not anyone says them out loud. Naming what's actually happening, not just what's comfortable, is the same lens Larry brings to every leadership conversation he has.
How Leaders Think: https://larry-olsen.kit.com/how-leaders-think
CONNECT WITH LARRY
Email: success@larryolsen.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/larry-r-olsen
CONNECT WITH NICOLAS POKORNY
Website: https://mammothleadershipsciences.com/
Book: The Mammoth in the Room (Amazon)
Podcast: The Mammoth in the Room (YouTube, Apple, Spotify)
SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE
New episodes of the Brain Vault Podcast publish every other Wednesday.
#BrainVaultPodcast #MammothInTheRoom #LarryOlsen #NicolasPokorny #Leadership