This is not a typical episode of The NeuroLeadership Edge. It is a live hybrid, part podcast, part book launch event, recorded the day The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You went out into the world.

Claire opens by naming the moment for what it is: the first live launch she has done, and the nervousness underneath the calm she is modeling in real time. She frames the whole book around one idea: pressure did not break you, it built you, and it has also quietly been running you. This book is what it looks like to take the running back.

The centerpiece of the episode is a direct reading from Chapter 7, "There Is Another Way." Claire recounts a leadership event years earlier where, after a full day of deliberate mental preparation, she walked across a bed of burning coals. She describes the mechanics of it in detail: the doubts that dissolved hour by hour, the moment her nervous system stopped debating and simply knew, and the confirmation from a professional fire walker afterward that what she experienced was trainable, not exceptional.

From there, she connects the story to the book's research base. She interviewed more than 60 senior leaders across six continents and asked each one the same question: "Under pressure, the leaders who hold it together are the ones who..." She reads several of their answers live, covering separation from the situation, clarity of goal, decisive action under incomplete information, and connection with people.

She also references the first time she handed her own system to someone else, a litigation attorney she calls Sarah in the book, and names that system: Pressure-Proof Leadership™.

The episode closes with a live question to the audience (what does your nervous system do first under pressure), a reminder that calm is not the absence of pressure but the ability to move through it, and a direct call to buy the book, leave a review, and help it hit bestseller status. Claire also flags the discounted Kindle price window running for four days after launch.

• The story behind Chapter 7 of The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You: walking on fire
• How deliberate preparation redirects the nervous system before a moment of fear
• Research voices from over 60 senior leaders across six continents
• The four categories of what helps leaders hold it together under pressure: separation, clarity, decisive action, connection
• The origin of Pressure-Proof Leadership™ as a transferable system
• What calm under fire actually means, and what it does not mean
• The launch of The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You

• Why the moment before you face something frightening is the moment that decides the outcome, and how to train that moment in advance
• What separates leaders who hold it together under pressure from those who do not, based on research across six continents
• Why calm is not the absence of pressure, but the trained ability to move through it
• How a personal system for managing pressure became Pressure-Proof Leadership™, a system that can be taught and installed in others

[00:00:00] Opening: Launch day for The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You
[00:02:00] Why this book exists and who it is for
[00:04:00] Introducing Chapter 7: There is another way
[00:06:00] Reading begins: the night of the coal walk
[00:09:00] The walk itself and what broke through after
[00:11:00] The fire walker's confirmation: trained, not exceptional
[00:14:00] The skill underneath the story: calm authority under pressure
[00:16:00] Research across six continents: the same question asked to 60+ leaders
[00:17:00] Voices from the research: separation, clarity, decisive action, connection
[00:19:00] The first time the system was handed to someone else: Pressure-Proof Leadership™
[00:20:00] Live question to the audience: what does your nervous system do first
[00:21:00] What calm under fire actually means
[00:22:00] Closing: get the book, help it hit bestseller
[00:23:00] Kindle discount window and final thank you

• The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You: Calm Under Fire in the Age of Disruption — clairehayek.com/book
• Amazon preorder/purchase link — https://a.co/d/0cKTUYPB
• Chapter 7 reference page (Pressure-Proof Leadership™ origin): Page 83
• Research voices quoted: Gillian Muessig (Managing Director, Masterfund), Steven Pieterse (COO, Multimedia), Paul Allen Thompson (CFO, Integro Bank), Scott Floyd (Senior Director of People and Communities, Cisco Systems)
• The Say It Out Loud Rule™, referenced from Claire's TEDx talk

The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You is out now. Order it here.

Ready to train your brain for resilience and high performance? Join Claire's Mental Fitness Masterclass here

Use code: NLEdgePodcast for 50% OFF exclusive to my podcast listeners

For free resources, assessments, and everything else: https://clairehayek.com/book-resources

(Pressure Archetype, PP Scorecard, Reset Scripts, and more all live here)

Follow Claire Hayek on LinkedIn

Read Claire's newsletter on Substack here

Subscribe to The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast for brain-based strategies to lead with clarity, courage, and impact. clairehayek.com/podcast

The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast is produced by Claire Hayek. All opinions are those of the host and guests. For more leadership resources, visit clairehayek.com

At fifteen, Abe Murray was hiring and firing crew members, some of whom had pulled knives on him, to keep his family's fishing business alive. There was no adult coming to fix it. He was the adult. Decades later, he is a General Partner at AlleyCorp leading deep tech investing across aerospace, energy, manufacturing, and robotics, following fifteen years at Alphabet across Android, Google AI, and Verily.

In this episode, Claire and Abe unpack the rule his father gave him as a teenager, a rule that happens to match exactly what neuroscience shows about regulation under threat. They talk about why there is no single fix for chaos, only the discipline of doing the next right thing. Abe explains how an introvert who says he hates networking built a network that spans a thousand people across the world, simply by building things he loved with people he liked. And in the rapid fire round, Abe gives his one word for leading under pressure: smile.

Abe was also part of the research behind Claire's upcoming book, The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You: Calm Under Fire in the Age of Disruption, and his perspective on pressure appears in the closing pages.

Connect with Abe Murray on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abe-murray/

The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You is out now. Order it here.

Ready to train your brain for resilience and high performance? Join Claire's Mental Fitness Masterclass here

Use code: NLEdgePodcast for 50% OFF exclusive to my podcast listeners

For free resources, assessments, and everything else: https://clairehayek.com/book-resources

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Follow Claire Hayek on LinkedIn

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Subscribe to The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast for brain-based strategies to lead with clarity, courage, and impact. clairehayek.com/podcast

The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast is produced by Claire Hayek. All opinions are those of the host and guests. For more leadership resources, visit clairehayek.com

Scott Floyd has spent nearly 30 years learning how to know when it's time to repot. Fifteen of those years were in his family's business, where he learned conflict, stakeholder management, and what it means to wear different hats with the people you love. He left, not out of frustration, but because he recognized a specific, nameable feeling: complete. From there he moved into a large US organization, and eventually into his current role leading global benefits and wellbeing at Cisco Systems, supporting employees and families across more than 80,000 people in over 95 countries.

In this conversation, Scott and Claire dig into the plant and soil image that Scott uses to check in with himself: are you still growing, or are you the plant that's quietly yellowing while everyone waits for the leaves to fall off before they notice? They talk about the difference between loyalty that serves you and loyalty that costs you, why pressure is data and not the enemy, and the specific, practical resets Scott uses to interrupt reaction and get back to clarity, including a hack for that moment someone cuts you off in traffic.

Scott is one of the leaders whose story helped shape Claire's upcoming book, The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You: Calm Under Fire in the Age of Disruption, out September 9.


Topics Covered

Timestamps

[00:01:00] Guest Introduction: Scott Floyd, Global Benefits and Wellbeing Leader, Cisco Systems

[00:02:00] The correction: nearly 30 years, not 15, and where the 15 came from

[00:03:00] Origin story: 15 years inside the family business

[00:04:00] The tension of succession in a family-owned business

[00:05:00] The unique pressure of total life integration in family business

[00:06:00] The outside conversation that first raised the question of alignment

[00:07:00] The concept of "feeling complete" as a career decision signal

[00:08:00] His father's words after he left

[00:09:00] Introducing the plant and soil metaphor

[00:10:00] The move to a global company and what it stretched in him

[00:11:00] Reframing discomfort as data instead of something to outlast

[00:12:00] Pressure patterns and getting back to the brain's CEO, the prefrontal cortex

[00:13:00] Building the intuition to notice when you're still growing

[00:14:00] How loyalty and fear keep leaders in the wrong soil too long

[00:15:00] Training the brain to pause before reacting

[00:16:00] Small resets: coffee, water, a stretch, and why they work

[00:17:00] Practicing self-awareness before every conversation

[00:19:00] Neuroplasticity: why it's never too late to rewire

[00:20:00] Rapid Fire: one word for pressure

[00:21:00] Rapid Fire: the first 60 seconds of a hard conversation

[00:22:00] Rapid Fire: turning anger into empathy in traffic

[00:23:00] Rapid Fire: the best advice he ever ignored

[00:24:00] Closing: the Pressure and Performance Scorecard and the book launch

Mentioned in This Episode

Connect with Scott Floyd:

The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You is out now. Order it here.

Ready to train your brain for resilience and high performance? Join Claire's Mental Fitness Masterclass here

Use code: NLEdgePodcast for 50% OFF exclusive to my podcast listeners

For free resources, assessments, and everything else: https://clairehayek.com/book-resources

(Pressure Archetype, PP Scorecard, Reset Scripts, and more all live here)

Follow Claire Hayek on LinkedIn

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Subscribe to The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast for brain-based strategies to lead with clarity, courage, and impact. clairehayek.com/podcast

The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast is produced by Claire Hayek. All opinions are those of the host and guests. For more leadership resources, visit clairehayek.com

Paul Allen Thompson has spent decades inside the kind of transactions most executives see once in a career: mergers, spinoffs, deals with fixed deadlines and zero margin for error. As CFO of Integro Bank, he built a reputation on being effective under pressure. But in this conversation with Claire Hayek, Paul goes back to the moment that pressure-tested his own leadership blind spot.

He walked his team of fifty into a room, announced a major spinoff, and left the meeting convinced it had gone perfectly. High energy, everyone locked in, ready to go. Then his HR partner, Margaret Sweeney, asked him one question about how he thought the meeting landed. His answer revealed the gap. Not everybody in that room loved deals the way he did.

Claire and Paul unpack what happened in that moment, why it took an outside voice to name an assumption Paul had never examined, and how that single exchange reshaped the way he leads people through high-stakes work. They talk about the real difference between empowering a team and over-managing one, why trust is the foundation that lets people move without waiting for perfect information, and why the instinct to keep pushing forward and the instinct to stay attuned to your people are not opposing skills. They are the same skill, and it is trainable.

Paul also shares what he asks his teams before any major initiative begins, why decision rights matter more than most leaders think, and the mindset shift that let him stop fearing failure and start treating every outcome as information.

Paul is one of the contributors to Claire's upcoming book, The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You: Calm Under Fire in the Age of Disruption, out September 9th.

[00:00:00] Opening: The excitement that blinds leaders to their own team

[00:01:00] Introduction: Claire Hayek and what this show is built to do

[00:02:00] Guest Introduction: Paul Allen Thompson, CFO, Integro Bank

[00:03:00] The spinoff announcement and a team of fifty

[00:05:00] HR partner Margaret Sweeney asks the question that changed everything

[00:06:00] Paul's reaction: "It's like I went through a black hole"

[00:08:00] What changed: caring for the team as a leadership priority

[00:10:00] Why naming an unexamined assumption takes boldness

[00:11:00] How this shows up in Paul's leadership today

[00:12:00] Building a culture of trust during high-stakes transactions

[00:14:00] Making decisions without perfect information

[00:15:00] Why the brain treats delay as safety when it's actually cost

[00:17:00] Paul's contribution to Claire's upcoming book

[00:18:00] Rapid fire: the one word that describes Paul under pressure

[00:20:00] The leadership belief Paul let go of

[00:21:00] The Kobe Bryant mindset: process over outcome

[00:23:00] What every leader should ask their team before a high-stakes project

[00:25:00] The Pressure and Performance Scorecard and the book launch

[00:26:00] Paul's closing words and the Steve Jobs quote that stuck with him

Connect with Paul Allen Thompson, CFO of Integro Bank, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulallenthompson/

The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You is out now. Order it here.

Ready to train your brain for resilience and high performance? Join Claire's Mental Fitness Masterclass here

Use code: NLEdgePodcast for 50% OFF exclusive to my podcast listeners

For free resources, assessments, and everything else: https://clairehayek.com/book-resources

(Pressure Archetype, PP Scorecard, Reset Scripts, and more all live here)

Follow Claire Hayek on LinkedIn

Read Claire's newsletter on Substack here

Subscribe to The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast for brain-based strategies to lead with clarity, courage, and impact. clairehayek.com/podcast

The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast is produced by Claire Hayek. All opinions are those of the host and guests. For more leadership resources, visit clairehayek.com

Topics Covered

Timestamps

What You'll Learn

Mentioned in This Episode

Follow Boaz Gilad on social media: Substack: https://substack.com/@boazgilad

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/boaz-gilad-2237954/

Contact: BoazGilad.com

Book- The Zenith Code

Podcast- Unmask

The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You is out now. Order it here.

Ready to train your brain for resilience and high performance? Join Claire's Mental Fitness Masterclass here

Use code: NLEdgePodcast for 50% OFF exclusive to my podcast listeners

For free resources, assessments, and everything else: https://clairehayek.com/book-resources

(Pressure Archetype, PP Scorecard, Reset Scripts, and more all live here)

Follow Claire Hayek on LinkedIn

Read Claire's newsletter on Substack here

Subscribe to The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast for brain-based strategies to lead with clarity, courage, and impact. clairehayek.com/podcast

The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast is produced by Claire Hayek. All opinions are those of the host and guests. For more leadership resources, visit clairehayek.com

Topics Covered

Where the cost of pressure actually lives

The personal cost of holding a calm exterior under sustained pressure

How unresolved tension raises a leader's baseline over time

A real story from the book: a CEO, a misaligned decision, and a $900,000 cost

Why trust, not money, is the real casualty of unaddressed pressure

A direct reading from Chapter 4 of The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You

The one question to bring into your next leadership meeting

Timestamps

[00:00:35] Episode context: third installment in the Calm Under Fire series

[00:01:16] Recap: episodes one and two on pressure and identity patterns

[00:01:44] Today's promise: what the pattern is actually costing you

[00:02:03] The personal cost of pressure begins with small holdbacks

[00:02:52] The calm exterior and what it costs underneath

[00:03:30] How carried tension raises your baseline over time

[00:04:35] Introducing Nadia's story from the book

[00:04:57] One leader, one deal, one broken agreement

[00:05:29] The breakdown: sign-offs, stalled decisions, stalled projects

[00:05:59] Mapping the cost with Nadia, one layer at a time

[00:06:44] The number: nearly $900,000

[00:07:19] Nadia's reaction and the deeper cost of trust

[00:07:47] What happens when trust becomes the casualty

[00:08:39] How hidden costs get filed away instead of addressed

[00:09:29] The question to carry into your next meeting

[00:10:11] Reading directly from Chapter 4 of the book

[00:10:59] Book pre-access details and closing message


Mentioned in This Episode

The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You is out now. Order it here.

Ready to train your brain for resilience and high performance? Join Claire's Mental Fitness Masterclass here

Use code: NLEdgePodcast for 50% OFF exclusive to my podcast listeners

For free resources, assessments, and everything else: https://clairehayek.com/book-resources

(Pressure Archetype, PP Scorecard, Reset Scripts, and more all live here)

Follow Claire Hayek on LinkedIn

Read Claire's newsletter on Substack here

Subscribe to The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast for brain-based strategies to lead with clarity, courage, and impact. clairehayek.com/podcast

The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast is produced by Claire Hayek. All opinions are those of the host and guests. For more leadership resources, visit clairehayek.com

Topics Covered

Timestamps

[00:01:00] Guest Introduction: Howard Brownstein, President, The Brownstein Corporation

[00:02:00] The day federal agents raided a client company before Howard arrived

[00:07:00] The Vietnam War draft lottery and the decision that shaped Howard's steadiness

[00:13:00] Triage as a model for business leadership

[00:16:00] Why the bias toward comfort is so hard to catch in ourselves

[00:19:00] How to start building the habit of catching your own blind spots

[00:21:00] Connecting triage instincts to Pressure-Proof Leadership™

[00:23:00] Rapid fire questions with Howard Brownstein

[00:26:00] Closing thoughts and where to find the show


What You'll Learn

The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You is out now. Order it here.

Ready to train your brain for resilience and high performance? Join Claire's Mental Fitness Masterclass here

Use code: NLEdgePodcast for 50% OFF exclusive to my podcast listeners

For free resources, assessments, and everything else: https://clairehayek.com/book-resources

(Pressure Archetype, PP Scorecard, Reset Scripts, and more all live here)

Follow Claire Hayek on LinkedIn

Read Claire's newsletter on Substack here

Subscribe to The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast for brain-based strategies to lead with clarity, courage, and impact. clairehayek.com/podcast

The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast is produced by Claire Hayek. All opinions are those of the host and guests. For more leadership resources, visit clairehayek.com

Topics Covered

Timestamps

What You'll Learn

Mentioned in This Episode

Follow Gillian Muessig on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillianmuessig/

The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You is out now. Order it here.

Ready to train your brain for resilience and high performance? Join Claire's Mental Fitness Masterclass here

Use code: NLEdgePodcast for 50% OFF exclusive to my podcast listeners

For free resources, assessments, and everything else: https://clairehayek.com/book-resources

(Pressure Archetype, PP Scorecard, Reset Scripts, and more all live here)

Follow Claire Hayek on LinkedIn

Read Claire's newsletter on Substack here

Subscribe to The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast for brain-based strategies to lead with clarity, courage, and impact. clairehayek.com/podcast

The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast is produced by Claire Hayek. All opinions are those of the host and guests. For more leadership resources, visit clairehayek.com

Topics Covered

Timestamps

What You'll Learn

Mentioned in This Episode

Follow Keith Blakely on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithblakely/

The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You is out now. Order it here.

Ready to train your brain for resilience and high performance? Join Claire's Mental Fitness Masterclass here

Use code: NLEdgePodcast for 50% OFF exclusive to my podcast listeners

For free resources, assessments, and everything else: https://clairehayek.com/book-resources

(Pressure Archetype, PP Scorecard, Reset Scripts, and more all live here)

Follow Claire Hayek on LinkedIn

Read Claire's newsletter on Substack here

Subscribe to The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast for brain-based strategies to lead with clarity, courage, and impact. clairehayek.com/podcast

The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast is produced by Claire Hayek. All opinions are those of the host and guests. For more leadership resources, visit clairehayek.com

Topics Covered

Timestamps

[00:00:00] Opening: 30 years, 10,000 executive interviews, and the pattern that had nothing to do with strategy

[00:00:39] Introduction: The NeuroLeadership Edge and the three takeaways for this episode

[00:01:37] Guest Introduction: Neill Marshall, Chairman and Co-Founder, HealthSearch Partners

[00:02:31] The moment Neill walked away from a senior role at a major national search firm

[00:04:52] The neuroscience of a values threat and why the brain registers it as survival

[00:05:47] The shift: why a placement was never where the work ends

[00:07:07] The origin of The First 90 Days leadership series

[00:07:49] The mattress story: the CEO who moved into the hospital

[00:09:31] Why the brain values behavioral evidence over verbal statements

[00:10:29] Trust versus strategy in complex environments

[00:11:53] The ICU nurse and the pumps that mattered more than the strategic plan

[00:12:54] Claire on trust, nervous system contagion, and her upcoming book

[00:13:29] Going deeper on symbolic actions and why leaders dismiss them

[00:14:24] The CEO who bussed the table during search committee dinners

[00:16:16] The new president who picked up garbage in the parking lot on day one

[00:17:17] Why gestures are registered in the brain at a whole different level

[00:18:24] Rapid Fire: intentionality, pulling instead of pushing, mimicking the greats

[00:19:47] The one thing the best leaders all have in common: they attract

[00:20:37] The Pressure and Performance Scorecard and how to join the early reader group for Claire's book

[00:22:39] How to connect with Neill Marshall

[00:23:22] Closing: lead boldly, stay human, turn every challenge into a gift

What You'll Learn

Mentioned in This Episode

Follow Neill Marshall on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neillmarshall/

How to reach Neill via website: http://www.healthsearchpartners.com/

The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You is out now. Order it here.

Ready to train your brain for resilience and high performance? Join Claire's Mental Fitness Masterclass here

Use code: NLEdgePodcast for 50% OFF exclusive to my podcast listeners

For free resources, assessments, and everything else: https://clairehayek.com/book-resources

(Pressure Archetype, PP Scorecard, Reset Scripts, and more all live here)

Follow Claire Hayek on LinkedIn

Read Claire's newsletter on Substack here

Subscribe to The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast for brain-based strategies to lead with clarity, courage, and impact. clairehayek.com/podcast

The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast is produced by Claire Hayek. All opinions are those of the host and guests. For more leadership resources, visit clairehayek.com