Available to book
Lynda Shaw
Behavioural Science
Leadership Development
Decision Making
Dr Lynda Shaw helps leaders harness the hidden brain behind intuition and decision-making. A neuroscience speaker and leadership psychologist, she draws on Fellowships from the Royal Society of Medicine and the British Psychological Society.
Neuroscience
Psychology
Scientist
Doctor
Author
Business Consulting
Professional Development
Personal Development
Mindset
Workshop Facilitators
HR
Mentor
Dr Lynda Shaw is a behavioural neuroscientist and leadership psychologist who studies the brain processes that shape decisions before people are aware they are making them.
She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and a Fellow, former President, and Hall of Fame inductee of the Professional Speaking Association. Her doctoral research used functional MRI to examine unconscious emotional processing across the brain, demonstrating that the brain registers emotional significance before conscious awareness catches up. She is also the author of The Hidden Brain: Why Smart Leaders Make Bad Decisions, Your Brain is Boss, and Beat the Bullies, Use Your Brain.
For thirty years, Lynda has worked alongside C-suite leaders, boards, and senior teams across financial services, law, technology, and professional services, drawing on neuroscience, leadership psychology, and social anthropology to trace how unseen brain patterns shape culture, collaboration, and performance.
Audiences leave her sessions able to recognise the blind spots behind their own decisions, understand how instinct and bias operate before reasoning takes over, and apply practical techniques for more accurate judgement under pressure. Her talks combine peer-reviewed research with real-world examples, humour, and an adventurous outlook shaped by decades of cross-cultural fieldwork.
Book Lynda to help your leaders see what has been shaping their decisions all along.
Topics, sessions and talks
Whenever something new is introduced in business, the biggest challenge is not the process, but how people respond to it. Dr Lynda Shaw uses the 3Rs, a simple, repeatable behavioural sequence, to show why teams push back against change, and how to make it stick. Delivered through neuroscience and leadership psychology with warmth and humour, this talk equips leaders to respond well under pressure, question assumptions that hold them back, and build consistent performance with less resistance.
Most organisations look outside for leadership talent when the stronger opportunity is already inside the business. Dr Lynda Shaw reveals the hidden blind spots that cause leaders to overlook high-potential people, and shows how developing existing talent strengthens succession, retention, and performance at a fraction of the cost of external hiring. Grounded in peer-reviewed research, this talk helps leaders and talent teams stop overlooking the leaders already in front of them.
Success creates patterns, and over time those patterns harden into assumptions that intelligent people stop questioning. Dr Lynda Shaw combines behavioural neuroscience, psychology, and real world leadership experience to explain why smart people miss critical signals hiding in habits, emotional reactions, and unquestioned routines that build up over a career. Attendees come away with a practical framework for sharpening judgement, reducing costly errors, and thinking more clearly in complex, fast changing environments.
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and the British Psychological Society, Lynda has spent thirty years advising boards and senior teams across financial services, law, and technology. Her ongoing work applying neuroscience to leadership decisions gives audiences evidence-based tools for improving judgement under pressure.
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frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
Email lynda.shaw@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Lynda's availability and fees. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and a bit about your audience.
Lynda Shaw structures her talks around a named behavioural framework — most notably the 3Rs, a repeatable sequence drawn from neuroscience and leadership psychology — which gives audiences a portable tool to apply after the session. She grounds each framework in peer-reviewed research, including her own doctoral fMRI work on unconscious emotional processing, and anchors the theory in real-world leadership examples drawn from three decades of cross-sector practice.
Dr Lynda Shaw's sessions address behavioural change and resistance in organisations, identifying and developing internal leadership talent, and the cognitive blind spots that distort judgement in experienced leaders. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, whose doctoral research used functional MRI to demonstrate that the brain registers emotional significance before conscious awareness, findings she has applied across thirty years working with C-suite leaders in financial services, law, technology, and professional services.
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