Dr Tara Swart

Tara Swart is a neuroscientist and author of the award-winning book Neuroscience for Leadership: Harnessing the Brain Gain Advantage. Tara examines the science behind leadership, and analyses mental resilience, peak performance and regulating emotional responses to stress.

In exploring the impact of technology on the brain and its relation to mental health, Tara looks at the rise in anxiety, stress and the impostor syndrome, which she refers to as an ‘emotional global crisis’. Moreover, she examines the neuroscience behind financial decision-making, and assesses how our brains conceptualise risk in relation to money.

Neuroscience for Leadership analyses positive leadership through the lens of psychiatry and psychology. Tara explores the use of creativity in good leadership, to motivate, manage and innovate. Her second book, The Source: Open Your Mind, Change Your Life shares how individuals have the ability to transform behaviour and achieve their potential by way of understanding how our brains work. She draws on cognitive research to reveal how we can control our mindset to change the way we think, feel and act.

Tara’s research has explored mental resilience and high-pressured work environments, giving her insight into the social and psychological effects of stress. She tackles everything from personal achievement to cultures of success. Tara advises Fortune 500 companies and some of the world’s biggest law firms on crisis management and dealing with high levels of stress. In analysing team and individual data, such as hormone levels, eating habits and heart rate, she assesses how teams can work best together in order to reach sustainable peak performance.

A trained neuroscientist and psychiatrist, Tara studied at Oxford and King’s College London, and has worked at MIT, King’s and Oxford Said Business School. She is a regular in the media, writing articles for Forbes, the FT, Fast Company, and the Wall Street Journal, and has even been Neuroscientist-in-Residence at the Corinthia Hotel, London.