Neuroscience and Leadership with Susan Ní Chríodáin
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Just because I feel it, doesn't make it true.
In this episode of Speech Bubbles, host Charlotte Otter talks to Susan Ní Chríodáin - facilitator, leadership coach, podcaster, and award-winning author of Leading Beyond the Numbers: How Accounting for Emotions Tips the Balance at Work - to unpack what happens when we stop pretending work is purely rational.
Susan shares a deceptively simple idea with massive consequences: our brains predict what’s about to happen next, and we often treat those predictions (and the emotions that follow) as facts. But just because my brain thinks it, it doesn’t make it true - and the same goes for feelings. Charlotte and Susan explore how workplace assumptions harden into permanent impressions, why personal responsibility is the antidote to reactive leadership, and how a shift from empathy-as-assumption to compassion-as-curiosity can transform relationships, performance, and trust.
They talk body budgeting (sleep, movement, hydration), the grind of book marketing, the danger of outsourcing self-worth to external validation, and the leadership liberation that comes from three words: “I don’t know.”
This is one of those episodes that lands in both head and heart — neuroscience with warmth, strategy with humanity, and a clear call to build leadership cultures where every voice counts.
What you’ll learn:
* Why your brain’s predictions can sabotage workplace relationships (and how to change them)
* The “accounting for emotions” model: a balance sheet for energy, identity, and sustainability
* Why Susan prefers compassion over empathy — and the question that changes everything
* How body budgeting (sleep, movement, breaks) impacts performance and decision-making
* The leadership power move hiding in plain sight: admitting you don’t know
In this episode of Speech Bubbles, host Charlotte Otter talks to Susan Ní Chríodáin - facilitator, leadership coach, podcaster, and award-winning author of Leading Beyond the Numbers: How Accounting for Emotions Tips the Balance at Work - to unpack what happens when we stop pretending work is purely rational.
Susan shares a deceptively simple idea with massive consequences: our brains predict what’s about to happen next, and we often treat those predictions (and the emotions that follow) as facts. But just because my brain thinks it, it doesn’t make it true - and the same goes for feelings. Charlotte and Susan explore how workplace assumptions harden into permanent impressions, why personal responsibility is the antidote to reactive leadership, and how a shift from empathy-as-assumption to compassion-as-curiosity can transform relationships, performance, and trust.
They talk body budgeting (sleep, movement, hydration), the grind of book marketing, the danger of outsourcing self-worth to external validation, and the leadership liberation that comes from three words: “I don’t know.”
This is one of those episodes that lands in both head and heart — neuroscience with warmth, strategy with humanity, and a clear call to build leadership cultures where every voice counts.
What you’ll learn:
* Why your brain’s predictions can sabotage workplace relationships (and how to change them)
* The “accounting for emotions” model: a balance sheet for energy, identity, and sustainability
* Why Susan prefers compassion over empathy — and the question that changes everything
* How body budgeting (sleep, movement, breaks) impacts performance and decision-making
* The leadership power move hiding in plain sight: admitting you don’t know
Chapters
- 00:00 Introduction to Speech Bubbles and guest Susan Ní Chríodáin
- 03:36 Neuroscience insights: brain predictions and emotions
- 06:05 Personal responsibility and workplace predictions
- 07:28 Accounting for emotions: business language meets human experience
- 10:49 Empathy vs compassion: understanding others
- 12:41 Body budgeting and self-care
- 13:46 Award recognition and internal validation
- 16:38 The writing and markerting journey
- 20:02 Career reinventions: from accounting to leadership
- 23:34 Leadership lessons: listening and vulnerability
- 25:56 The power of "I don't know"
- 27:13 Current consulting work: facilitation and coaching
- 29:24 Diversity through global experience
- 31:52 Creative disagreement and psychological safety
- 32:48 Reputation through authentic leadership
- 36:28 Coaching and witnessed reflection
- 37:51 Changing leadership archetypes
- 40:28 Book recommendations
- 42:37 Tips for emerging leaders
- 44:42 Finding joy
