Leadership Development Programs Powered by Neuroscience
Turn surviving into thriving
How many of your leaders are immune to stress and thriving right now? They can be, and they can lead their teams to master resilience and performance.
PresenceON! Leadership programs train your leaders to master turning pressure into sustainable performance at scale.
Brand Experience Selection
+84%
More Trust in Management
Organisational Change Program A/B testing GTL-managed change vs. internally managed change
>99%
Recommendation Rate
Thousands of leaders over 15 years
500+
Neuroscientific Studies
Holistic and practical leadership framework
+30%
in Employee Survey Results
for engagement, loyalty and performance.
Top 30 under 30 tech company.
What if your leaders could lead from a place of clarity, performance and compassion and mastered the neuroscience of raising team performance significantly?
How many of your leaders today know exactly how to do this?
Organisational Impact
The Business Impact of PresenceON! Leadership Development Programs
Reduce Leadership Turnover and Prevent Burnout
PresenceON! Leadership helps leaders stay resilient under pressure. This leads to reduced burnout risk and leadership turnover by up to 50%, while lowering absence-related costs and sustaining high performance.
Learn more >
The Situation:
Manager burnout has reached epidemic levels. According to Gallup’s 2025 State of the Global Workplace report, manager engagement fell from 30% to 27% – the sharpest decline of any employee group. For a 1,000-employee tech company, losing just 3-5 senior leaders annually costs $500K – $1.5M in replacement, recruiting, and onboarding expenses.
How PresenceON! Leadership Helps:
Traditional stress management training teaches leaders to cope with pressure. PresenceON! Leadership teaches them to transform it. By mastering The NeuroDriver Model™, leaders learn to recognise when their brain is shifting into survival mode and how to prevent it. The result is sustainable high performance without burnout.
Outcome:
Organisations that invest in resilience-based leadership training report up to 50% reduction in leadership turnover and significant decreases in stress-related absenteeism.
Improve Executive Decision-Making Under Pressure
PresenceON! Leadership helps leaders stay strategic under pressure, which helps them prevent stress-driven “brain hijacks” and improve high-stakes decisions in real time. The result: clearer judgment, stronger confidence, and measurable business impact—up to 415% annualized ROI.
The Situation:
When leaders operate from survival mode, the prefrontal cortex – the brain’s strategic command center – goes offline. Decisions become more reactive, defensive, and short-term. In fast-moving tech environments, one poor decision under pressure can cost millions in delayed launches, failed products, or lost market position.
How PresenceON! Leadership Helps:
The NeuroDriver Model™ teaches leaders exactly why their brain “hijacks” them under stress and how to keep their strategic thinking online when it matters most. This isn’t theory; it’s applied neuroscience that leaders can use in real-time, in the moments that count.
Outcome:
Research shows that leadership training focused on decision-making under pressure can deliver 415% annualized ROI, generating $4.15 for every $1 invested. Leaders trained in neuroscience-based methods report significantly improved clarity and confidence in high-stakes situations.
Boost Team Performance Through Leadership Presence
PresenceON! Leadership helps leaders replace contagious stress with contagious calm, boosting psychological safety, engagement, and innovation. The business impact is measurable: higher profitability and significantly lower turnover.
Learn more >
The Situation:
Stress is contagious. When leaders operate from survival mode, their teams mirror it, leading to disengagement, reduced innovation, and higher turnover at all levels. Gallup estimates that disengaged employees cost the global economy $438 billion in lost productivity annually.
How PresenceON! Leadership Helps:
PresenceON! Leaders model a different way of operating. Their calm becomes contagious. By creating psychological safety – the #1 predictor of high-performing teams according to Google’s Project Aristotle – they unlock discretionary effort, innovation, and collaboration.
Measurable Outcome:
Organisations with top-quartile employee engagement see 21% higher profitability and 59% lower turnover compared to bottom-quartile peers. Leadership presence is the catalyst that makes this possible.
Build a Stronger Leadership Succession Pipeline
PresenceON! Leadership strengthens succession readiness by building leaders who can handle greater pressure, complexity, and scope, so high-potentials grow instead of stalling. The result: faster internal promotions, lower hiring costs, and quicker time-to-impact.
Learn more >
The Challenge:
Most tech companies struggle with “bench strength”: having leaders ready to step into bigger roles. Traditional leadership development teaches skills but misses the key: the underlying capacity to handle increased pressure, ambiguity, and stakes. The result? High-potential leaders who plateau or burn out when promoted.
How PresenceON! Leadership Helps:
PresenceON! Leadership builds leaders who can handle more scope, more complexity, and more pressure, because they’ve upgraded how they respond to it. This accelerates your succession pipeline and reduces dependence on expensive external hires.
Measurable Outcome:
Promoting from within vs. external hiring saves 30–50% of the role’s annual salary in recruiting and onboarding costs. More importantly, internally developed leaders have higher success rates and faster time-to-productivity.
Attract and Retain Top Talent Through Leadership Culture
PresenceON! Leadership helps build a leadership culture top talent wants to join and stay in—reducing voluntary turnover and strengthening your employer brand. The payoff is durable: better retention, stronger hiring power, and higher financial outperformance.
The Situation:
Top talent increasingly chooses employers based on culture, leadership quality, and wellbeing – not just compensation. “Toxic leadership” is consistently cited as the #1 reason employees leave organisations. In a competitive talent market, your leadership culture is your employer brand.
How PresenceON! Leadership Helps:
A leadership team trained in PresenceON! creates a culture that attracts and retains A-players. When leaders operate from presence rather than pressure, they create environments where people want to work – and stay. This becomes a sustainable competitive advantage in talent acquisition.
Outcome:
Companies with strong leadership cultures experience 50% lower voluntary turnover and are 2.3x more likely to outperform competitors financially. Your leadership development investment pays dividends in every hire you make – and keep.
Testimonials
What our Customers Say
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with James over the past couple of years, and he’s been a fantastic partner in developing our leaders. James has run several leadership programmes for us, and the feedback from our teams has been consistently excellent.
Our leaders really value his engaging style, practical approach, and ability to make every session relevant and thought-provoking. He creates a great learning environment – one that challenges people but also supports them to grow.
James is professional, passionate about what he does, and genuinely invested in helping people reach their potential. It’s been a real pleasure working with him, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him to anyone looking to strengthen their leadership capability.“
“I had the pleasure of participating in several leadership trainings and a leadership team workshop led by James. What stood out immediately was his unique, human-centered approach – no PowerPoints, no lectures — just authentic, engaging conversations and practical exercises that sparked real reflection and growth.
James creates a space where people can be fully present, connect with one another, and tackle real leadership challenges. The workshop he moderated for my business unit’s leadership team led to outcomes that were not only meaningful but also actionable — a rare quality in such settings.
Since then, I’ve attended various leadership programs across different companies, and I keep coming back to James’s sessions as the benchmark. His ability to design and facilitate impactful leadership coaching programs and off-sites is unmatched. If you’re looking for someone you can trust to truly elevate leadership in your organization, I wholeheartedly recommend James.“
““
The Leadership Challenge
Why Traditional Leadership Development Training Hits a Wall
Neuroscience turns learning into results faster
Most leadership training teaches what to do. We teach why our brains naturally stop leaders from doing it – and how to change that.
PresenceON! Leadership is built on a simple truth: every human brain runs on two unconscious drivers – the need for Master and the need for Value. When these are met, teams operate at their best. When they’re threatened, people shift into survival mode, often without realising it.
Once your leaders understand these two drivers, they’ll see every challenge, every conflict, every high-stakes moment differently.
They’ll have the ability to respond more effectively and lead their teams to sustainable success.
If there was a way to turn survive into thrive – when would you want to master it?
A PresenceON! leader transforms pressure into fuel.
They walk into these high-stakes rooms with clarity – because they’ve trained their brain to stay online when it matters most.
- They move through stress with ease
- They respond with intention
- They radiate quiet confidence
- They lead others to their best results in high-stakes situations
A PresenceON! leader knows that presence is a practice. One that can be learned, trained, and mastered.
They’ve stopped waiting for circumstances to change. They’ve changed how they meet them.
What if all your leaders mastered this?
Routine beats new behaviour. PresenceON! AI Coach beats routine
Imagine knowing each of your leaders has a highly effective coach at their fingertips. You know they can be the best version of themselves every time.
They can use it to prepare for any interaction or decision with full presence and generate better outcomes.
Leadership Toolbox
Build your custom leadership development program: Example Modules
Example Modules of a 6-Month, 6-Day Live, Hybrid, or Fully Live Online Neuroscience-Powered Leadership Training Program:
PresenceOn! - Leading Myself
A Leader who can be free of stress in all situations from smooth running to the tightest of squeezes can lead a team to significant performance. Mastering fight and flight and other hindering nervous system responses is the new key to success. This module equips leaders with the tools and motivation required.
Assigning Ownership
Delegating tasks, goals and responsibilities in a manner that truly develops and sustains a deep sense of ownership in the team members’ conscious and unconscious. This module also sets the key principles for all leadership communication to develop both the conscious and unconscious motivation of the team.
Sustaining Performance
Feedback: Positive, constructive and critical all can have an even stronger impact when aligned with how the brain works. The new principles lead to employees receiving the feedback positively and either sustaining great behaviour or developing in their areas of potential.
Leading Across the Organisation
Wow do we have a book full of stories about the challenges many leaders produce due to fight & flight reactions leading to tensions. The PresenceON! Leadership Toolbox provides leaders with the principles and details to lead effectively across the organisation and collaborate more effectively. Understanding and mastering the the subtle subconscious nuances is key.
Goal Setting for Tasks, Team Development & Prioritization
Removing the unconscious cognitive biases from prioritisation leads to a clear goal setting and motivational approach to developing a team and making sure its actions are contributing to the company’s strategy.
Building High-Performance Teams
“Culture is the worst behaviour a leader is willing to accept.”
PresenceON! Leadership principles provide leaders with the toolbox required to raise the bar and develop a team which is proud of their high standards and culture. Their performance grows.
Developing Employees
Appraisals or annual review meetings can be one of the most motivating interactions leaders and employees have. Done well they strengthen employees’ sense of self efficacy and motivate them to invest in their further development. It is a key tool to employee retention and the heavy lift for performance improvement.
Resolving Conflicts Positively
Conflict can be highly valuable for an organisation, when managed productively. Once it gets personal and emotional, the results can be months and years of inefficiency. Understanding what happens in our unconscious mind in conflicts and being able to master our own emotion as well as leading the conflict partners to achieve the same, leads to efficient resolutions and stronger relationships.
How to get started
Ready to build your next generation of leaders?
1
NEEDS ANALYSIS
We discuss your leadership challenges, goals, and team composition in a 30-45 minute call
2
CUSTOM PROGRAM DESIGN
We create a tailored training journey with module recommendations and 6-12 month timeline
3
LAUNCH & TRANSFORM
Your leaders begins their neuroscience-powered journey to becoming high-impact leaders
The Gain the Lead Methodology
What makes our Leadership Development training different
100% YOUR SCENARIOS
Every exercise uses real situations from your daily business.
+80% PRACTICAL EXERCISES
Really train and master skills through doing instead of just listening.
AHA-MOMENTS BUILT-IN
We create deep understanding and buy-in from participants.
INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
Participants WANT to implement because they’ve experienced the impact.
IMMEDIATE APPLICATION
Participants apply new skills to real situations in-between sessions.
INDUSTRY-CUSTOMIZED
Tailored to your specific industry, challenges, and sales cycle.
Why Gain the Lead
Your Partner in Leadership Transformation
PROVEN NEUROSCIENCE FOUNDATION
Methods based on 15+years of research at the University of Essen
TESTED BY 5,000+ LEADERS
A practical, refined, and proven toolbox for real results
GUARANTEED ROI
Transfer projects deliver measurable value from day one
AI-POWERED SUSTAINABILITY
Custom AI Coaches ensure skills stick long-term
FULLY CUSTOMIZED
Tailored to your industry, challenges, and goals
The Gain the Lead Approach
A Program Designed for Lasting Behavioural Change
We believe leadership development is behavioural change – and behavioural change needs AHA-moments, time, and lots of practice.
That’s why our programs are a 6-12 month journey to ensure new skills become permanent habits.
+80%
HANDS-ON PRACTICE
Leaders work on their actual team challenges and opportunities, instead of generic case studies. Every skill is practiced and refined through feedback.
100%
REAL-WORLD APPLICATION
Skills are immediately applied between sessions, supported by transfer tasks, peer-to-peer learning with fellow participants and 1:1 coaching if required.
100%
POSITIVE ROI PROJECTS
Each leader runs a transfer project that delivers measurable value, making the training ROI positive before it even ends.
Develop Leaders Who Drive Real Business Growth
Join tech and pharma leaders who are building high-performing teams with Neuroscience-Powered Leadership Training.
Free 30-45 minute consultation | No obligation | Custom program design