Dr Tess Morris-Paterson
Senior teams are asked to perform when the cost of error is high and the recovery window is short. Most leadership development was built for steadier conditions and does not hold up there. The unanswered question is how to select, prepare and lead people whose work has to be right the first time.
Dr Tess Morris-Paterson is a chartered scientist who builds astronaut selection and training systems, and translates what elite sport, spaceflight and the military teach about performing under conditions that do not forgive mistakes.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Dr Tess Morris-Paterson
- She has carried the same performance methodology through three of the most demanding operating environments in the world: Premier League football, NASA-aligned spaceflight research, and a Royal Engineers command. Few practitioners have a comparable triangulation.
- She designs the actual selection criteria for human spaceflight, so her view on how to assess composure, judgement and team fit is grounded in systems that are used to decide who flies.
- Her research on microgravity physiology and astronaut training has been recognised by the International Astronautical Federation, the Aerospace Medical Association and NASA’s Human Research Program.
- She talks to executives the way she talks to operators, with no astronaut mythology and no sports-cliche residue. The transfer to commercial settings is direct.
- She is credible on inclusion in male-dominated environments without leaving the performance frame: five years as one of three women in the Premier League, and an officer corps that is roughly five percent female.
Biography highlights
- Chartered Scientist; PhD, King’s College London, Centre of Human and Aerospace Physiological Sciences.
- Visiting scientist, NASA Ames Research Center; alumna of the International Space University.
- Founder of a consultancy supporting international space agencies on astronaut selection and training.
- Award recipient of the International Astronautical Federation, the Aerospace Medical Association and NASA’s Human Research Program; named a 2019 Emerging Space Leader.
- Former Head of Performance across Premier League football, the Football Association, Women’s Super League, McLaren Formula One, and Olympic and Paralympic programmes.
- British Army Reserve Officer, Royal Engineers, with command of a unit of up to 100 personnel.
Biography
Astronaut crews are not the most talented people in the room. They are the people most likely to make the right call on the worst day of the mission, and the selection process is built to find that. Morris-Paterson designs that kind of process for international space agencies, and the same logic now informs how she advises commercial leadership teams.
She came to spaceflight through elite sport. For five years she was one of three women operating at Head of Performance level in the Premier League, with later work spanning the Football Association, the Women’s Super League, McLaren Formula One, and Olympic and Paralympic programmes. The shared question across those settings was always the same: what conditions reliably produce a good decision when there is no margin for a bad one.
That question carried into her research. As a chartered scientist trained at NASA Ames Research Center and the International Space University, her work on microgravity physiology and astronaut training has been recognised by the International Astronautical Federation, the Aerospace Medical Association and NASA’s Human Research Program, and she was named a 2019 Emerging Space Leader. She now runs a consultancy that supports astronaut selection and training for international space agencies.
A third operating environment sharpens the picture. As a British Army Reserve Officer in the Royal Engineers, she has held command of a unit of up to 100 personnel. The combination matters because her arguments about leadership under pressure are not assembled from secondary sources. They come from environments where the cost of getting it wrong is direct, measurable, and sometimes irreversible.
Key speaking topics
- Performance under extreme conditions
- Astronaut selection, training and human spaceflight
- Team design and decision-making in elite sport
- Leadership in male-dominated operating environments
- Resilience and recovery in high-stakes work
- Translating elite-performance methodology into commercial settings
Ideal for
- Executive teams and boards facing decisions where error cost is high and recovery time is short
- CHROs and chief talent officers redesigning selection, assessment and leadership-development pipelines
- Leadership audiences in defence, aerospace, energy, financial services and elite sport
- Programmes focused on women progressing in male-dominated technical or operational fields
Audience outcomes
- A working model for how high-stakes operators are selected, not just trained
- Specific selection signals that predict composure and judgement under load
- A clearer view of how elite teams in sport and spaceflight handle feedback, recovery and the cost of error
- Evidence-based language for talking about inclusion in technical environments without losing the performance frame
- Transferable practices from astronaut, Premier League and military preparation that hold up in commercial settings
Talks
What spaceflight selection and training reveal about deliberate practice, team communication and operating under conditions that do not forgive mistakes.
Key takeaways:
- How astronaut crews are selected for judgement and composure, not only capability
- The physiological and psychological cost of high-pressure work, and how elite operators recover from it
- What multinational teams can adopt from spaceflight protocols on communication and crisis preparation
A direct comparison of three high-performing environments, drawing leadership lessons from Premier League football, NASA-aligned spaceflight research, and military command.
Key takeaways:
- What consistency looks like when measured across very different performance settings
- How feedback is delivered in environments where being wrong is expensive
- The leadership behaviours that travel between sport, science and military operations
A first-person account of operating in male-dominated technical and operational fields, and what it takes to convert individual progress into a path others can follow.
Key takeaways:
- What five years as one of three women in the Premier League taught her about credibility and presence
- How to build inclusion into selection and team design without softening performance standards
- Practical ways senior leaders can widen the pipeline in technical and operational roles