Tom Flatau
Senior leaders are asked to change behaviour in their organisations without first changing the patterns that govern their own. Limiting beliefs, ingrained bias and stress responses sit below conscious awareness, so willpower and frameworks rarely shift them. The question for any board is whether its leaders can rewire how they think under pressure, not just what they decide.
Tom Flatau is a leadership coach and CEO of Teamworking International who applies accredited neuroscience research to help senior leaders change behaviour, lead through change and reduce unconscious bias.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Tom Flatau
- He brings formal NeuroLeadership Institute accreditation into client rooms, so the brain science behind his coaching is grounded in a recognised body of research rather than self-styled commentary.
- His firm’s programmes are quality-assured by the Institute of Leadership and Management, which gives L and D buyers a credentialed delivery standard alongside the keynote.
- Two decades of repeat work with HSBC, Unilever, Siemens, Louis Vuitton, Emirates and the BBC means the material has been pressure-tested across regulated finance, consumer goods, engineering, luxury retail and broadcast.
- He translates neuroplasticity, threat response and bias research into specific leadership practice on negotiation, change communication and team collaboration, so audiences leave with mechanism, not metaphor.
Biography highlights
- CEO and founder of Teamworking International, with custom leadership programmes quality-assured by the Institute of Leadership and Management.
- Accredited brain and behaviour specialist trained by the NeuroLeadership Institute.
- Master’s in Business Analysis and Systems Design; Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management.
- Long-standing client roster including HSBC, Unilever, Siemens, Louis Vuitton, Emirates, American Express, Qatar Airways, British American Tobacco and the BBC.
- Conference speaker for bodies including the Chartered Institute of Building and the Institute of Directors.
- Signature keynote portfolio covering the inner game of leadership, the neuroscience of unconscious bias, leading through change, team collaboration, sales mastery and black belt negotiation.
Biography
Most behaviour change in organisations fails because it stops at the conscious mind. Leaders are taught new frameworks and new vocabulary, then return to the same threat responses, biases and habits the moment a quarter goes sideways. Tom Flatau built Teamworking International around a different premise: that leadership behaviour shifts when the brain underneath it shifts.
The credentials matter here. Flatau is an accredited brain and behaviour specialist trained by the NeuroLeadership Institute, holds a Master’s in Business Analysis and Systems Design, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management. His firm’s programmes are quality-assured by the ILM, which is unusual in a market crowded with self-styled neuroscience commentators.
For more than two decades, the work has been delivered into HSBC, Unilever, Siemens, Louis Vuitton, Emirates, American Express, Qatar Airways, British American Tobacco and the BBC. Across regulated banking, consumer goods, engineering, luxury and broadcast, the same patterns surface: leaders making decisions under threat, teams misreading each other’s intent, salespeople reverting to scripts. His material translates the relevant brain research into practice for each.
His keynote portfolio sits along that line. “The inner game of leadership” examines the subconscious behaviours that erode senior credibility. “The neuroscience of unconscious bias” treats bias as a wiring problem with intervention points, not a values lecture. “Black belt negotiation” and “Sales mastery: hello science, goodbye myths” apply the same lens to deal-making. The throughline is mechanism: what is happening in the brain, and what to do about it.
Key speaking topics
- Applied neuroscience for leadership
- Neuroscience of unconscious bias
- Leading through change
- Executive coaching and the inner game of leadership
- Mindset and team collaboration
- Negotiation and influence
- Sales behaviour and buyer psychology
Ideal for
- CEOs, executive committees and senior leadership teams are responsible for behaviour change at the top of the organisation
- CHROs, L and D directors and heads of leadership development, designing accredited leadership pipelines
- Sales and commercial leadership teams looking to upgrade negotiation and buyer engagement
- Diversity and inclusion leads who want a brain-science framing of bias rather than a values framing
Audience outcomes
- A working understanding of how stress, threat and reward responses shape leadership decisions in real time
- Specific mechanisms for interrupting unconscious bias in hiring, promotion and day-to-day team interactions
- Practical communication moves for leading people through change without losing trust
- Sharper read on the neuroscience of negotiation and how buyer brains actually respond to influence attempts
Talks
A keynote on the subconscious behaviours that determine whether senior leaders are trusted, followed and effective under pressure.
Key takeaways:
- How threat response in the brain shapes decisions that leaders later regret
- The role of self-awareness and emotional regulation in executive credibility
- Specific habits that rewire leadership behaviour over weeks, not years
A keynote that reframes bias as a brain wiring problem with intervention points, not a values lecture.
Key takeaways:
- Why willpower and policy alone do not move bias in hiring and promotion
- The cognitive shortcuts that drive snap judgements about people
- Practical interventions that interrupt bias at the point of decision
A keynote on how brain science explains why some teams compound trust and others compound friction.
Key takeaways:
- The growth mindset evidence base and what it changes about feedback
- How threat states inside teams suppress contribution and candour
- Leadership moves that build psychological safety as a measurable outcome
A keynote applying neuroscience to deal-making, closing behaviours and high-stakes negotiation.
Key takeaways:
- How counterpart brains process offers, anchors and concessions
- The behavioural cues that signal a deal is shifting before the language does
- A sharper toolkit for negotiating under emotional pressure
A keynote on the leadership communication that determines whether change lands or stalls.
Key takeaways:
- Why most change communication triggers threat rather than commitment
- The neuroscience behind resistance and how to defuse it
- A leadership communication pattern that increases follow-through
A keynote that strips out sales folklore and replaces it with what brain research actually shows about buyer behaviour.
Key takeaways:
- The neuroscience of buyer trust and decision avoidance
- Where conventional sales technique works against the buyer’s brain
- A more reliable model for influence, qualification and close