About 30% of what is eaten is used to fuel the brain, so healthy eating is good. "People make food choices because they are on a diet or training for sport, but no one not even someone who is paid to use his or her brain wakes up and thinks, What should I eat so I can make better decisions or think flexibly to solve complex problems?"
The first rule is to eat regularly. Meals should not be skipped because brains cannot store nutrients and will slip into low-power mode. Recommended foods are salmon, avocado, eggs, nuts, olives and coconut oil.
Another hot topic is technologys effect on the brain. Having calm time before bed is common sense, but the scientific reason makes it more compelling. "The blue light emitted from smartphones, tablets or laptops sends a message to your pineal gland that it is still daytime and it should not release the hormone melatonin that helps you fall asleep. So stop looking at those screens an hour before you want to fall asleep," Swart says.
Another topic she will deal with is "imposter syndrome", in which high-powered and successful people feel like frauds. When Swart began covering this in her talks, people would come up afterwards and confess that was how they felt.
"Successful people such as hedge-fund billionaires say they feel like they should not be in that position and they are afraid one day they will be found out as people realise they should not have risen this far," she says. "It has nothing to do with skills. They are skilled and no one else is thinking they cannot do their job. It is the creeping thought at the back of their mind that one day they will be found out," Swart says. The answer is to learn positive ways of overwriting those pathways in the brain and increasing peoples resilience and confidence by focusing on past successes.
That relates to her favourite topic of neuroplasticity the brains ability to rewire and build new pathways to relearn something or acquire new skills. Many people claim they are too old to learn new tricks or change their ways, but science has shown that is not true.
Neuroscience can also help people make better decisions before taking financial risks. Stress hormones and testosterone change when attempting something risky. Boosting testosterone brings extra confidence. A combination of certain foods and weight-bearing exercise can also achieve that. "Do some weights and eat cabbage afterwards, because there is a chemical compound in cabbage that has an effect on your testosterone levels," Swart advises.
Stress people feel at work affects their mood, decision-making abilities and capacity to bounce back from adversity.
Because leaders skills are affected by their mental state, Swart believes changes must be driven by companies, not individuals. It is happening slowly. Office gyms are being supplemented by yoga or meditation rooms, canteens are serving brain food and water coolers are being installed so people can remain hydrated.
Swart has been visiting SA for almost 20 years, first as a medical student working with HIV-positive babies, then as a doctor and now as a neuroscience coach.
The companies she consults for are mostly in the financial services and legal sectors.
She finds South Africans need this advice more than most, because the "boys dont cry" attitude is so engrained.
"The culture of organisations has to change. Having a culture of people doing exercise and eating healthily and being able to talk about stress is really important and it has to come from the leadership," she says.
Neuroscience for Leadership will run at the Turbine Hall, Newtown, Johannesburg, on May 25.
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Neuroscience firms up companies' efficiency - Business Day (registration)