Erica Peng

Erica Peng’s teaching and consulting focus on the intersection of neuroscience, human behavior, and leadership. Her approach helps leaders and teams unleash untapped potential by teaching them “how to see” and engage with hidden root causes and unconscious factors that support or sabotage influence, collaboration, and results.

How does our automatic fight-flight-freeze neurobiology drive limiting beliefs, false narratives, and unconscious reactivity (defensiveness, resistance, blame, criticism, withdrawal) that undermine communication, performance, and morale?

What concrete skills and approaches can intentionally de-escalate conflict and disagreements fueled by fight-flight-freeze reactivity? What skills and approaches rebuild trust and collaboration after inevitable misunderstandings and disagreements?

What behaviors leverage fight-flight-freeze neurobiology to help motivate people towards accomplishing shared goals, especially in destabilizing conditions of uncertainty and crisis?

Erica has guided over 1500 business leaders, social entrepreneurs, and change agents through her neuroscience-based leadership development methodology, Designed For Connection. Most recently, Erica is applying her research and expertise to wildfire mitigation, helping fire service personnel engage more effectively with community members experiencing defensiveness, resistance, and/or paralysis due to fight-flight-freeze reactivity from on-going wildfire threat.

For the Dean’s Speaker Series in May 2019, Erica hosted Sadhguru, yogi, author, and global influencer, to speak about the inner and outer dimensions of leadership.

Expertise and Research Interests

• Dignity and worthiness: antidotes to imposter syndrome in leaders
• Emotions and vulnerability in effective leadership
• Neurobiology of motivating and de-motivating feedback and conditions for behavior change
• How stereotype threat impairs performance, physical and mental health
• Interplay of social identity, social context, power dynamics on teams
• Behavior-based culture change
• Systems leadership
• Systems theory in sustainability efforts
• Fight-flight-freeze neurobiology applied to fire mitigation strategies