5 Questions With... Neuro 11

I've written before about our work with neuro11 . I first came across them when I read about their work with Liverpool Football Club , where they helped the likes of Virgil Van Dijk and Mo Salah take penalties under pressure. They use insights from the cutting edge of neuroscience to help the worlds' most successful sportspeople maximise their potential.

Recently, we at Man Group have been working with Dr. Niklas H?usler and Patrick H?ntschke - the founders of Neuro11 - to optimise our portfolio managers' decision making and to help them focus more effectively and efficiently.

For the latest in my 5 Questions With Steven series, I sat down with Niklas and asked him what we can all learn from his research into performance.

1.?????? Whether it’s a footballer taking a penalty or a portfolio manager making an important trade, both require focus under intense pressure. What does neuroscience tell us about how we can train the brain to stay calm and execute effectively in these moments?

The underlying mental processes of performing at your very best under pressure are actually quite comparable in both of these fields, with the major difference of course the fact that one requires more motor and the other more analytic regions of your brain. Both require very good training, emotional stability, and “true” self-confidence.

Let me explain: Ideally, you have to train to such a high level so that your skill level matches the difficulty level of the task at hand. As part of this training, your brain will ideally be optimally wired and the connections set up properly to perform at your best even when 90,000 people are watching at Wembley Stadium or you have to make decisions worth millions.

While high quality training is one major part, another is emotional stability. This stability ideally supports mental clarity and as an elite football player or portfolio manager, this can make all the difference, since it provides the ability to stay clear of overthinking and in the worst-case performing movements or making decisions that do not reflect your true abilities and what you would normally do.

Finally, self-confidence and sticking to your principles is absolutely vital when the stakes are high. It is rather normal that doubt can creep into our head and we second-guess ourselves when stakes are high, especially when the possibility occurs that with you missing the upcoming penalty you will lose the match or another suboptimal financial decision will make your firm lose another couple of millions. Seeing pressure as a privilege and even being able enjoying these high-pressure moments is the ultimate level of confidence. The only other thing then to take care of possibly can be overconfidence, but that is a whole other topic…

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2.?????? Neuro11 emphasizes precision and neural efficiency. In financial markets, where distraction is constant and cognitive overload is real, what techniques can professionals use to sharpen focus and block out noise?

We take a very close look at the daily tasks and training or performance setup that each of our client has. What interests us most are the technical and mental steps taken to get to the final outcome. Interestingly, each high performance “bubble” that we deep-dive into (football, finance, tennis, golf etc.) has developed its own historical procedures and cultures, which are further accompanied by individual differences.

First, we observe and analyse these from a neuroscientific point of view and discuss with our clients how to optimize such procedures.

Second, we directly measure the task-specific brain activity while performing most-relevant tasks in order to tailor our training to the individual by combining neuroscientific data and psychology.

This fact- and science-based procedure is eventually used to help our clients develop efficient mental procedures to reduce stress and get “in the zone” easier and longer so that they can use the best possible thought processes when it matters most. As such, I would recommend for every high performing individual to leave the “cultural norms” aside and reflect and take a hard look at one’s own processes to see what can be optimized bit by bit. I have to critically and honestly ask myself: What behaviours and thoughts help me to stay focused? What distractors are detrimental for me following my successful procedures?

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3.?????? In elite sports and investing, mistakes are inevitable. How do the best performers rewire their brains to recover quickly from errors and maintain confidence in their next move?

I think it is clear that mistakes can and will happen to every one of us. Even though social media might suggest it: No one can always perform in the best possible way. Mistakes occur and are an important source of learning and improvement. We believe that the most important question is how we deal with these setbacks.

We have to ask ourselves the right questions to draw the best conclusions: What aspects of my performance and behaviour might have led to the suboptimal result? What were some key factors driving me towards the unusual behaviour? Did I not train enough? Was my colleague distracting me at the worst possible time? Did I have irrelevant thoughts distracting me in these key moments? Or was I actually simply unlucky and should not change anything and just give it another try?

These are just a few examples, but the slight difference between sports and investing can be seen in the time it takes until the next time that this moment will come up again. A tennis player for example will simply have to go for another serve after a double fault, so a quick thought process supporting mental stability in these moments is crucial. As an investor, you might have more time, but usually also more analytical information to take care of. So how accurate can you recover from these suboptimal moments? Does the prior error directly affect your next decision or are you able to differentiate properly and not fall into the trap of a cognitive bias?

This is a skill that can be trained over and over again, and a good coach, boss, and team can make all the difference to keep you on the best possible path.

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4.?????? Great decision-makers often talk about “gut feel,” but neuroscience suggests intuition is shaped by past experience. How should high performers think about balancing data-driven decisions with instinct, and when should they trust their gut?

This is a brilliant question and difficult one to answer. First of all, none of us can look into the future, despite our frontal cortex and ventral striatum (the reward anticipation regions) constantly attempting to anticipate everything that we do.

Additionally, we know from the field of neuroeconomics that the brain region called the anterior insula is responsible for the gut feeling and warning signal telling us for example to leave a market bubble before prices reach a peak (see: Smith et al. 2014, PNAS: Irrational exuberance and neural crash warning signals during endogenous experimental market bubbles).

This of course reflects that trusting your gut feeling can be vital. However, past experiences and knowledge shape our brain regions and connections to become who we are. Hence, good, relevant, and well-understood data is at least equally important to improve our informed decision-making. In the end, it is not really about either or, but about how each individual comes to his or her optimal decision. You will probably need all the information to make the most informed decision, you should also be aware of the cognitive biases that you might be prone to, but you should also not underestimate the power of listening to your gut feeling. Speaking of my own experience, I have my own process of getting in as much information as possible, but when the decision can go either way and is unclear, I listen to my gut feeling.

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5.?????? Peak performance isn’t just about excelling in one moment, it’s about sustaining excellence over time. What habits or practices separate those who stay at the top of their game for years from those who burn out or plateau?

We are lucky to work with world-class athletes that are showing their full potential every single week and across multiple years. As such, we have developed our own analysis and visualization of peak performance. We see the growth mindset (i.e., a person’s belief that one’s own abilities can be improved with challenges seen as the best opportunities to grow) as its foundational base. Some of the additional topics are health, regeneration, and nutrition.

Ultimately, we believe that mental stability and controlling your brain optimally in the moments when it matters most is the final step. All of the identified topics are vital and have to be carefully nurtured every day in order to stay on top at all times, a challenge that only few are able to constantly master with utmost discipline and world-class practices. This is why these individuals are world class and absolute peak performers.