Elesa Zehndorfer PhD
 

I am a Managing Partner at Austrian consulting firm Lakeside Partners GmbH, an eMBA lecturer, research fellow & award-winning writer. My seventh book, Post-Truth Politics: A Brave New World?  (published by Taylor & Francis) was released February 2025. I run the Psychology Today blog Political Animals & Animal Spirits and was recently appointed a Senior Advisor to the Paddy Ashdown Research Forum. I also have the pleasure of being the Research Officer for high-IQ society British Mensa.

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Using storytelling constructs in my work is deeply important to me. Research confirms the powerful neurological & evolutionary benefits of a storytelling approach, which is why it now forms a cornerstone of my approach (it also formed the basis of my recent fake news themed TEDx talk that I delivered to an awesome 600-strong TEDx crowd!). I earned my (leadership-focused) PhD from Loughborough University in 2006. 

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A wise colleague once told me that ​​great leadership is like a Yeti - everybody knows what it looks like...but virtually no-one has seen one. Consequently, I am fascinated by the dark side of leadership - what happens when it becomes destructive & toxic, how do we often become so powerfully complicit & how can we leverage our knowledge to fight back? This question has led me to focus powerfully, in recent years, on darker political concepts (the rise of post truth politics & propaganda), finance (the emergence of irrational investing and boom & bust scenarios) & organisational damage (e.g., toxic leadership and its effects, such as burnout). You can read more about my books here. ​​​​