Redefining Leadership with Neuroscience, Heart & Human-Centred Strategy – Interview with Janice Elsley
- Brainz Magazine
- 3 hours ago
- 6 min read
Janice Elsley is a leadership expert, author, and keynote speaker helping CEOs and executives future-proof their leadership with neuroscience-driven strategies.
As founder of Harissa Business Partners, she drives performance, inclusivity, and talent retention. Her book Leadership Legacy and programs—Leading Edge Women, The Leading Edge, and First 100 Days of Leadership—equip leaders with the confidence and strategies to make an impact.
Whether coaching executives or delivering transformational keynotes, Janice creates real results.
Janice Elsley, Leadership Expert, International Author and Podcast Host
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
I’m Janice Elsley—a leadership strategist, keynote speaker, change expert, international author of Leadership Legacy, Podcast Host of Legacy Leaders and founder of Harissa Business Partners. At my core, I’m a woman deeply passionate about unlocking human potential and transforming how we lead—starting from the inside out.
My life has been shaped by many layers: I’m a mother, a former champion figure skater, and a woman who knows what it feels like to both rise and burn out in the corporate world. Today, I split my time between mentoring senior leaders, designing transformative programs, and spending quiet moments outdoors to recharge. You’ll often find me walking by the water, journaling with intention, or diving into the latest neuroscience research on performance and emotional regulation.
I bring both strategy and soul into everything I do. I believe leadership should feel deeply human, radically authentic, and powerfully sustainable.
What inspired you to transition from a corporate leader to a consultant specializing in HR and leadership development?
After years in senior leadership roles—delivering multimillion-dollar projects, transforming cultures, and achieving major results—I hit a wall. While I was driving business success, I was also navigating toxic politics and resistance for simply showing up as a strong, intuitive woman. I still remember the moment I overheard male executives plotting to block my promotion. That was my wake-up call.
I realised: I wasn’t meant to conform to outdated models. I was meant to help rebuild them.
So I walked away—and stepped into something more powerful. I founded Harissa Business Partners to support organisations in rehumanising their workplaces and to help leaders lead from their true strengths, with clarity, conviction, and care.
Can you share some of the challenges you faced when starting your own HR business, and how they transformed your life?
Starting Harissa wasn’t easy. I was used to structure, certainty, and status. Suddenly, I was on my own—with no rulebook. I faced self-doubt, financial risk, and the deep inner work of healing from burnout.
But through that came transformation. I rebuilt from a place of alignment. I redefined success on my terms. And I proved that women can lead with both strength and softness—and still make extraordinary impact.
Today, that lived experience allows me to walk beside clients who are navigating the same shifts, giving them the tools to rise, reset, and reimagine what leadership can look like.
How does your background in psychology and neuroscience influence your approach to leadership development and change management?
My academic background in psychology and neuroscience is the backbone of everything I do. It gives me insight into how people think, feel, decide, connect—and why they sometimes resist change, even when they want it.
By understanding the brain’s social wiring—especially our threat/reward systems, emotional contagion, and biases—I help leaders move from reactive habits to reflective, strategic action. This isn’t about surface-level change; it’s about creating safe, engaged, high-performing cultures that are wired for trust, not fear.
When leaders understand their own wiring, they become more emotionally intelligent, more connected to their teams, and more capable of driving meaningful, lasting results.
Could you elaborate on the services offered by Harissa Business Partners and how they drive efficiency and foster a positive workplace culture?
Harissa Business Partners blends the science of leadership with the art of human connection. We offer:
Leadership development programs – including Leading Edge Women, First 100 Days of Leadership and The leadership Edge – Mastering Success
Executive & team coaching – neuroscience and human design informed, results-driven
Organisational development & culture reviews – helping you align people, process, and purpose
HR & change consulting – strategic support during times of growth or transformation
Leadership and Wellness Retreats, Masterclasses & Speaking Engagements – creating immersive experiences for growth and reconnection
Every service is designed to elevate leadership capability, ignite cultural transformation, and deliver results that feel good and do good.
What are some key strategies you recommend for empowering leaders and managers to transform their teams?
Start with radical self-awareness. You can’t lead others until you know who you are you need to do the inner work to understand your own values, triggers, and leadership style.
Create psychological safety. Innovation doesn’t come from fear—it comes from trust.
Lead through consistent, clear communication. Great leadership is a two-way dialogue, not a top-down directive Leadership is a conversation, not a command.
Align vision to values. When people feel connected to purpose, performance follows.
Embrace the human first. People aren’t resources—they’re the reason your business exists. People aren’t just assets, they’re the beating heart of your business.
Embed my CARE and HUMAN models. These frameworks bring it all together guiding leaders to Connect, Align, Respect, and Empower while building Human-centred workplaces where wellbeing, performance, and culture thrive.
How do you envision the future of HR consulting, and what role do you see your business playing in that landscape?
The future of HR is deeply human, evidence-informed, and intentionally inclusive. I see a shift away from rigid policies and toward creating ecosystems where people feel seen, supported, and inspired to grow.
Harissa Business Partners is helping lead that evolution. We’re not just solving people problems—we’re reimagining what leadership looks like. We help businesses become magnetic to top talent, aligned in purpose, and agile in an ever-changing world.
Tell us about your greatest career achievement so far.
My greatest achievement isn’t a title or an award—it’s the ripple effect.
It’s witnessing leaders who once felt overlooked now take the stage with confidence and clarity. It’s partnering with CEOs to rebuild workplace cultures from the inside out—and seeing employee engagement, retention, and morale rise in powerful ways. It’s hearing that a single retreat, coaching session, or leadership moment helped someone reclaim their voice, their energy, or their belief in themselves.
And it’s writing Leadership Legacy: 7 Strategies Every CEO, Business Owner or Manager Needs to Know To Attract and Retain Top Talent—a book that captures everything I stand for: human-centred leadership, neuroscience-backed strategies, and the courage to lead with heart. Knowing that it’s landing in the hands of people who are ready to change the way they lead—that’s impact that lives far beyond me.
That kind of legacy measured in lives changed, not just milestones reached—is what I’m most proud of.
If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?
I would eliminate the culture of burnout that’s been normalised for far too long.
We’ve glorified overwork and under-valued rest, creativity, and emotional intelligence and self-regulation.
I believe we can build high-performing teams without sacrificing wellbeing. My mission is to prove that productivity and humanity are not opposites—they’re partners.
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.
One of the most defining moments in my life wasn’t in a boardroom—it was on the skating rink.
As a national-level competitive figure skater, I learned what it truly meant to be disciplined, determined, and driven. I spent years training in silence before the world ever clapped. I fell over and over and every time, I got back up. I learned to hold my head high even when people whispered, doubted, or dismissed me.
Skating gave me more than medals. It gave me grit. It gave me the mental toughness to keep showing up even when things were hard, even when I was bruised—physically or emotionally. It gave me grace under pressure, and a deep belief that setbacks are just setups for something greater.
That mindset became the foundation of my leadership style - and my life. Whether I’m speaking to a room full of executives or mentoring leaders (new or experienced) through change, I bring that same resilience, focus, and fierce heart I learned on the skating rink.
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