In a world where leadership is being reshaped by technology, uncertainty, and global transformation, New York Business Excellence and The Max Energy unveil a breakthrough framework:
The 25 Da Vinci Mindsets — a fusion of Renaissance genius, modern neuroscience, and executive intelligence.
The Da Vinci Mindset reimagines how today’s leaders think, decide, create, and perform. It brings together Leonardo da Vinci’s timeless creative models with cutting-edge insights from cognitive science and leadership psychology, offering a new blueprint for clarity, innovation, resilience, and high-performance decision-making in the modern world.
(NEUROSCIENCE + DAILY TASKS)
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The Curiosity Engine
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Curiosity increases dopaminergic activity in the hippocampus, enhancing learning, memory, and creativity.
Source: Gruber et al., Neuron (2014)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Ask ONE curiosity-expanding question today that challenges an assumption your team has never questioned.
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The Master Observer
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Focused attention activates the dorsal attention network, sharply increasing situational awareness and accuracy of judgment.
Source: Corbetta & Shulman, Nature Reviews Neuroscience (2002)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Before your next decision, spend 90 seconds observing without speaking. Notice details you normally miss.
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Polymath Integration
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Creative integration comes from connectivity between the default mode network and the executive control network.
Source: Beaty et al., PNAS (2015)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Connect two unrelated domains (e.g., biology + strategy, design + finance) and generate ONE hybrid idea.
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Experience-First Learning
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Active engagement increases neuroplasticity in the prefrontal cortex and boosts long-term retention.
Source: Immordino-Yang, Mind, Brain & Education (2016)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Do one task yourself today — not to control, but to learn the firsthand reality of your team.
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Pattern-Hunter Mindset
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
The human brain is a predictive engine; pattern recognition reduces cognitive load and increases decision accuracy.
Source: Clark, Behavioral and Brain Sciences (2013)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Identify one repeating pattern today — in meetings, performance, emotions, or market behavior — and name it.
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Radical Experimentation
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Experimentation increases dopamine-driven “reward prediction error,” which accelerates adaptive learning.
Source: Schultz, Dayan & Montague, Science (1997)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Design a 10-minute micro-experiment today.
Collect one insight — not a success or failure.
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Embodied Learning
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Movement enhances cerebellar–prefrontal connectivity, improving cognitive performance and emotional regulation.
Source: Manto et al., Cerebellum (2012)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Use your body deliberately: adopt a leadership posture before your next high-stakes conversation.
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Fluid Intelligence
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Cognitive flexibility relies on the anterior cingulate cortex, enabling rapid adaptation under uncertainty.
Source: Dajani & Uddin, PNAS (2015)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Change one routine today — route, meeting style, order — to disrupt autopilot.
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Micro-Detail Mastery
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Precision attention activates parietal cortex circuits, enhancing accuracy and error detection.
Source: Posner & Petersen, Annual Review of Neuroscience (1990)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Refine one small detail your team normally overlooks.
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Systems Thinking
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Complex reasoning activates integrated large-scale brain networks — essential for strategic foresight.
Source: Barbey et al., Neuron (2012)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Map a process in 5 steps and identify where the hidden bottleneck is.
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Creative Reinvention
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Neuroplasticity allows identity, skill, and thinking reinvention at any age.
Source: Draganski et al., Nature (2004) — structural brain changes through new learning
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Change one assumption about “who you are as a leader.”
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Emotional Intelligence Mapping
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
The insula and prefrontal cortex regulate emotional awareness and leadership empathy.
Source: Lieberman, Psychological Science (2007)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Pause once today to label your emotional state in one word.
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Visual Thinking
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Visual processing engages occipital and parietal networks, improving clarity and problem-solving.
Source: Kosslyn, Image and Brain (1994)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Sketch one problem instead of discussing it verbally.
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Nature-as-Teacher Mindset
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Natural environments restore attention and reduce cognitive load, improving clarity and creativity.
Source: Kaplan’s Attention Restoration Theory, Environment & Behavior (1995)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Look at nature (tree, sky, water) for 60 seconds before a decision.
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Intellectual Humility
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Humility increases activation in neural circuits for open-minded thinking and cognitive flexibility.
Source: Kross & Grossmann, Journal of Experimental Psychology (2012)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Say: “I might be wrong — what am I missing?” at least once today.
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Visual Synthesis
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Synthesis uses bilateral brain integration — connecting analytical and creative networks.
Source: Gazzaniga, Cognitive Neuroscience (2002)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Turn one complex topic into a single-page visual diagram.
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Beginner’s Mind
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Novelty activates dopaminergic pathways, improving learning and strategic insight.
Source: Berridge & Robinson, Brain Research Reviews (1998)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Approach one situation as if you’ve never seen it before — write down three new observations.
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Relentless Improvement
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Skill refinement strengthens myelination, improving speed, accuracy, and mastery.
Source: Ericsson’s Deliberate Practice model, Psychological Review (1993)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Choose one skill and improve it by 1% today.
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High-Stakes Calmness
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Regulated breathing reduces amygdala activation and increases prefrontal clarity.
Source: Harvard Medical School —Breathing exercises to lower your blood pressure (2023)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Do a 30-second slow breathing reset before a tough conversation.
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Long-Horizon Vision
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Future-oriented thinking activates medial prefrontal cortex circuits involved in strategic foresight.
Source: Schacter et al., Trends in Cognitive Sciences (2007)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Make one decision today based not on this week, but the next 5 years.
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Strategic Sfumato (Ambiguity Intelligence)
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Leaders who tolerate ambiguity show stronger activation in cognitive control networks.
Source: Hirsh et al., Psychological Science (2012)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Act on something today even if the information is incomplete.
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High-Agency Leadership
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
A sense of agency increases dopaminergic motivation and action-taking behavior.
Source: Haggard, Nature Reviews Neuroscience (2017)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Choose ONE thing today where you stop waiting — and take ownership.
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Future Vision Crafting
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Imagining the future uses the same neural networks as planning and strategizing.
Source: Buckner & Carroll, Trends in Cognitive Sciences (2007)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Write a 2-sentence version of the future you intend to create.
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Horizon + Detail Duality
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Switching between big-picture and detail tasks enhances prefrontal efficiency.
Source: Miller & Cohen, Annual Review of Neuroscience (2001)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Zoom out once today. Zoom in once today.
(Consciously do both.)
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Sensemaking & Complexity Mastery
🧠 Neuroscience Insight
Sensemaking integrates multiple brain networks, turning chaos into clarity.
Source: Weick, Organizational Sensemaking Theory;
supported by: Barbey, Neuron (2012)
🔥 Daily Leadership Task
Define one complex situation in a single sentence.
As the business world steps into an era of unprecedented complexity, the leaders who rise will be those who think like Da Vinci — blending curiosity with clarity, vision with execution, and humanity with innovation. The future belongs to the Renaissance-minded.
A Global Leadership Project by New York Business Excellence & Max Energy.
