Member since December 2025
Mary Lou Tierney teaches leaders how to turn groups of smart people into GREAT teams.
Her career spans more than twenty years working with global organizations and eleven years officiating professional tennis from the Tall Chair where decisions happen in seconds and the stakes are high.
Today, Mary Lou leverages her expertise in innovation, product strategy, and neuroscience informed leadership to teach great teaming practices. She helps leaders and emerging professionals build the readiness and steadiness great teams rely on so people speak up, challenge ideas, and move important work forward.
Nothing stops me more dead in my tracks than standing in front of a room full of brilliant people who haven’t yet seen how capable they are.
This is when my fire to bring GREAT Leadership for GREAT Teaming burns hottest.
That happened when I met my London cohort of PhD students in our course Leading Self & Others. These were extraordinary minds. Undergraduate degrees, master’s degrees, and now accepted into PhD programs. Yet many quietly shared the same struggle. Imposter syndrome.
So I sat down and met them where they were.
Over thirteen weeks we explored self leadership, communication, systems thinking, and teaming. We also introduced a team project for the first time.
When they presented at the end of the course, the transformation was unmistakable. Every student said the same thing. Their work became stronger when it was done in a team.
Watching emerging leaders discover their voice and their place in a team is the work that energizes me most.
Every time I show a picture of John McEnroe on the screen with his backside to them and my readied and steadied response to him, someone in the audience says the same thing.
"He was such a jerk."
"No he wasn’t," I say immediately.
"He was intense. Not mean. The media gave you selective impressions of him. I give you real ones."
That moment opens a conversation about language. Labels shut people down. Shared language opens curiosity.
A huge part of my work with leaders and teams is helping them replace old labels with language that elevates people, invites curiosity, and makes intellectual friction possible without turning it into personal conflict.
When teams learn to do that, everything changes.
In 2017 I experienced sudden sensorineural hearing loss. It’s a medical emergency with a small window for treatment if hearing is going to return. Mine didn’t.
Which is an inconvenient development when your career as a global design researcher depends on listening for a living.
The cause was a cranial nerve malfunction. My hearing problem is electrical, not mechanical, which means a hearing aid can’t fix it.
That moment forced me to study something leadership training rarely talks about. The human nervous system.
Through that work I realized something important. Psychological safety isn’t enough. People also need physiological readiness.
During my eleven years officiating professional tennis I spent most of my time operating in my body’s Peak Performance Zone. In my business career I spent far too much time in my Danger Zone.
Now I help leaders and teams build the practices that create sustainable readiness and steadiness.
What was initially devastating in my hearing loss has now become a determining factor in my excellence.
The irony?
With less listening from my ears, I’ve gained deeper listening for what isn’t said, how it’s said, and whether it’s said at all.
Why I Wrote This Book The Science & Soul of Team Transformation I wrote this book because I’ve seen too many talented people merely surviving at work rather than thriving. Even in the hottest moments, we learned how to keep ourselves and others coo
Subscribe TodayEvery time I show a picture of John McEnroe on the screen with his backside to them and my readied and steadied response to him, someone in the audience says the same thing.
"He was such a jerk."
"No he wasn’t," I say immediately.
"He was intense. Not mean. The media gave you selective impressions of him. I give you real ones."
That moment opens a conversation about language. Labels shut people down. Shared language opens curiosity.
A huge part of my work with leaders and teams is helping them replace old labels with language that elevates people, invites curiosity, and makes intellectual friction possible without turning it into personal conflict.
When teams learn to do that, everything changes.
In 2017 I experienced sudden sensorineural hearing loss. It’s a medical emergency with a small window for treatment if hearing is going to return. Mine didn’t.
Which is an inconvenient development when your career as a global design researcher depends on listening for a living.
The cause was a cranial nerve malfunction. My hearing problem is electrical, not mechanical, which means a hearing aid can’t fix it.
That moment forced me to study something leadership training rarely talks about. The human nervous system.
Through that work I realized something important. Psychological safety isn’t enough. People also need physiological readiness.
During my eleven years officiating professional tennis I spent most of my time operating in my body’s Peak Performance Zone. In my business career I spent far too much time in my Danger Zone.
Now I help leaders and teams build the practices that create sustainable readiness and steadiness.
What was initially devastating in my hearing loss has now become a determining factor in my excellence.
The irony?
With less listening from my ears, I’ve gained deeper listening for what isn’t said, how it’s said, and whether it’s said at all.