Be big. Be bold. Be assertive. This is the advice given to any wannabe leader. You have to have swagger and act like you own the place – but what can you do if none of these things come naturally to you? Can this behaviour be learnt?

Rita Carter is a science writer and broadcaster who studies behaviour and the human brain who wrote The Brain Book and Mapping the Mind. Carter says there are some easy tricks you can implement that train your mind so that you really do start behaving differently – which may be the boldest move you can make.

Interview by Ed Prosser. Animation by Andi Concha.

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