Alex and Andrew Geesbreght are the co-founders of Prax Leadership, though the concept is Andrew's "brainchild."
Alex and Andrew Geesbreght are firm believers that all roads of their respective journeys, professional and otherwise, have led them both to the calling that is PRAX Leadership, the enterprise they co-founded designed to drive improved work cultures.
Alex Geesbreght calls it “a natural culmination of our lives.”
Their neuroleadership program centers on practice-based curriculum that focuses on the team members — the people — who make up companies.
People form companies. PRAX transforms people.
“This isn’t theoretical, we have lived this our whole life, which is why we spend so much time in conversations like this, talking about where we came from because it has very much not just informed how we do things, but it is part of how we do things,” Alex says. “And I personally feel that PRAX is a very natural culmination of our life's work and approach.”
Neuroleadership is a field of study that applies neuroscience insights to leadership practices and organizational behavior. The concept is often used in areas such as change management, performance management, and leadership development.
PRAX offers a number of programs for companies.
“PRAX is about focusing on the individual. We say it's self-leadership practices that enrich humanity,” Alex says. “So, we focus on each person in a company. And we like companies that can sort of put aside their desire to just improve the bottom line of their company, which there is nothing wrong with that and we don't chastise them for doing it at all. But when they come to us saying, you know, ‘We have a people problem, we want to improve the bottom line,’ what we hope to convince them of is to sort of set that aside for a second and to actually invest in one human being for them.
“They may leave you; you may find that they're not the right person through this process, which sparks turnover and some things that could be considered not good, but ultimately you will build over time a much more secure, happy, productive workforce.”
It’s not difficult to look at national political offices and be appalled at the seeming lack of good leadership. That’s my opinion, one of many hot sports opinions, and one I took to the Geesbreghts. So, too, it seems to exist in a microcosm in work environments, I asserted.
They didn’t disagree, but they emphasized that PRAX is “myopically” focused on “self-leadership,” not “leadership” as a general theme.
“We exist to improve the lives of humans, not employees,” Alex says. Good, healthy humans naturally make good employees.
And, he adds, practice is at the core “of everything we do.”
“There is no growth without practice.”
It’s in the name, PRAX. Practice.
The root word “praxis” is derived from Greek. It’s often used in Latin to mean practice.
During the antiquities, Aristotle spent his waking hours laying the foundation of Western intellectual tradition, his wisdom creating a lasting impact on philosophy, science, and many areas of human thought.
He introduced the concept of “praxis,” or at least spoke about it, in his lectures in the context of human, civic affairs. It is action undertaken through free will and performed with a purpose or goal in mind.
That differs from action taken because we feel as if we have to. For example, any number of school activities. We read Chaucer because our grade depended on it. Our English teacher ordered us to open the pages.
It’s not unlike many of the exercises undertaken in the spirit of a healthy workplace. Often, though, those exercises amount to nothing more than going through the motions, sending employees to, say, a conference simply to check a box and fill the budget.
“Everybody's got the poster on the break room wall,” Andrew says, “but are they actually living it?”
It’s a “delta” that too often exists between what executive management says and the what the employee perceives.
“It doesn't matter what your culture is on a wall,” Alex says. “It matters, as we used to say, who the scribe in Tacoma actually is. That's our culture. That's our actual culture. It's not what I say our culture is. I hope that what I say is reflected through everybody.”
One testimonial spoke of seminars his company attended in the past that seemed "canned" and with topics you've heard about for for years. PRAX focuses on deeper topics centered on self-leadership.
"Focusing on yourself is an absolutely crucial portion before you can affect others," says the CEO of one company who used PRAX.
Though the brothers co-founded the company, PRAX is, Alex says, the “brainchild” of Andrew Geesbreght. In addition to all the lived experience, Andrew has a master’s in psychology, with an emphasis in organizational leadership, from the Chicago School.
His story is an interesting one, starting with his assertion that PRAX was “born out of pain.”
The Geesbreghts are the sons of the late Dr. John Geesbreght, the founder of Emergency Medicine Consultants — EMC — which contracted with hospitals and physicians to provide emergency medical services. He was also medical director at Texas Health Harris Hospital Fort Worth for 45 years.
Alex Geesbreght, who has a law degree from the Tulsa College of Law, later served as general counsel, president, and chief strategy officer at EMC until the sale of the company in 2018. He is also the former owner and CEO of PhysAssist Scribes, the nation’s first medical scribe company, which sold in 2014. PhysAssist transformed the manner in which emergency medicine was practiced in the electronic medical record era.
Andrew was the co-owner and COO of PhysAssist Scribes. Since the sale of PhysAssist, Andrew has dedicated his professional life to the study and implementation of neuroleadership, and its effect on corporate culture. Andrew also has an undergraduate degree in history and political science from TCU.
The pain Andrew talks about, which he, in turn, transformed into inspiration, involved life after the sale of PhysAssist. He stayed on after the sale with a new “ceremonial” title, chief leadership officer.
Nine months later, the company sent a low-level HR person to his office and told him that “the board no longer sees your value.”
A layoff.
“Pain plus reflection equals growth,” Andrew says. “That was a who-am-I-what-am-doing-now year of my life. Maslow is known for his hierarchy of needs, but he did so many other things. Maslow talks about ‘destiny math.’ I love this concept: There's a decision in every moment. Every decision either propels you into growth or thrusts you back into comfort.
“I felt that what I wanted to do next needed to be growth, not comfort.”
Comfort would have been going to get another job in the C-suite. It was available to him. Instead, he went back to school to earn a master’s in psychology.
“I picked growth, and we started PRAX,” Andrew says. “I saw firsthand how important leadership is to culture and how important high-quality human beings are to performance. PRAX represents that for me. how do I want to spend my next 20 years, and it's with people.”
Two roads diverged in a wood, and he took the one less traveled by.
That has made all the difference for him and, through him and his expertise in neuroleadership, many others.