It's all in the mind
The Australian Financial Review | 09 Nov 2007 | Page: 24 | BOSS
CEO’s and board directors are becoming more receptive to many of the ideas of neuroleadership, says consultant Katharine McLennan of the Mettle Group. She knows of many senior executives who are using meditation, for example, but the use of a new framework backed by scientific evidence will make a difference. “We’ve always know about it, but people hear the science,” she says.
Neuroleadership has entered the vocabulary faster than you can say brain wave. But is it fad or a new way forward?
NO MATTER how many times you observe the phenomenon there's something intriguing about the metamorphosis of a new management trend. From relative obscurity or an unrelated field of expertise an idea is plucked, packaged and pitched to business audience, buoyed by some media hype.
As science produces more fascinating details about the way the brain works, the prefix "neuro" is being attached to disciplines from marketing to economics and finance. Neuroleadership refers to a blend of sertain findings from neuroscience with a set of leadership practices and principles designed to encourage more consultative, creative and empathetic corporate cheifs
There's little doubt the topic is fast attracting plenty of fans as well as few high profile critics. So what is neuroleadership actually about? There are four elements of brain function that are deemed most applicable to business leadership: the ability to think more createively and use intuition by improving attention and changing thinking habits; the ability to interconnect and empathise, which is enhanced when we have lower-frequency brain waves or slow down our thinking; the understanding of how the brain reacts to change and the need for positive feedback to help ceate and reinforce new ways of operating; the health effects on the entire body from the brain continually working under chronic stress with excess adrenaline.
Neuroscience aficionados are particularly keen on evidence from magnetic resonance imaging of the brain which shows that, far from being born with a fully wired brain, we progress through life with our grey cells constantly making new connections.
At least some of the current interest in the topic has been fanned by Australian coach David Rock who (with co-author Jeffrey Schwartz) wrote “The Neuroscience of Leadership” for the US publication strategy+business last year.