Blip-Zip Summary
Unlock potential! Explore how neuroleadership can transform strategic health leadership (SHELDR) for future-proof health system transformation! Rethink leader development! By understanding the brain’s influence on decision-making and behavior, neuroleadership offers exciting possibilities for increased effectiveness, creativity, and resilience in healthcare leaders. The SHELDR Model identifies crucial competencies, and neuroleadership practices like mindfulness can support their development. By leveraging neuroscience, we can transform how leaders think, develop, and perform, ultimately contributing to reliable and innovative healthcare systems that deliver the best possible outcomes.
Blip-Zip Takeaways
- Neuroleadership offers insights into the brain’s influence on leadership, potentially improving strategic thinking, creativity, and emotional intelligence.
- The SHELDR Model identifies key competencies for strategic health leaders (SHELDRS), and neuroleadership can support their development through methods like mindfulness and habit loop awareness.
- Effective leadership development involves understanding the brain, leveraging its strengths, and mitigating its biases for better decision-making and organizational outcomes.
Keywords/Themes
Neuroleadership, Neuroscience, Brain Science Strategic Health Leadership (SHELDR), Leader Development
Table of Contents
Introduction to Neuroleadership
During my dissertation development process: Strategic Leadership: A Study Of Strategic Health Leadership (SHELDR) Practices Among [14] Former US Military Surgeons General development journey (to be published in the Journal of Management In Healthcare, 2020), I stumbled onto the emerging idea of NEUROLEADERSHIP.
Neuroleadership was a term coined by David Rock, CEO of Results Coaching Systems, in 2006. According to Rock, neuroleadership explores the neural basis of leadership and management practices. It gathers findings from various sources such as social cognitive science, affective neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, integrative neuroscience, neurobiology, and other domains. Developing neuroscience for leadership that considers the physiology of the mind and the brain becomes more readily accessible to leaders interested in developing and improving themselves and others. It turns the soft skills of professional development into hard skills by getting the science behind it.
Possibilities of Neuroleadership at the Strategic Level
I failed to show you how to ditch your transactional leadership style in my previous article. Sorry. Here’s how! Neuroscience has possibilities–unlocking cures for schizophrenia, autism, and Alzheimer’s to healthier eating habits and improving relationships. For example, my study identified leader development gaps and strategic health leadership (SHELDR) competencies, explored how a cohort of strategic leaders applied those competencies and recommended improving future leaders’ development. The literature identified leader development gaps and applicable strategic leadership theories leading to the development of the SHELDR Model.
Reflecting on the journey, I ask: Why not apply neuroleadership ideas to improve leadership effectiveness? Creation of more strategic-minded leaders at all levels? Why not apply strategic health leadership (SHELDR) and future leader development using neuroleadership?
Weird Science?
Maybe. Maybe not. For example, it is no secret that many senior leaders struggle with transformation, complexity, and continuous change. Many have even been derailed for various reasons, too. Several studies cited health leader development and performance gaps at higher levels of progression, yet feedback became sparser once individuals progressed in their leadership roles. Some admitted they did not know why they selected their direct reports.
Neuroleadership claims to integrate neuroscientific knowledge into leader development, change management, avoiding groupthink, and coaching programs. It’s based on personal behavior change and leadership development. For example, applications such as mindfulness, an outgrowth of neuroscience, are being popularized in corporate settings to improve emotional intelligence.
Yet, many of these books fall short of “how-to” to improve behavior X, A, and N. It’s about using both sides of the brain, creating a calming situation, and rewiring the brain through thought, action, outcome, and learning or habits. It is also about applying to Neuroleadership.
In my dissertation, 14 former surgeon generals (SG) cited systems approach, listening, critical thinking, communication, and emotional health as the top competencies they wished they had developed over the years. Many books, such as Imagine it Forward, draw on these theories and applications—mental rehearsal similar to professional athletes. They practice, meditate, and engage in mindfulness (an emerging trend), exercises, and simulations.
Successful leaders catch their habitual survival triggers or biases and rewire them. The application of neuroscience in the context of neuroleadership has the potential to facilitate the rapid and sustainable development of these competencies. Please, do not roll your eyes. Keep reading.
Based on my research, leaders can enhance their strategic health leadership vision, creativity and innovation, decision-making, relationship, and systems thinking skills by becoming more aware of the brain’s thought process and regulating it for a flattering effect.
As explained in the book Your Brain at Work, Neuro leadership by Dr. David Rock and Kahneman’s book Thinking Fast and Slow has the potential to create more effective leaders adept at agile and adaptive thinking, creativity, and innovation. These ideas remind me of The Whole Brain Business Book, Second Edition: Unlocking the Power of Whole Brain Thinking in Organizations, Teams, and Individuals.
Many correlates! Do I have your attention yet?
How it Works
According to neuroscientists, the brain has one central principle – to assess safety and threats. Brains are biased against negativity, affecting perceptions, thinking, mood, and relationships. The mind resists change, yet organizational survival or thriving depends on it. One can point to resistance to change in many action plans and transformation projects gone wrong. Brains scan the environment every one-fifth of one second for cues and responses.
Many leaders have fixed or open mindsets. In many ways, this is similar to strategic thinking: the left brain (logic, analytical, rigid) and right brain (creative, social, and agile) side of our minds. For example, leaders process information in non-conscious and conscious ways; many do not recognize it. Learning to use both sides of the brain through neuroscience with disruptive situations could enhance the leader’s effectiveness.
As another example, the brain reacts with four thought processes: Emotion (non-conscious), feeling, thinking, and self-regulation (conscious). Unless regulated, the leader’s brain may overreact or miss a cue to the point where concentration becomes dysfunctional (too biased or emotional), leading to unintended consequences—toxic culture, harm, poor decision, and derailment. In this case, a regulated leadership time-out may be required.
On the other hand, applying neuroscience could help the development of future leaders. For example, the SGs and the expert panel in my study agreed on the top competencies for SHELDRS: Immersive learning, assignment to strategic-level projects, critical thinking, and role-playing were common recommendations for developing future strategic leaders. To successfully transform complex health systems, SHELDRs need strategic-level leadership competencies. The SHELDR Model provides 17 such competencies.
7 Applications of Neuroleadership Principles
To self-regulate and call a time-out, consciously or subconsciously, leaders must learn to slow their thinking down, prioritize, and be adept at sensing the environment’s signals. Leaders must understand how their thoughts and poor habits interact with their behavioral choices. This understanding helps them develop leaders more aware of their thinking biases to find opportunities, be more resilient, and create net forward energy for the organization, leading to positive outcomes.
In short, leaders need a “mental model” or framework to make the best use of this new insight, triggering more “reward-engage” responses and avoiding “threat-disengage” responses. For example, David Rock, author of the seminal Your Brain at Work, created the SCARF Model based on five social needs our human brains have (Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness). Research of these social needs can activate the same reward or threat circuitries in our brains that physical rewards or threats can activate.
Knowing the human brain is primarily a social organ, always perceiving the environment as a complex set of interrelationships can help leaders manage and facilitate these needs to the individual and team’s benefit. The goal is to adaptively manage emotion, feeling, and thinking using a “mental framework” so the prefrontal cortex can regulate actions effectively.
8 Gutwrenching Questions Every Strategic Health Leaders Must Answer to Catapult Upward As A Coach
When done right, leadership is a life-long learning process. Below are potential applications for leaders, leadership coaches, and organizations to:
- Be more agnostic; induce “ah-ha thinking to improve visioning, futuring, and agile thinking.
- Be more creative and innovative; create a safe environment for more eureka moments.
- Learn how to become more mindful, thus improving present-moment awareness.
- Learn how to become more resilient and optimistic about creating net forward energy.
- Learn to trust their “gut feelings” and follow through on hunches and ideas more often.
- Understand other’s fears and anxieties more quickly and emphatically, then develop change management or communication strategies.
- Reducing stress and increasing resilience.
As another framework, Charles Duhigg’s book, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, explores the science behind habit creation and reformation, known as the Habit Loop. The Habit Loop is a neurological pattern that governs any habit. It consists of three elements: a cue, a routine, and a reward. Understanding these components can help in understanding how to change bad habits or form good ones. For example, disruptive innovation is a function of the initial reaction to an idea, such as using drones to deliver medical supplies to rural locations – often dead on arrival.
There are many other examples, such as creating a culture of transparency and psychological safety as organizations implement higher reliability principles.
Duhigg’s Habit Loop always starts with a cue, a trigger such as overreacting to mistakes or a pattern of errors that transfers the brain into a mode that automatically determines which habit to use (i.e., opportunistic such as process improvement, fear of uncertainty, or problem-solving versus prevention orientation). The theory of the habit is a mental, emotional, or physical routine. The habit or revised habit will drive whether a leader drives a positive or negative response.
Finally, there is a reward for helping the brain determine if this loop is worth remembering for the future. The leaders often only realize the toxic effects once it’s too late. As Pogo might say, “We have met your toxic habit, and you’re fired …”
Seize the Future Now
Today, more than ever, developing more strategic-minded health leaders with the correct set of competencies earlier rather than later is critical. Rethinking leader development through the context of neuroleadership and using the proper methods to support health system transformation and better outcomes is required. In my literature review and study, once gaps in leader development were identified and the SHELDR Model was applied, experts identified SHELDR development strategies.
A formal SHELDR development strategy was the most critical step. The plan should be centered on approved organizational competencies with defined roles, required experience, and methods to demonstrate competency instead of ‘square fillers’ or personal relationships. For example, the Center for Creative Leadership and the National Center for Healthcare Leadership emphasizes collaboration, aligning team member needs with objectives, strategic engagement, and rapid experiential learning. The leader development strategy should include identifying the number of strategically-minded leaders needed: when, where, how many, and what developmental methods should be implemented.
I know it sounds weird. According to the Neuroleadership Institute, neuroleadership will apply neuroscience to leadership development, management training, change management education and consulting, and coaching. No, I am not asking you to ‘hmmm,’ but practicing neuroscience, such as mindfulness, to overcome biases and distracting habits related to leadership may make you more effective.
Think about it. A senior health executive education program could be designed to help individuals improve their effectiveness and move their organizations forward simultaneously. Examples include reframing discussions on strategy, creating cohesiveness around a vision, redesigning products and services, and improving systems thinking to streamline processes. The outcomes are streamlined supply chains, less patient harm, higher reliability services, and genuinely empowered and excited participants to do the same within their sphere of influence.
The signals are getting stronger and more prominent. When John Kotter published Leading Change, the US health sector and many SGs had entered an unstable era squeezed by tectonic plates — managed care transformation amidst multiple military contingencies and downsizing, outsourcing, and regionalizing health delivery systems. While they succeeded, better-prepared strategic-minded health leaders or SHELDRs are needed to lead these organizations through today’s turbulent environment and produce better health outcomes.
The question is, how?
By leveraging the brain’s understanding, we can enhance leadership competencies and strategy execution, increase creativity, and improve employee engagement.
Organizations such as the Strategic Leadership Institute are emerging, offering services such as neuro-based leadership development and brain-minded safety culture transformation. As we improve our understanding of how the brain functions, we can transform how leaders think, develop, and perform.
By improving leader development through neuroscience applications, the nation will sustain the aspiration to create reliable and innovative health systems to produce the world’s healthiest population with the best outcomes. Stay tuned. Start practicing mindfulness.
Summary and Conclusion
This article offers a compelling glimpse into the future of leadership development. By embracing neuroleadership, healthcare organizations can empower leaders to navigate complex challenges, drive innovation, and improve patient outcomes. By understanding how the brain influences decision-making and behavior, neuroleadership offers practical tools and insights to empower healthcare leaders to be:
- More strategic and visionary: Think big-picture and foster innovative solutions.
- More creative and agile: Generate new ideas and adapt to changing environments.
- More mindful and resilient: Manage stress effectively and build emotional intelligence.
- More collaborative and relationship-oriented: Foster trust and engagement among team members.
As neuroleadership continues to evolve, staying informed and open to its possibilities is crucial for shaping a healthier future for all.
Are you prepared to change your health system and yourself by embracing the Neuroleadership potential? Explore the questions, learning activities, and resources below to learn more about this fascinating field and find practical applications for your career path.
Deep Dive Questions
To encourage additional contemplation and implementation, take into consideration these provocative queries:
- How can you use the principles of neuroleadership to recognize and correct your own biases and improve the efficacy of your leadership?
- How can you promote the adoption of neuroleadership concepts in your company to foster a happier and more efficient work environment?
- Envision the perfect healthcare system run by executives who understand neuroleadership. What essential traits and procedures would characterize such a system?
- You are considering the SHELDR Model, which competencies resonate most strongly with your leadership aspirations? How can you start developing these competencies further?
- Imagine leading a strategic planning session for your organization. How could you incorporate neuroleadership principles to create a safe, stimulating environment fostering creative thinking and collaboration?
- Reflect on your leadership style. How do you use your strengths and address your weaknesses? How can you utilize neuroleadership concepts to enhance your leadership approach?
- Consider a recent leadership challenge you faced. How did your brain’s natural tendencies (e.g., threat response, bias) influence your decision-making and actions? How could neuroleadership principles have helped you navigate the situation differently?
- Think about your organization’s leadership development practices. Do they incorporate any elements of neuroleadership? How could you advocate for integrating these principles to enhance leader development and performance if not?
- Imagine you are designing a neuroleadership training program for your organization. What key topics, activities, and resources would you include to equip leaders with the knowledge and skills to leverage their brainpower for effective leadership?
- Discuss the ethical implications of applying neuroleadership principles. How can we use these practices responsibly and ethically to empower leaders and improve organizational outcomes?
Professional Development and Learning Activities
Use these fun exercises to reinforce your knowledge and apply neuroleadership concepts:
- Explore the SCARF model developed by David Rock and consider how understanding these fundamental social needs can enhance your communication and relationship-building skills with colleagues and stakeholders.
- Take an online course or workshop on mindfulness to cultivate greater self-awareness and emotional regulation and focus in your leadership practice.
- Find out where you stand and where you need to improve in terms of essential leadership traits by taking an online emotional intelligence (EQ) test.
- To improve your focus, self-regulation, and decision-making skills, incorporate mindfulness exercises, such as meditation or mindful breathing, into your daily routine.
- Create a plan of action that outlines the precise actions you can take to implement the principles of neuroleadership in your leadership capacity. This could entail applying strategies like encouraging teamwork, active listening, or creating a secure environment for a candid conversation.
- Practice mindfulness. Engage in meditation, deep breathing exercises, or other mindfulness techniques to improve your self-awareness, emotional regulation, and focus.
- Challenge your thinking biases. Identify your biases and seek diverse perspectives to avoid making decisions based on limited information.
- Create a “gratitude list” regularly. Focusing on the positive can enhance your mood, increase resilience, and foster a more optimistic outlook, leading to better decision-making.
- Experiment with different leadership styles. Try adapting your approach to different situations and people to see what works best for motivating and engaging your team.
- Seek feedback from colleagues and mentors. Ask for their honest assessment of your leadership strengths and areas for improvement. This feedback can be invaluable in your leadership development journey.
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Resources
- Book: “Your Brain at Work” by David Rock
- Book: “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman
- Book: “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” by Charles Duhigg
- Website: The NeuroLeadership Institute (https://neuroleadership.com/)
- Website: The Center for Creative Leadership (https://cldinc.org/)
- Website: The National Center for Healthcare Leadership (https://www.nchl.org/)
