Neuroscience and Leadership

In the TED Talk Neuroscience and Leadership: How to be the Boss of Your Brain, Amanda Gore looks at neuroscience and how the brain works. She uses understandings from neuroscience to explain how our brains love change. You can train your brain to learn anything according to Gore.

Recently neuroscience has looked at the hard science behind leadership and how our brains work in leadership capacities. We all know that in leadership, positions must continually change with the times and be forward-thinking. However, the change that goes hand in hand with leadership often brings fear not just for us as leaders but for our staff.

It is our job as leaders to help ourselves and our staff to be more confident and to do things we do not want to do. Gore suggests that change makes everyone think of the F word – which, of course, is FEAR. She explains that change makes people fearful.

Gore (2013) says we need to beware of the part of the brain that focuses on fear. Her strategy to manage fear is to tell our amygdala to be calm. Gore explains that we are hardwired for fear and we need to calm Ammy (our amygdala – the amygdala processes memories, decision-making and emotional responses, more info).

Her philosophy is that joy is an inside job – and it is the secret to more productive, creative, successful and happy humans – at work and home. She uses the ‘FARC’ strategy for leaders to combat the fear that comes with leadership:

• Focus
• Attention and Awareness
• Repetition
• Celebration

This is unpacked in Gore’s article, ‘The Secret Formula for Change – You Need to FARC’.

If you have extra time and capacity and would like some light entertainment you may view her TED Talk at the link below.

References

Gore, A. (2013, Dec). Neuroscience and Leadership: How to be the Boss of Your Brain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpU9Nv0ulWg