Optimum Talks Blog

Listen, Learn, Lead – With your Whole Brain. The Business of Neuroscience

“We cannot deny emotions, leading change is leading emotions. Our rational brain helps us to arrive at conclusions but our emotional brain’s conclusions are those that lead to actions.”

The application of Neuroscience in business is called Neuromanagement. By definition, Neuromanagement is the art of synchronizing the science of the brain with human behaviours in organizations and everyday life. Or: What triggers a CEO, executive, mid-level manager or any employee to make the decisions they make each and every day.

The principles of Neuromanagement encourage people to focus attention on the practices that will genuinely make a difference in their work style and then explore and adjust new territories for change and growth.

Neuromanagement is bringing the understanding of leadership processes within organizations to light. It’s important to first understand the reasons behind the individual’s decision-making process in leadership. From there, we can find ways to improve performance, individual development and create effective change management processes. Neuromanagement offers the best hope for effecting real change in both a leader and an organization.

Education is essential, but is also trumped by our ability to manage relationships within an organization. Skill and knowledge are an asset, but our ability to understand the difference between success and failure resides in how we manage relationships, emotions and if we truly understand the rationale behind the decision-making process.

Three key markers in Neuromanagement include:

Neuroeconomics: In general, we assume people invest money to make more money, but neuroscience is proving that is not necessarily true. Our brain has different motivations. Neuroeconomics is helping to identify the real reason people invest their money.

Neuromarketing: Do you know why you chose one product instead of another? The study of consumer behaviour has been recognized for a long time and we know that 90% of the time, it is an unconscious decision. Neuromarketing is targeting that 90%. Our full brain is involved in the buying decision process. Unfortunately, the rational part of our brain has the smallest power in that decision.

Neuroleadership (David Rock): The most challenging situation in any organization is the leadership process. People don´t leave a company, they leave their boss. A truly effective leadership culture should create an engaging and inspiring environment. Neuroleadership brings forward a new concept that delivers tools on how to lead people within an organization effectively based on their human behaviour.

Neuromanagement is ever-evolving and presenting organizations with solutions to increase productivity and effectiveness of both the individuals and the organization overall.

Neuromanagement findings can help us:

• Create ways to manage stressful situations in our daily work
• Craft and deliver high impact feedback at any level
• Recognize those that push us to make wrong decisions
• Understand the impact of a growth mindset
• Understand the process of change in the brain, barriers that exist and how to overcome them
• Bring a different understanding of the leadership process in an organization

Through neuromanagement, we are able to better understand the brain pathways, increasing our awareness on how and why we react in certain ways. From there, we’re able to provide individuals with the tools they need to solve difficult situations. In the end, a more accurate diagnosis leads to a more effective solution.