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10 PEOPLE & STRATEGY

perspectives – counterpoints

own assignment, but we also had to create an environment that made it safe for them to fail, recover and grow.

While creating a more effective learning envi- ronment was our first step, our ultimate goal was to have these developing leaders under- stand what we were doing and how we changed the program to meet their needs more effectively, and reduce, overwhelm, and mitigate the fight, flight or freeze response, so they could do the same when they returned to their organizations. This next step is still emerging as part of the program’s design to help these leaders take their personal experi- ence out of the classroom and back into their organizations where they can implement structures and processes that improve employee effectiveness and success.

Christine R. Williams serves as the head of the Systems Department within the NASA Academy of Program, Project and Engineering Leadership (APPEL). Her programs are considered world- class by both industry and government standards, and she has been invited to speak internationally on the topics of leadership development, executive coaching and the application of advances in neuroscience to improving employee learning. Williams received her BS in Oceanography, and later graduated Summa Cum Laude from The Johns Hopkins University with an MS in Organizational Development and Applied Behavioral Science.

Neuroleadership—More Than Another Leadership Framework Tobias Kiefer, Global Director Learning & Development, Booz & Company

I t is a cold and rainy winter day. I am in the process of designing a new leadership program. I experience the frustration of

more than 60,000 leadership books. I decide to go a different route: Design a change pro- gram with the “learner’s brain in mind” – by combining deep emotional moments that require peak attention from participants and finally bring participants to generate their own insights and takeaways. No frameworks, no preselected leadership skills participants should memorize.

Neuroscience has started to impact leader- ship development and it will further shape it. NeuroLeadership is more than a framework. It influences entire training designs and approaches—on multiple levels:

1. The Value of Leadership Programs: The data neuroscience is providing is certainly the meat for rationalizing investments into people development. It helps to stop the myths around leadership development and adds data to the rumors about human behavior. It will help to sell the value of leadership programs. NeuroLeadership links changed behaviors to business results—with data and metrics.

2. Training Design and Investment: Remem- bering one of the key insights about the brain, that no two brains are alike, will help to shape training and coaching toward positive change. By considering

key factors like Attention, Generation, Emotions and Spacing (AGES-Model), we can design programs that will radically change the nature of training for both facilitators and participants. It offers chances to reduce costs for training. We already have first indicators that the aver- a g e c o s t s t r u c t u r e w i l l c h a n g e dramatically: From spending almost 50 percent of training costs on travel and accommodation towards spending more than 80 percent on real learning.

3. Understanding Fundamentals of How the Brain Works: Explaining the core func- tions of the brain to participants (and I am really talking about the core) will help drive the changes in people further.

Looking at the current environment, with cost pressures on the one hand, and more than ever the need for innovation, creativity and leadership, on the other, we need more effective change approaches than what we have today. We need more than training—we need real change. Change starts with under- standing the current status, the system (the brain), and creation of insights.

NeuroLeadership—the conversion of the art and science of leadership development should be considered a great tool to make this hap- pen. It is the tool that rationalizes the kinds of programs designed a few years ago—by coincidence and by trusting intuition and insights. It led, in our case, to a program full of deep emotional and experiential moments of silence and learning spread over two weeks. The program has become one of our flagship programs and serves as the frame- work for more AGES-based models. It is NeuroLeadership put into practice.

1 Williams, C. & Derro, M.E. (2008). NASA Systems Engineering Behavior Study. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Retrieved September 19, 2010 from http://www.nasa.gov/news/reports/ NASA_SE_Behavior_Study.html

2 Ryschkewitsch, M., Schaible D., Larson, W. (2008). The Art and Science of Systems Engineering*. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Retrieved September 19, 2010 from http://www.nasa. g o v / p d f / 3 1 1 1 9 8 m a i n _ A r t _ a n d _ S c i _ o f _ S E _ LONG_1_20_09.pdf

Neuroscience has started to impact leadership development and it will further shape it. NeuroLeadership is more than a framework. It influences entire training designs and approaches…

VOLUME 33/ISSUE 4 — 2010 11

perspectives – counterpoints

Dr. Tobias Kiefer is the Global Director Learning & Development at Booz & Company–a global management con- sultancy. Kiefer is known for his approach to tie highly experiential modules into high performance leader- ship programs. As coach, trainer and motivational keynote speaker he uses experiential and neuroscientific ele- ments to enable smarter thinking and to achieve better results with his cli- ents. His experience from extreme outdoor sports and his experience as consultant and leader of a global team create a variety of insights in his pro- grams. Since March 2010, he is participating in the Postgraduate Cer- tificate of Neuroleadership.

Removing Obstacles to Leadership Development when Leaders Are Already Successful Marshall Goldsmith, best-selling author of MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.

N euroLeadership is a fascinating field, which may uncover the key to helping leaders develop the soft skills they

need to take themselves, their teams and their organizations to the next level. This can be a significant challenge when what these leaders have been doing has been met with success.

We tend to repeat behavior that is followed by positive reinforcement. The more suc- cessful we become, the more positive reinforcement we get, and the more likely we are to experience the success delusion. This forms our belief “I behave this way. I am

successful. Therefore, I must be successful because I behave this way.”

The good news is that our positive beliefs about ourselves help us become successful. The bad news is that these same beliefs can make it tough for us to change.

Belief 1: I Have Succeeded Successful people have one consistent idea coursing through their veins and brains: “I have succeeded. I have succeeded. I have suc- ceeded.” This strong belief in our past success gives us faith to take the risks needed for our future success. This positive belief can become a major obstacle when behavioral change is needed, as we all tend to reject or deny feed- back from others that is inconsistent with the way we see ourselves. Thus, it is very hard to hear negative feedback and admit that we need to change.

Belief 2: I Can Succeed Successful people believe that they have the capability to have a positive influence on the world—and to make desirable things happen. They believe that through the sheer force of their personality, talent and brainpower, they can steer situations in their direction. This unshakeable belief presents another obstacle to helping them change behavior. When we believe that our good fortune is directly and causally linked to our behavior, we can easily make a false assumption. “I am successful. I behave this way. Therefore, I must be success- ful because I behave this way. It can be especially challenging to help successful lead- ers realize that their success is happening in spite of some of their behavior.

Belief 3: I Will Succeed Successful people are optimists. Optimists tend to chronically over-commit. It can be extremely difficult for an ambitious person, with an “I will succeed’ attitude to say “no” to desirable opportunities. This ‘I will succeed’

belief can sabotage our chances for success when it is time for us to change behavior. When I ask people who attend my programs why they did not implement changes they said they would, the most common response is, “I meant to, but I didn’t have time.” They believed that they would get to it later, but ‘later’ never came. Our excessive optimism and resulting over-commitment can be as seri- ous an obstacle to change as our denial of negative feedback or our belief that our flaws are actually the cause of our success.

Belief 4: I Choose to Succeed Successful people believe that they are doing what they choose to do, because they choose to do it. They have a high need for self-deter- mination. This usually works in favor of successful people when they apply it to achieving their mission. It can work against them when they should “change course.” The old saying ‘winners never quit’ is often true.

These four success beliefs all filter through us and create in us something that we do not want to believe about ourselves. I call it the success delusion. Few of us are immune to the success delusion. Pick one of your own quirky or unat- tractive behaviors. Now ask yourself: Do I continue to do this because I think it is some- how associated with the good things that have happened to me? Does this behavior help me achieve results? Overcoming the success delu- sion requires vigilance and constantly asking yourself, “Is this behavior a legitimate reason for my success, or am I just kidding myself?”

Name Bio.

Marshall Goldsmith is the million- selling author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – a New York Times bestseller, Wall Street Journal No. 1 business book, and Harold Longman Award winner for Business Book of the Year. His new- est book, MOJO, is a New York Times (advice), Wall Street Journal (business), USAToday (money) and Publisher’s Weekly (non-fiction) best seller. It is now available online and at major bookstores.Few of us are immune to the success delusion.

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