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6 PEOPLE & STRATEGY

W hile speaking at a conference recently, I asked a room full of HR and training professionals if they

wanted to improve the quality of the leaders in their organizations. Everyone raised a hand. Then, I asked who was confident they knew how to develop their leaders. Not a single hand went up.

This situation is not an isolated occurence. A 2008 study showed that ‘improving leader- ship’ was the second most urgent human capital imperative for most companies’ busi- ness strategies. Given how widespread the problem is, perhaps we need a breakthrough here, something so fundamental that would offer a new approach to the very foundations of leadership thinking.

Up until now, most of our leadership theories evolved out of behavioral observations, or through social psychology research. It appears that this approach has not delivered what it was supposed to do. Despite the fact there are now more than 60,000 books on leadership, there is no broad agreement on what exactly leaders do, or what it takes for them to do their jobs successfully.

Recent developments within neuroscience have given us the ability to shed some new light on how the brain functions in real time. This new brain research may provide the missing link between leadership behavior and leadership development. Since 2007, there has been an effort to gather relevant neuroscience findings into a new field called ‘ N e u r o L e a d e r s h i p .’ N e u r o L e a d e r s h i p

explores the neuroscience underpinning four key leadership skills, called the four d o m a i n s o f N e u r o L e a d e r s h i p . T h e s e domains include:

1. The ability to solve problems and make decisions;

2. The ability to regulate emotions;

3. The ability to collaborate with others; and

4. The ability to facilitate change.

While the NeuroLeadership field is still new, there already are identifiable benefits to applying neuroscience research findings to our understanding of leadership characteris- tics. Clearly, there are tangible benefits to improving leadership development tech- niques. Multiple studies show that the best

As the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, we can look back confidently at the 20th century and call it the manage- ment century. Peter Drucker’s centennial in 2009 became a testimonial to the success we have had in management develop- ment. The situation is quite different, however, when it comes to leadership “science.” There are more than 60,000 books on lead- ership on our shelves, and we still have not “cracked the code” on what true leadership really means and how it can be achieved.

Twenty-first century neuroscience is now attempting to come to leadership’s rescue. Brain research is entering leadership discus- sions center stage and may help to close the gap between our goals and our practices. People & Strategy invited David Rock, the pioneer of brain-based thinking about leadership and the founder of the NeuroLeadership Institute, to lead our discussion for this special issue. Rock’s article “How Neuroscience will Impact Lead- ership” sets the stage for a breakthrough conversation among Paul Lawrence, a Harvard scholar, Marshall Goldsmith, the world’s

best-selling leadership author, and three practitioners: Terry Hogan of Citigroup, Christine Williams, of NASA and Tobias Kiefer of Booz and Co.

According to David Rock, we now are able to access those areas of the brain where important leadership brain functions take place. We can even pinpoint specific training and development activities to influence brain centers to drive more effective behav- ior in four key domains, including the leader’s ability to: 1) solve problems and make decisions 2) regulate emotions, 3) collaborate, and 4) facilitate change.

The following exchange of ideas is a mere anticipation of the breakthroughs yet to come. Our selection is an invitation to all students of leadership to continue to follow the hard science that is radically changing the ways we train and develop 21st century leaders.

From the Perspectives Editor Anna Tavis, Perspectives Editor

Impacting Leadership with Neuroscience By David Rock, Founder of Neuroleadership Institute

VOLUME 33/ISSUE 4 — 2010 7

leaders have both strong business and inter- personal skills. Yet many leaders have focused on their business skills and let their interper- sonal skills lag. Telling leaders to be more self aware, authentic or to create trust can be both a tough sell and mission impossible for the trainers and coaches.

How do you take someone who has become a hard-nosed executive and build his or her soft skills, after decades of being rewarded for driving results? To begin, you need to speak in a respectful language, which means a lan- guage based on hard data, like brain research. Drawing on the four domains of NeuroLead- ership, program designers and facilitators are able to explain the theoretical foundations, in biological terms, of most aspects of self and social awareness. At our annual NeuroLead- ership Summit, hundreds of leadership practitioners discuss the benefits of underpin- ning a leadership development intervention with neuroscience. In short, science gets lead- ers turning to programs they normally would not do. It has them switch off their Black- Berry devices while they are there, and helps them ease into ideas that otherwise could be personally threatening.

Several other benefits to drawing on neuro- science are just emerging. We are beginning to test leaders’ brain functioning to gain clues about how they will operate in certain condi- tions. For a while we could test how well someone could solve linear and non-linear problems. Now, we also can test for how well people regulate their emotions, how well they connect emotionally with others, and how well they focus their attention, all based on

understanding of what we are trying to achieve, and minimal capacity to measure outcomes with hard data.

Improving the quality of our leaders has never been more important. Neuroscience is offering some theoretical breakthroughs that already are making a big difference. Using neuroscience to explain leadership issues now is happening across major corporate, government and non-profit organizations, including NASA, the National Defense Uni- versity, Citibank, Microsoft and other firms around the globe. While the research is still new, the benefits are available to change the way we lead.

David Rock is the founder and CEO of Results Coaching Systems (RCS), which has operations in 15 countries across the globe. He co-authored a fea- ture article with neuroscientist Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, called ‘The Neurosci- ence of Leadership.’ He also wrote, ‘Managing with the Brain in Mind.’ He is the author of several books including ‘Coaching with the Brain in Mind’ (Wiley & Sons, 2009), and ‘Your Brain at Work,’ (Oct. 2009). Rock founded the NeuroLeadership Institute and Summit, a global initiative bringing neuroscientists and leadership experts together to build a new science of lead- ership development.

Drawing on the four domains of NeuroLeadership, program designers and facilitators are able to explain the theoretical foundations, in biological terms, of most aspects of self and social awareness... and helps them ease into ideas that otherwise could be personally threatening.

brain tests rather than questionnaires. We even have a way to measure overall neural integration, a marker for adaptability. As these technologies become more widely avail- able, we can get better at putting the right people into the right jobs, as well as target development needs to the individual.

Another emerging area of research involves the ability to predict directly a leaders’ effec- tiveness. In a lab at MIT, scientist Alexander Pentland is able to accurately predict who will succeed in an influencing task, without needing to hear what the leader says. The approach draws on biological signals like body movements and tone of voice, based on research called ‘Honest Signals.’

Finally, with a more accurate understanding of what leaders do and an ability to quan- tify a leader’s abilities, we can begin to measure and therefore improve leadership programs more successfully. Currently, billions of dollars a year are spent on leader- s h i p d e v e l o p m e n t , w i t h v e r y l i t t l e

Neuroscience is offering more theoretical breakthroughs that already are making a big difference. Using neuroscience to explain leadership issues now is happening across major, corporate, government and non-profit organizations...

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