Neuroscience is an essential tool for the development of new executives or leaders. Learning how the mind works and how the creation of new neural circuits is favored, or, what amounts to the same thing, new work habits, is a necessity for anyone who wants to take a step towards leadership (Santamaría, 2019).
Company executives must pay attention to how they manage their emotions and how this impacts their work group. Great advances in technology have contributed to obtaining knowledge about the functioning of the human brain, and have allowed for a better understanding of emotions and their management to make better decisions and lead in a better way.
Leadership and Neuroscience
According to Caballero-Vargas and Lis-Gutiérrez (2016), advances in imaging technologies have created a perfect environment to discover new aspects about the human brain and its interaction with social factors in its environment. These authors highlight the advances in neuroscience that have made possible the social processes that we will review below:
Decision Making
Stress, focus, and sagacity are involved in the decision-making process. Studies show that stress can eliminate neurons that are key for good memory and verbal functions. On the other hand, it has been discovered that insight is a component related to decision-making, as it determines how the subject will solve a problem or make a decision. Another aspect that also influences decision-making is the person’s mood; a positive mood contributes to finding better solutions to complex problems, fostering creativity.
Emotional Regulation
The study of emotion management by leaders is a topic that has gained importance, therefore there are increasingly more investigations on the matter. The leader is expected to be aware of their own emotions, how they manage them, and how these positively or negatively affect work relationships. Authors such as Ochsner and Lieberman (2001, cited in Caballero-Vargas and Lis-Gutiérrez, 2016) established five ways to regulate emotions:
- Firstly, there is the selection of strategies as a preventive and anticipatory mechanism, which allows facing situations that generate an emotional exaltation.
- Secondly, it is about trying to face the situation, acting to change it.
- Thirdly, it occurs through the deployment of attention, by focusing it on a different circumstance that produces a positive impact on the situation.
- Fourthly, it is the reinterpretation of the situation to obtain an emotional reduction in the face of it.
- And fifth is reevaluation.
Influence
The ability to influence others is related to the ability to process new information, through which the activation of active memory, the visual cortex, and the auditory cortex occurs. It is possible for people to visualize what they are told, thus being able to influence them.
Ultimately, the leader is a person who, due to their personality, charisma, and/or credibility, or for any other reason, is respected by society or by a group and who possesses qualities, values, attitudes, and aptitudes that encourage society in general or a group of people to follow them voluntarily (Candela, 2018).
The Ease of Generating Change
Change can resemble a threat, and human beings, as they evolve, have generated mechanisms to counteract threats (Caballero-Vargas and Lis-Gutiérrez, 2016). Based on cognitive neuroscience research, we can face the threats that some changes represent, favoring the results of an organization.
Producing changes within an organization is a complex task, as workers get used to the way they perform their activities, resisting change. This has to do with how their brain has registered information to execute a task. To help members of a company process change, some mechanisms can be used, such as:
- Coaching.
- Training.
- Corporate university programs.
Another mechanism to generate change without resistance is self-efficacy; with this, the individual believes in their own abilities to manage and organize the necessary actions to achieve their objectives. Focusing self-efficacy on solutions is more effective than focusing self-efficacy on problems. Other studies also relate other mental capacities to the processes for generating change, such as: motivation, communication, autonomy, and uncertainty.
Cognitive neuroscience provides relevant information on how mental processes related to social processes in leadership develop, which is useful for improving dynamics within companies and, at the same time, obtaining better results.
References
Candela (2018). The role of the leader and their influence on the organization.
Caballero-Vargas, L. and Lis-Gutiérrez, J. (2016). Leadership: an approach from neurosciences. Colombia: Administration and development.
Santamaria, L. (2019). Neuroscience makes way in leadership. Retrieved from: https://www.transformapartnering.com/neuroliderazgo/