Neuroleadership combines advances in neuroscience with leadership principles to optimize how leaders interact with their teams and make decisions. By understanding how the brain works regarding decision-making, motivation, learning, and stress management, leaders can adapt their approaches to be more effective and empathetic.
It has been noted that a worker’s brain needs a leader to create environments that feel safe and certain, who communicates well and makes understanding easy. This is particularly important during organizational change because the human brain’s primary goal is to survive and to have certainty.
Today’s workforce is expected to spend 90,000 hours of their adult life at work and stress has become a major health issue in the workplace. It is estimated that a human has over 60,000 to 70,000 thoughts a day with 80% being negative. In addition, 70% of workers consider their manager the most stressful part of their work.
Workers (aka humans) spend a lot of time in their minds and need a leader who can help minimize their stress, not be the cause of it. This makes it imperative for leaders to create a safe and certain workplace during change. Especially when it has been found that 66% of change efforts fail.
Some of the organizational changes include the increasing skills shortage and the use of AI. Yet research tells us that despite the growth of technology, it is the interpersonal skills needed going forward in particular by leaders. This is when today’s workforce is looking for their leaders to care for them. So, in the growth of AI, what organizations will need is to create a human-intelligent (HI) Workplace.
An HI Workplace is defined as one that includes effective leadership behaviors that create an organizational culture that workers experience is to be engaged while collaborating with a diverse team. The workforce feels psychologically safe, listened to, and understood by leaders. The workforce finds satisfaction with their work and organization.
The human brain prioritizes security and minimizes perceived threats that the workforce can feel with organizational change. Significant changes in the work environment can trigger emotional and physiological responses that make it difficult to adapt and learn. NeuroLeadership can serve as a mechanism for understanding how individuals and teams respond to change in organizational environments.
Organizational change and uncertainty activate the amygdala, which is responsible for detecting threats and generating stress responses. Fortunately, the brain is highly adaptable thanks to neuroplasticity. This means the brain can actually physiologically adapt based on new information. With time and the right leadership support, individuals can reconfigure their mental patterns. In essence, they can adapt and feel more secure depending on the actions of their leaders.
Some considerations for organizations and their leaders are the following:
1. Educate leaders on the importance of neuroscience and NeuroLeadership and how our brains are wired. Not to make them neuroscientists, but to educate and skill them up on how to be a more effective leader by understanding the brain more through the lens of NeuroLeadership.
2. Ensure clear, transparent, and continual communications with the workforce about the organizational changes. Demonstrate effective listening, authenticity, transparency, empathy, and compassion. In essence, creates a trusting environment since our brains need psychological safety and certainty.
3. Engage the workforce as appropriately as possible in the change. Articulate and clarify the way for the change, how it will be done, an incentive for the workforce, and an action plan to make the change a reality. Most importantly demonstrate leadership commitment and support if you want an engaged and committed workforce.
4. Today’s workforce is motivated by purpose, autonomy, and mastery. Leaders need to demonstrate effective leadership behaviors that empower the workforce, especially during the uncertainty that organizational change creates.
5. Leaders need to demonstrate their commitment not only to the change but more importantly to their workforce. Leaders play a celebrity role whether they realize it or not because the spotlight is always on them. An unengaged, uncommitted, and unhappy workforce can and probably will negatively impact the change effort and overall organizational culture.
Remember, we spend a lot of time in our minds, leaders need to make it a safe place for themselves first (like when on a plane, put your mask on first) and then for their workforce. Leaders can create a human-intelligent workplace and supportive work culture that can lead to good things like fewer interpersonal conflicts, less sick time, and greater work satisfaction, and in turn positive organizational results and changes.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Edwin Mourin᷁o – Ruiz, Ph.D.
Dr. Edwin Mouriño is an Air Force veteran, author, Human Capital, and DEI practitioner and speaker. As a human capital practitioner, Dr. Mouriño’s focus has been on helping leaders and organizations help themselves. He is an experienced professional with many years of leading and/or supporting key elements of organizational change projects. Dr. Mouriño is an Air Force veteran who began his career in Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) as a graduate of the DOD-Defense Equal Opportunity & Management Institute (DEOMI) and has also been a speaker.
He brings broad industry experience that includes Fortune 100 companies. He is the founder and president of Human Intelligent (HI) Workplace, an organization focused on helping leaders help themselves through leadership, team development, and executive coaching. He has been and continues to serve as a college professor. He is also a Senior Fellow with the Conference Board on the DEI and Leadership Steering Committees.
He has extensive experience and thought leadership on Human Capital issues and supported organizational change efforts through Leadership Development, DEI, Executive Coaching, Team Development, Executive Retreats, Personality Assessments, and Organizational Change. He has spoken at numerous professional venues and written numerous articles on human capital trends impacting organizations, specifically addressing DE, and is the author and co-editor of several books.
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