Mindful Leadership For Dummies

Chapter 3

Harnessing the Neuroscience of Mindful Leadership

IN THIS CHAPTER

Discovering the potential and limitations of your brain

Becoming conscious of your unconscious

Recognising your hidden drivers

Exploring how mindfulness works from a neurological perspective

Take much of what you know about how the best leaders operate and forget it. Much of what we ‘know’ about the best way to get things done at work is being called into question by the latest neuroscience research. A basic knowledge of a few aspects of how the brain works and its hidden rules can prove invaluable if you want to improve your leadership impact while retaining your sanity!

This chapter offers you the basics you need to know in a practical and accessible format.

Grasping the Potential and Limitations of the Executive Brain

If you hold a position of power and authority within your organisation, you have responsibility for making key decisions upon which the future success of your organisation depends. With this comes responsibility for your employee’s prosperity, not to mention your supplier’s prosperity and the people who supply goods and services to your suppliers.

Recent neuroscience research is shining a spotlight on how the brains of the most effective leaders differ from the norm. It’s still early days for this research, but studies indicate that many of the things you may think enhance performance are probably the opposite. We talk more about this in the final section of this chapter.

Setting aside ...