Neuromanagement is a new approach to leadership development. Technology is transforming the business world:

• how we work
• where we work
• who we work with

To keep up, companies who hire to lead their organizations need to change too!

For decades, organizations looked to hire leaders with excellent technical capability, an impressive education, and a demonstrated track record. That was the gold standard. However, with the rapid advancements in technology, there is a growing trend to place a higher value on soft skills over hard skills when making hiring decisions. Selection needs to be based on the full talent stack—skills, knowledge, wisdom, behavioral traits, and accomplishments.

The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant.”— Max De Pree, Former Herman Miller CEO

Why is this happening?

Technology cannot replicate emotional intelligence. Previously provided insights that showed how combining engineering, liberal arts, and the humanities is required for tomorrow’s leaders to produce remarkable results. Today, forward-thinking organizations are hiring leaders with extraordinary emotional skills to power critical thinking, innovation, and connection. We refer to this type of leader as an Agile Leader. This is where Neuromanagement comes in.

We are not thinking machines that feel, but emotional machines that think.” – Dr. Antonio Damasio

What is neuromanagement?

Stemming from neuroscience, neuromanagement is a scientific approach to management that explores managerial, behavioral, and economic issues through the lens of mental processes and brain activity.

Neuromanagement uses cognitive neuroscience, among other life science fields, and technology to analyze economic and managerial issues. It focuses on exploring human brain activities and mental processes when people are faced with typical problems in economics and management. This research provides insight into human decision-making and other social behavior.

Why neuroscience matters?

Management is about people.

Management is what tradition used to call a liberal art ‘liberal’ because it deals with the fundamentals of knowledge, self-knowledge, wisdom, and leadership; ‘art’ because it deals with practice and application. Managers draw upon all of the knowledges and insights of the humanities and social sciences on psychology and philosophy, on economics and history, on the physical sciences and ethics. But they have to focus this knowledge on effectiveness and results.”—Peter F. Drucker

There is an art to management as anyone who has led a not-for-profit or tried to organize humans will tell you.  However, the advances in social neuroscience—and specifically neuromanagement experiments that have measured brain activity while people work—are producing new and actionable insights for leaders of organizations.

Why is neuromanagement important?

In an organization, you must deal with facts, logic, opinions, and emotions. As people are leading organizations and performing work—emotions are present. These emotions influence business outcomes—for better or for worse. Moreover, despite the vast range of technology available at our fingertips, these emotions just cannot be understood or managed by anything other than people. Accepting emotions as a valuable reality of the workplace is the first step in improving organizational performance.

By learning about neuromanagement and applying its insights, you can more effectively manage the ways that emotions influence your business, and can improve communication, leadership, productivity, and innovation.

When leaders better understand what is going on in their brain, they can become more effective in dealing with people at all levels of their organization. The application of neuromanagement creates better relationships among leaders, employees, peers, and teams; leading to better collaboration, idea generation, and the implementation of initiatives.

Human-centric workplace

Research by Paul Zak, Claremont Graduate University shows that creating a human-centric workplace in which colleagues trust each other is a very useful way to improve engagement, productivity, innovation, and retention.

The U.S. average for organizational trust was 70%. One firm scored an abysmally low 15%. Overall, companies scored lowest on recognizing excellence and sharing information. So, the data suggests starting with these two areas.

Compared with people at low-trust companies, people at high-trust companies report:

• 106% more energy at work
• 88% more would recommend their company to family and friends as a place to work
• 76% more engagement
• 74% less stress
• 50% higher productivity
• 50% more plan to stay with their employer over the next year
• 40% less burnout
• 29% more satisfied with their lives
• 13% fewer sick days

Going beyond behaviors

Self-awareness and self-regulation are critical components of EQ. However, neuromanagement goes deeper by helping build an understanding of the brain and how it is wired. Think of it as a roadmap. By learning about how brain circuits drive different behaviors and govern feelings, we can understand the challenges and influences that affect mindset, emotions, and attitude. Stress is unavoidable, especially in a leadership role. However, by using the latest research in brain studies, we can understand an individuals’ reaction to stress and identify techniques to help them effectively manage their behavior.

What’s next?

While technology isn’t going anywhere neither are emotions. By building awareness of the scientific foundations of human behavior, leaders at all levels can become better equipped to increase performance, so do your business a favor and help your leaders increase their EQ today.

How to Manage for Trust

Through the experiments and the surveys, Zak identified eight management behaviors that foster trust:

• Recognize excellence
• Induce “challenge stress”
• Give people discretion in how they do their work
• Enable job crafting
• Share information broadly
• Intentionally build relationships
• Facilitate whole-person growth
• Show vulnerability

These behaviors are measurable and can be managed to improve performance.

Ultimately, you cultivate trust by treating people like responsible adults. You set a clear direction, give people what they need to see it through, remove the barriers, and get out of their way.

It is not about being easy on your employees or expecting less from them. High-trust companies hold people accountable and do not micromanage them.