After a health scare ten years ago, I set out on a quest to find the secrets to working smarter, not harder; how best to work with what we’ve inherited (our brain, our body, our emotions, and the way we have evolved) rather than try to fight against either our biological hard-wiring or our physical limitations. This can help you achieve more than you ever thought possible.
Neurological breakthroughsRecent discoveries in neuroscience – the science of how the brain works – have profound implications for just about every basic human activity: thinking, learning, feeling and interacting. And with businesses being nothing but organisations of people, these insights are powerful business tools for any leader or business owner.
Harvard Business School research has revealed specific cells within the brain that explain the neural components of ‘emotional leadership’. Followers of an effective leader experience a rapport with them, created by a combination of mirror neurons (which cause us to reproduce the emotions of others), spindle cells, and oscillators (which cause us to subconsciously mimic the movements of another).
The actions of a leader that has ‘engaged’ their team affect the brain chemistry of all team members. Because of the interpersonal dynamic of mirror neurons and oscillators, any emotions within team members quickly spreads to other people; soon, these emotions – whether positive or negative – can infect the entire team, inhibiting or boosting team performance.
Are you ‘engaged’… or just in a meaningless fling?
Harvard Business School research shows that successful, profitable businesses commonly have loyal, engaged employees that consistently perform at a high level to deliver a fantastic customer experience, which leads to customer loyalty.
I’ve discovered there are four steps to increasing someone’s level of engagement:
1. Increase your energy levels
2. Boost your emotional connection
3. Change bad habits, and relearn good ones
4. Build skills (in more effective ways)
Below is a brief overview of each step.
1. Increase your energy levels
The first step to becoming fully engaged, or getting your team or workforce engaged, is to get more energy in your life. It’s almost impossible to make significant performance improvements if you’re constantly feeling tired or unwell – sure, you can become more efficient, but you won’t make the mega-leap to true effectiveness maximisation.
To do this, you need to understand the three sources of energy:
• Physical energy – there are many simple yet profound changes you can make to improve your physical energy, centred around diet, exercise, sleep, rest and relaxation and concentration
• Mental energy - increase your energy and effectiveness by focussing your daily activities on the most important things, and eliminating focus-breaking activities; also, try to do more of the tasks you love doing (eg by doing them exceptionally well so you keep getting those tasks), and decreasing the things you don’t enjoy (eg by swapping or delegating)
Emotional energy - positive emotions improve the quality of your energy. Avoid negative emotions which sap emotional energy, and do more of the activities that boost emotional energy
2. Boost your emotional engagement
For someone to feel engaged, they need to have an emotional connection with that activity or group. They need to feel valued, valuable and involved. Ensure people feel like they are an important member of the team. Ask for regular feedback about their experience in the team, and how it could be improved – then act on the suggestions. Recognise good performances. And keep everyone informed about the team or business. These activities can foster a stronger sense of unity, so that people work together better and try harder for each other.
3. Change bad habits, and relearn good ones
You CAN teach an old dog new tricks! The scientific term for this is neuroplasticity – the ability of our billions of neurons to reorganise themselves to change established patterns. With deliberate, focussed effort to change your learned patterns of behaviour – and with the right framework – it can be done. Often, the mental barrier of believing we can’t change ourselves ensures we don’t even try – well, no such excuses now!
4. Build skills (in more effective ways)
Why learn by your our mistakes, when you can learn by someone else’s!
Neuroscience provides an alternative to learning by trial and error. By implementing a systematic approach to learning, and using such techniques as skill visualisation, you can dramatically increase the effectiveness of skill development and application.
Article by Bill Lang of Training Edge International
Email: bill@trainingedgeasia.com
Website: www. www.trainingedgeasia.com
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