By Trevor Maber

What does the human brain have to do with leadership and motivation? It may surprise you to know that, until recently, no one was entirely certain. Our brain has long been known to play a central role in countless bodily functions and our ability to survive and thrive. Without it, tasks we take for granted such as remembering, problem solving, communicating, decision making and future thinking would be impossible. Our brain has, however, remained a mysterious ‘black box’ in terms of understanding human behaviour and motivation. With the advent of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and other advanced medical tools, alongside an increase in interdisciplinary research, this mystery is at long last being unravelled and understood.

A Quick History of the Brain
In the scale of recorded human history, it is only recently that we’ve witnessed a remarkable evolution in our understanding of the brain. Ancient Egyptians and Romans considered the brain to be an unimportant organ. During the 15^th to 19^th centuries, Descartes and others suggested that the human brain operated as a machine. Then, in 1848, the case of Phineas Gage (a railway worker who had his frontal lobe pierced by an iron rod) served as an important milestone in understanding the complexity of the human brain; his personality changed dramatically yet he continued to otherwise live and exist normally – the first indication that parts of the brain might be responsible for different functions.

Within the last 150 years, Freud, Jung and others delved into the psychology of the brain, a branch of behavioural science that continues to flourish even today. Several clinical researchers explored the role of nerve cells, sensory perception and more, leading to the advent of the electroencephalograph (EEG) in 1929 for measuring brain waves. Subsequent research has looked at the role of neurons and distinctive components of the brain, including the interconnections to hearing and sight. Recent decades have seen a focus on the role of hormones and synapses in brain functioning, including the on-going development of targeted therapies to treat a wide range of illnesses and conditions. And yet, with this abundance of knowledge and ability to influence and manipulate the brain, we are still challenged to understand why we behave as we do.

What We Are Learning – The Here and Now
A growing number of academics and practitioners are actively involved in the burgeoning field of neuroleadership. As the name implies, areas such as neuroscience, anthropology, physiology and biology are meshing together with behavioural economics, psychology, organizational behaviour, leadership development and beyond to provide us with a new and integrated view of our brains impact and influence on how we lead ourselves and others. The work of many popular authors, including Daniel Goleman, Dan Pink, David Rock, and Dan Airely, are all grounded in neuroleadership.

As part of Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices, Lawrence and Nohria (2002) conducted a comprehensive review of leading-edge thinking and research in the field of neuroleadership. Through their work, they arrived at four fundamental patterns of behaviour (drives or motives) that they suggest are inherent to all human beings:

• Drive to Acquire: we are rational maximizers of our own self-interest; we seek, take, control and retain objects and personal experiences of value
• Drive to Defend: we are protectors of ourselves, our loved ones, our beliefs, our resources; we defend ourselves and our valued accomplishments whenever we perceive them to be endangered
• Drive to Bond: we seek long-term relationships grounded in mutually caring commitment; we form social relationships and develop mutually beneficial (and caring) connections with others
• Drive to Learn: we desire to make sense of the world and ourselves; we need to satisfy curiosity, to know, to comprehend, to believe, to appreciate, to develop understandings of our environment and ourselves through a reflective process

An added layer to their findings is that these drives are at times complementary to one another, and at times conflicting with each other –which provides a significant explanation as to the complexity and seeming unpredictability of human behaviour.

Implications for Leading and Motivating
The underlying premise of the neuroleadership field is that a significant portion of our behaviour is in fact regular, systematic, and lawful which in turn makes it predictable. While we aren’t yet able to pinpoint exact reactions for an individual in response to a specific situation, we are rapidly gaining the insight to be able to generalize certain patterns of behaviour for most people, most of the time. This has huge potential implications when the four drives are applied to the realms of leadership and motivation:

Drive to Acquire:

• An attraction to immediate gratification helps explain the short-term focus that plagues many organizations; ensure that systems, processes and practices emphasize long-term outcomes and priorities
• Relative status beats absolute well-being; remain focused on a sense of fairness and equity to reinforce the overarching impact of individual and team/department/division contributions on the entire organization

Drive to Defend:

• Any substantive threat to individual or group resources, security or belief systems will trigger this drive; ensure that perceived threats are unpacked and real threats are appropriately managed in a timely manner
• Behaviours such as retreating, fleeing, avoiding, closing ranks or counterattacking are indicative that this drive has been triggered; rather than focusing on these undesired behaviours, look for the deeper cause and address it

Drive to Bond:

• Like-intended individuals with shared values can be constructively and purposely drawn into cooperation through this drive; be aware that you cannot ‘buy’ bonding, it relies on voluntary commitment by all parties and leaders who walk the talk
• Watch for the dyadic instinct of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ which becomes unhealthy competition; balance an emphasis on team and group development with creating a sense of belonging to the organization as a whole

Drive to Learn:

• Information only flows at minimal cost in a bonded, cooperative environment; ensure that a focus on intra-organizational competition is not resulting in information being used for power and control
• Ensure that human creative capacity is channeled appropriately; create an atmosphere of curiosity and reinforce (and reward) that knowledge can be given to others without a loss of knowledge by the giver

Around the Next Corner
The field of neuroleadership is very much in its infancy, however it is evolving quickly and gaining mainstream attention on a global basis. Search the web for new and exciting developments, and remember that our innate human drives evolve far more slowly than how we understand leadership. The more we see this distinction, the better we can lead and motivate ourselves and others!

Trevor Maber is presenting Engaging Our Ancestors: The Role of Human Evolution and Brain Science in Leadership and Engagement on Wednesday, April 16, 2014. For more information, please visit bchrma.org/conf2014.

Trevor Maber leverages over two decades of experience in the fields of human resources and organization development to create positive change and continuous learning while enhancing outcomes for the students, clients and organizations he works with. Previously the Director of People Strategies with SIAST, he is a professor at the Edwards School of Business at the U of S teaching in the areas of human resources, training and development, leadership and management skills.