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The Neuroscience of Leadership: Building Blocks of Cognitive Agility

May 2, 2024 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

As a senior executive, you are the pilot of your organization, navigating through a turbulence of decisions that demand not only precision but also adaptability. Understanding the science behind effective leadership has never been more crucial.

Neuroscience sheds light on how you can continue to develop your cognitive agility. This will help you steer clear of decision fatigue and cognitive rigidity, and move confidently forward on a path of flexible and dynamic leadership.

The Challenge of Stagnancy

Jonathan, a seasoned CEO at the helm of a multinational corporation, called me at a critical point in his leadership. His company, once a leader in innovation, began showing signs of lagging behind more agile competitors. Jonathan’s decision-making process, once sharp and ahead of the curve, now seemed slower, almost predictable. When I met with him, our discussion revealed that decision fatigue and cognitive rigidity were creeping in. Each choice seemed harder than the last, and his once transformative ideas now felt like reruns of a tired show.

Identifying the Real Problem

The real issue at play here was not a lack of effort or desire to innovate but rather outdated neural pathways that limited flexibility. This is not uncommon in seasoned leaders. Neuroscience tells us that our brains can fall into patterns of thinking that, while once efficient, can become constraining over time. In Jonathan’s case, his executive functions were trapped in a neurological rut, leading to a style of leadership that was increasingly rigid and resistant to change.

The Neuroscientific Approach

To tackle this, Jonathan needed solutions rooted in the insights of cognitive development. Cognitive agility is the brain’s ability to adapt to new information and circumstances. This adaptability is rooted in neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections. This means that even established leaders can cultivate a mind more conducive to innovation and flexibility.

Implementing Solutions

I worked with Jonathan to revive and strengthen his cognitive capacity, utilizing some of the following steps:

1. Mindful Reflection

He began with periods of mindful reflection, dedicating time to critically and openly evaluate past decisions. This practice encouraged his brain to consider multiple perspectives and alternative outcomes, laying the groundwork for more agile thinking.

2. Learning and Unlearning

He committed to learning something new every quarter, whether related to his industry or an entirely different field. This continuous learning helped to build new neural pathways, promoting cognitive flexibility.

3. Cognitive Diversity

He diversified his advisory circle to include thinkers from varied disciplines, ages, and backgrounds. This social neuroplasticity exposed his brain to a broader range of ideas and problem-solving approaches.

4. Challenging Assumptions

Jonathan applied the “Five Whys” technique to challenge his own assumptions, asking ‘why’ five times to get to the root of a particular belief or strategy. This helped to break down rigid thought patterns and build new, more adaptive ones.

5. Embracing Discomfort

He deliberately put himself in new, unfamiliar situations that required him to adapt on the fly, from improvisation workshops to cross-cultural negotiations.

Measurable Results

Six months into our work together, Jonathan’s leadership style showed tangible signs of transformation. He reported feeling more energized and less burdened by decision-making. His team noticed a more dynamic approach to strategy sessions, and the company began to regain its competitive edge. Brain-training exercises had not only rejuvenated Jonathan’s cognitive processes but also revitalized his organization’s culture of innovation.

Conclusion

Cognitive agility is not an innate talent but a skill that can be cultivated. Neuroscience does not merely suggest but demonstrates that leaders can enhance their cognitive flexibility, and in doing so, unlock a higher level of strategic and innovative thinking. As with Jonathan, embracing the principles of neuroplasticity can guide you away from the pitfalls of decision fatigue and towards a horizon of renewed leadership vigor.

In the fast-paced world of executive decision-making, the ability to adapt and thrive in the face of new challenges is what distinguishes exceptional leaders from the rest. The journey to cognitive agility begins with the understanding that our brains are our most flexible asset. The question remains: are you ready to rewire your executive brain for the future of leadership?

© Patti Cotton and patticotton.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that attribution is made to Patti Cotton and patticotton.com, with links thereto.

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.

How Do You Sustain Necessary Change?

June 29, 2022 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

You’ve made the changes. You have your business imperative in hand to keep you focused. You’ve aligned and coordinated your executive team around this business imperative. You’ve had some tough conversations to clear the air (and the plates), and you’ve identified the leadership behaviors necessary to support your team in making this happen.

But your team is scared. Or worse, they are at a point where they don’t trust this will work.

Michael, a well-respected CEO, had just led his executive team through these same steps. He was sick and tired of being in the weeds, feeling as though the company wasn’t meeting its business potential.

But his team was scared.

Sandra, his VP of marketing, spoke up. “We’ve gone through the exercise one too many times, and the changes sound great. We start out strong, then fizzle out. The changes we try to make don’t stick. I can’t even muster up the courage to try, this time.”

“Frankly, I’m skeptical, too” said Max, the COO. “We’ve tried and died quite a bit.”

“Patti,” Michael turned to me, “I may as well pack it up. If the team won’t commit, we aren’t going to make any progress.”

“Team,” I said, “Hold tight. There’s a last critical step in the process that ensures that you stay on the path. Most companies miss this step – and it makes all the difference.”

“I’m all ears,” said Candace, the CFO. “Because if this doesn’t work, I’m not sure I can retrieve any muster to move forward. At all.”

The room was quiet for a moment.

“I understand,” I said. “Change is hard. And unless we approach it in a way that supports its success, the discouragement is overwhelming. But hang on, please. Your track record is about to change.”

What did we do?

We created a system of accountability to hold the changes firmly in place. Because a change, no matter how big or small, requires a supportive system to allow it to become the norm.

And here’s how we did it for Michael’s team.

“Team,” I said, “You have taken the first 4 of 5 steps to make this work. Michael has created the company’s business imperative to set the direction (see Article 1 in this series). He has worked with you all to create and align your own business imperatives to support the larger one (see Article 2 in this series). You’ve surfaced some critical conversations that needed to be addressed in order to move forward (see Article 3 in this series). And you have identified how you need to work as a team in order to reach these goals (see Article 4 in this series). Now, it’s time for step 5: putting a system in place to keep you all on the path as you move into greater excellence.”

“I’m all ears, Patti,” said Candace. The others nodded.

“We are going to ask ourselves five questions as we review your goals and the changes you have identified that you need to make,” I said. “This will help us to create a system to hold the process – and ourselves – accountable. It will help us stay on track.”

Question 1: What are we measuring?

We worked to identify what we needed to measure in order to know that we were on the right path and moving at the right pace. What would we look for that measured success? We broke it down by quarter, and then by month, so we could course-correct in a timely manner if something was not working.

Question 2: Who needs to know?

We then identified key stakeholders for each initiative. Even though the team knew who was in charge of what, they did not always communicate to others who might be affected by the work. The team also identified how and when the stakeholders would communicate with each other and built this into their regular meeting agendas. Michael would review each team member’s progress for their area during their 1:1 meetings.

Question 3: How do we check on progress?

Michael took charge of this and built into the executive team’s monthly agenda discussion time to review the team’s alignment and coordination as they worked on goals. What was working? What needed refining or redirecting? The team looked at other feedback loop opportunities to make sure they could tap into needed information at any time.

Question 4: How do we support upgraded leadership behaviors?

The team recognized that working together at a higher level required higher skill-building. They asked me to work with them individually to break through any roadblocks holding them back, and to help them step into more effective leadership behaviors.

Question 5: What are the conversations we need to have now?

We agreed that I would also meet once quarterly with the team to work with them on any trust issues, as well as critical conversations and needed relational skill-building. Without this fifth step, a team does well at best, but never reaches its peak performance.

I’m happy to report that Michael and his team made incredible progress company- and team-wise in that first 12 months. And so, we decided to repeat this for Year 2, knowing that things would only continue to reach new and exciting heights. It is Year 3 for them, and they have established themselves as a leader in their industry.

Where in the process I have described above do you and your team excel? Where do you need to put a system in place, or to strengthen this so that it works well for you?

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.

To Upgrade Your Leadership, Uplevel Your Leadership Behaviors

June 15, 2022 By Patti Cotton 1 Comment

How do you as CEO stay on top of your leadership game? Many think reading the latest books on this will keep things fresh. Others rely on bootcamps or CEO peer groups to stimulate their thinking about leading, and to work through business challenges.

Books can provide great insights. Bootcamps can certainly inform you of leadership trends and approaches you might want to consider. And peer groups can bring fresh ideas, community, and accountability.

But statistics show that none of these by themselves (or all together) yield the relevant changes that are most important. In other words, if you are spending significant amounts of money on your leadership in the ways we’ve just mentioned, you may be gaining some good value – but you are still leaving a lot of your leadership potential on the table.

How do you actually sharpen your leadership in the areas that matter most?

To strengthen your leadership, you need to know which areas of your leadership are ready for upleveling, and how to actually make these shifts in order to make lasting change.

Which of your leadership behaviors is ready for an upgrade?

You won’t really know what you need to change until you get good feedback.

As CEO, you may have a fair idea of those areas you need to sharpen. But as a human being, you also have your blind spots. And you can’t see your blind spots, because, well, they are blind spots.

Michael, our CEO in the last three articles, was given some feedback. As you will recall (see last week’s article “Confronting”), Michael was highly motivated to rise above the weeds once and for all, and to bring his team along with him. They had done some important work in establishing a company business imperative with top priorities over the next 12 months, and also identified what this meant for each executive team member’s focus and energy.

When it came time to identify what the team needed in order to accomplish these things, you may remember that the team members shared what they needed as to systems and processes, but also in behaviors – team behaviors together, and leader behaviors from Michael.

“I had no idea some of my behaviors were getting in the way of team effectiveness,” he confessed.

“The good news is, Michael, that you are well respected by your team. You received some good feedback, and we need to use it. Let’s talk about what you heard.”

“Well, I heard that I disempower people by allowing their employees to come directly to me – and I may counter what their supervisor has instructed them. And I also heard that I tend not to listen to the perspectives of the other executive team members when making decisions. Those are pretty big.”

“And I agree with you,” I responded. “Those are the two main behavioral shifts I heard, as well. Do you agree?”

“I agree. I’ll stop doing those things. Today.”

“Not so fast,” I countered. “That’s not the way it works. At least, if you want the change to be effective and to last.”

“Okay, I’m listening,” he said.

You need to identify upgrade behaviors for those you want to replace.

“Explain, please,” said Michael.

“You may know what you need to stop doing, but your brain needs a picture of what it needs to do, instead. For example, if you need to stop allowing employees to come in and work around their supervisors to get a better answer from you, what should you do instead?”

“Ah,” said Michael. “Okay. I need to redirect the employees back to their supervisors.”

“Now you have it!” I responded. “And what about being open to and listening to the perspectives of others?” I asked.

“Well, that one is harder,” Michael mused. “I thought I was open, but evidently I don’t appear to be so.”

“May I give you some feedback?” I asked. “I noticed in our team meeting that, when others gave a different opinion than yours, you acknowledged them, but then went right back to your own perspective. In other words, you didn’t ask them to tell you more, allowing them to share a different point of view, while listening carefully instead of waiting to jump back in.”

“Phew,” said Michael. “This may be tough.”

“True,” I said. “In fact, these kinds of behaviors take up to a year to shift so that they are lasting.”

“Well, how do I stay on track with that?” He asked. “I don’t have a lot of time to spend on this – but it’s key and I know it.”

“Fortunately, the third step is what keeps you on track,” I answered.

Track your progress regularly by getting feedback.

“Your team has given you great feedback. They can also provide you with info on your progress.”

“Like I said, I don’t have a lot of time,” he said.

“Oh, this is a one- to two-minute check-in about once monthly to see how you are doing. And of course, your regular coaching meeting with me to discuss how it’s going, what we need to do to break through roadblocks, keep moving forward, etc.”

“I see,” said Michael. “So, I’ll just be working as usual – only I’ll be integrating upgraded behaviors. That should not take more time – it’s just doing things differently.”

“You are getting it!” I said. “I’m happy to sit with you and put together a plan.”

Michael beamed. “I’m ready,” he said. “I think we are getting the formula for staying on top of the things we want most. If I can rise to the occasion with my leadership, I can bring the others along.”

What in your leadership needs upgrading? How do you know? Reaching the most important goals successfully starts here.

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.

How to Align and Coordinate Your Team

June 1, 2022 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

Many a leader has overseen sound strategic planning, only to come to a grinding halt in just a few months.

“I find we get quickly into the weeds,” said Michael. “I really like how you and I just worked on focusing on what matters, and the plan is great (see the previous article on how Michael and I refocused to help him rise above the weeds.) But we’ve planned many times. I share the vision and set the goals, and we hit the ground running. But then, somehow, the team starts bumping heads on projects…Pretty soon, it’s back to business as we’ve always done it – good, but not great. How do I bring my team along in the process?”

“That’s our next step, Michael,” I responded. “And you are spot on. Unless you can align and coordinate your team in actionable and measurable ways, you won’t get far. Let’s roll up our sleeves.”

Michael and I met with his executive team the next week. During this time, he unveiled his business imperative – the top goals and priorities, as well as the quantifiable impact as shared in my last article.

“Team, it’s time we tighten up and get more focused,” he said. “And I admit, I am a chief culprit in keeping us from having done so until this point.”

I chimed in. “What we want to do today is to review Michael’s business imperative for the company for the next 12 months.”

“No offense,” said Candace, the CFO. “But we’ve done this a few times before. And we don’t seem to get anywhere.”

“I understand,” I responded. “Strategic plans and business imperatives usually sound great, but few get far. One important reason is because the executive team isn’t invited to align and coordinate to support the plan.”

“Go on,” said Candace. “I’m listening.”

“Michael will share the business imperative for the company. This imperative identifies the key priorities for the next 12 months, supporting the company’s strategic plan. This imperative is measurable and actionable.”

“From here, however, each of you needs to ask yourself what this means for your own areas of responsibility – and develop your own business imperative. This should support Michael’s imperative. Your imperative should have the measurables and actions to support Michael’s. Make sense?”

“It does,” said Max, COO. “We’ve often listed out who owns what when it comes to the strategic plan, but we haven’t made it as actionable as you are talking about.”

“I can see a more workable plan in the making,” said Sandra, the Marketing Vice President.

“I’m glad you do,” I answered. “It does work.”

“Just a minute,” Max hesitated. “If we are all going to do this, what about all those other initiatives we are working on? What if they don’t fit into the plan?”

“Exactly, Max,” I answered. “Once you develop your business imperative, you will need to ask yourself what to do in order to remain focused. But that’s for our next step. For now, let’s have a good discussion on what Michael’s imperative means for you. And when we reconvene next week, bring your draft business imperatives and we will have some critical conversations. We will not only be talking about what to do with initiatives that don’t support the focus; we will also be talking about what shifts in culture and leadership behaviors you may need to make in order to succeed.”

“Culture shifts? Leadership behaviors?” asked Michael.

“Yes, Michael. You and your executive team are a system – all parts of a system need to work together in the same way. If not, you won’t get any traction.”

Next time, I’ll share details of the next meeting and the tough conversations Michael and his team had to have in order to break through chronic underperformance – and finally become a high-performing, aligned, and coordinated team.

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.

Getting Your Leadership and Company Out of the Weeds

May 25, 2022 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

You are in the weeds, again.

And it feels defeating.

Leading is more complex than ever, and each time you think you are getting on top of things, the speed of business accelerates, again. What is it costing you? What is it costing your company?

You aren’t the only leader suffering from this quicksand. Don’t give up. There is a way out – and up.

Michael sighed and sat back in his chair.

“I’m finally on top of my emails – but the executive team isn’t. This means I’m not getting the responses I need for us to move forward. And then, we haven’t taken next steps in the Alchem Initiative, and we are now two quarters behind. I’m the hold-up there. Not enough time because we are playing catch up everywhere else.”

“Michael,” I leaned forward. “This sounds disorganized. You must be frustrated.”

“I am. I’m frustrated. Exhausted,” he replied. “Leading this company has a pretty low ROI to it these days.”

“Here’s what I’m noticing,” I said. “We’ve had this conversation before.”

“What are you saying?” he asked.

“I’m saying it’s time to get out of the weeds. For good.”

Step One: To Get Out of the Weeds, Bring Focus to What Matters

“Let’s begin by bringing focus to what matters most,” I said. “This is the first of five critical steps we need to take in order to get out of the weeds and stay out of the weeds!”

The first thing that Michael and I did was sit down together to review company goals and objectives, and to identify priorities for the ensuing 12 months. With some careful conversation, we crafted a vision for the year, and pinpointed the business impact this would have on the business.

“It feels good to recapture clarity around what’s important,” said Michael. “But I’m growing concerned. I realize that we are working on many things that don’t actually support the company in what matters. And if that’s the case, we are not only losing money by not doing what matters, we are also losing it by spending it on what doesn’t matter!”

Michael and I spend the rest of the morning defining the business impact. Quantifiably, if Michael and the team focused on what matters, this would put the company on a path to increase revenue and footprint significantly within two years.

“If we can do this, our competitors will stop running circles around us. That gives me great satisfaction. And on an equally serious note, my board will start placing more trust in me. I’ve lost a lot of ground there with not delivering on what I promise.”

“You are indeed at a critical juncture,” I responded. “It’s time to roll up our sleeves.”

“So, what’s next?” Michael asked.

“We’ve gained good clarity on what matters, but this is indeed just the first step. Now, we need to align and coordinate your executive team around this. This is where we will see what it really means to make this course-correction.”

“Although this sounds challenging,” answered Michael, “I can’t turn back, now. We’ve just uncovered millions of dollars and opportunity to be had.”

What is your own lack of focus costing you and your company?

Stay tuned, Reader, to learn how Michael took the next step to align and coordinate his team – and how it surfaced some pretty troubling culture and behavioral challenges.

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.