Like the rest of the world, leadership has evolved over time – for most.
Throwbacks still exists, but they’re not the ones creating innovation, affecting change or inspiring their teams.
A lot has changed from the early 1900s when a term called Scientific Management aimed to improve economic efficiency and the productivity of the labor force. Sure, it has science in the name, but the philosophy encouraged leaders to view employees as nothing more than specialized and replaceable components.
Today, we use a different kind of science – neuroscience – to create inspired leaders. The command-and-control methods of yesteryear may have secured companies’ place in history, but they won’t be there in the future.
The employees of today don’t want or need the same management style as they did back at the beginning of last century. In fact, research shows that change from the top to meet today’s workplaces and circumstances rarely works.
The evolution of leadership has been thoroughly examined, but we like the approach of David Sturt and Todd Nordstrom, who study appreciation in the workplace. They mapped out the evolutionary role of leadership to look like this:
“The concept of management is fuzzy because it’s consistently evolving to meet the needs of, motivate and inspire the best outcomes in the workforce,” say Sturt and Nordstrom.
We all know that to create the future we want, we need to make changes along the way. Today’s leaders recognize that what may have worked in the past is no longer effective. And they’re looking to brain science to truly understand why people respond in certain ways and what to do to help change those behaviours to achieve brain-safe workplaces, optimum performance, collaboration, communication and innovation.
Do you want to be part of the evolution or do you want to become extinct?
Noesis delivers neuroleadership consulting and training to organizations handling everyday change and major transformation initiatives. We help our clients permanently and scientifically improve leadership.
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