What is the contribution of neuroscience to leadership and management?

At Talentis, for 15 years, we have put innovation at the heart of our concerns to respond in the most appropriate way to the challenges of the major French and international groups that we support on a daily basis. With this in mind, we brought together the Talentis coaching community, on January 25, for a day dedicated to the leader of tomorrow. In particular, it was an opportunity for all Talentis teams to learn more about the links between neuroscience and leadership. thanks to the very inspiring intervention of Erwan Deveze, a neuromanagement specialist.Transcript of the video:

#1 What progress has neuroscience made in recent years?

Erwan Devèze: Neuroscience has made enormous progress in recent years, especially over the last twenty years, in terms of understanding the brain for two main reasons:

On the one hand, thanks to advances in the field of brain imaging, we are able to see what is happening in the human brain in real time; and on the other hand, thanks to advances in neurobiology. I am going to come back to two elements that are absolutely fundamental. The first point is neuroplasticity. This ability that we all have to be able to reconfigure our brain circuits constantly. This refers to the innate and the acquired. We have genetic predisposition, but we also have the ability to act in our behaviors. The second point that is extremely important, on which we have made progress, is this balance between conscious and unconscious functioning.

You should know that the unconscious functioning of the brain represents 90% of its activity. As a result, we are very largely dependent on unconscious processes, and it is very important to have a fairly detailed understanding of these mechanisms, if we want to be happier, if we want to be more efficient.

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#2 What does neuroscience contribute to the optimization of management methods and leadership?

Erwan Devèze: It is very important to understand that neuroscience is also “practical-practical.” It is not simply fundamental knowledge, from fundamental research to Pity Salpetrière, it is also “practical-practical” .When you are a manager, what do you do? What does a manager do? He decides, he motivates, he creates, he learns, he is transformed, and on all these items that are so important in the job of manager, neuroscience provides very interesting knowledge.

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A very concrete example, when you decide, when a manager decides, it is a permanent back and forth between his emotional circuit, his emotional brain and the brain of reason. When you manage to decipher these adjustments between the conscious and the unconscious, you decide better and more appropriately and you have a better balance between your emotional and your reason.

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#3 Concretely, what can leaders do to work and develop these new skills combining neuroscience and leadership?

Erwan Devèze: In fact, there are always two levels of action when dealing with neuro-leadership.Take the analogy of a long-distance runner, a marathon runner who is going to prepare his JO.He will have to do some land, he will have to do laps around the track.Then, there will be the race strategy.Then, there will be the race strategy.This analogy works perfectly for a leader, that is, he will have to prepare his brain.The Real estate means preparing your brain, becoming a high brain athlete.Then besides that, there is the race strategy, that is, how he will use neuroscience in the exercise of his profession for himself and obviously mainly in the management of his teams.

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#4Comment Does the coach support the leader in the development of his neuroleadership skills?

Erwan Devèze: So the coach has a fundamental role.You know in coaching, you never change anyone, that's the basis.If I tell you: you have to change, you are going to build a certain number of dikes, defences to do exactly the opposite. Nobody likes to be told that you have to change.

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‍So what should the coach do about this subject? He must give keys to understanding, he must explain to his coachee how it works without making moral or other judgments, but simply explain to him in his strengths, but also, and especially in his weak points, how his brain will work.Then, there is a second thing that is very important, we neuroscientists, we arrive with a new knowledge that is very useful, but we are also very careful not to say that we are going to revolutionize the world, and say: “we have found everything”, “we are the best. ”

We are constantly transversality, in interdisciplinarity with psychology, with philosophy, with philosophy, with art, with medicine.So, what is very important in relation to this new subject, neuro-leadership, is to arrive in a humble way.This means to say: we have keys to understanding, we are going to put them at your disposal and we are going to try to progress together.That is how to I feel that these new jobs in neuro-leadership and neuro-management must be addressed.