Leaders are Brain Efficient.

Have you ever driven to work and not remembered driving to work?  Scary, isn’t it? Well, that experience is led by the part of your brain, the basal ganglia, which governs routine behaviors.   Storing our routine behaviors is our brain’s way of conserving energy.  How wonderful is that…our brain helps itself by being energy efficient.  How can we use this efficiency system function in our brain to help us live a great life of intended habits?

First a little background information. In his book Quiet Leadership, Dr. David Rock explains that our habits are like the Grand Canyon.  Just like the years and years of the water flow inf the Colorado River cutting a pathway through the rock of the Canyon, repeated thoughts and form pathways in the brain.  Now think about how difficult it would be to change the water flow out of its repetitive pattern; it’s the same with our habits – changing them would be very difficult.  Dr. Rock tells us that it’s much easier to start a new habit instead of effort to change an old one.

In order to change, here are a few thought points and an executable process from Dr. Kevin Ochscner, one of the founding fathers of the social neuroscience field.

1. Leaders need to work BOTH the habit systems as well and our thinking systems.  In business, leaders tend to work the thinking system only.
2. Most often our leadership feedback is directed to our thought systems.  In other words, goal setting.  Again, we need to engage the 90% of the unconscious as well.
3. Performance feedback is most often negative and not positive.  Positive is more reinforcing.

So, our question again, “What can leaders do to facilitate change?”

1. Get commitment.  All change fails without full commitment.  We only make it through the tough spots through determination.
2. Identify the situations when this change-goal-item exists.  Is it during a time of day, an event of the day, a particular person, etc.?  Once you have identified the trigger, develop an “IF THEN” implementation strategy statement.

For example, let’s say I want to stop being late to meetings.  I watch my behavior and notice that it’s most often the 2pm afternoon meetings when my energy is low.  I also notice that it’s most often when I skip lunch.  At this point, I craft a behavior IF-THEN statement, “If I skip lunch, I’ll eat a fruit and cracker snack in my office.”  Now you have an actionable behavior.  Commit to the behavior.  Write it down and place it in view as a reminder.  And prepare by bringing your snacks to work.

Successful leaders pay attention to habits.  In summary, I leave you with a great poem (anonymous author) I read recently:

Watch your thoughts they become your words.

Watch your words they become your actions.

                Watch your actions they become your habits.

* The actual numbers of conscious to unconscious thinking varies from 3% & 97% to 25% & 75%.  Neuroscientists continue their study.