Managing Your Brain for Managers: The Neuroscience of Leading Self and Others

This class is two separate days, offered in a participatory live-online format with brief prework and learning exercises between sessions.

This class is open to anyone interested in the topic.  It is also a required part of the Mid-Level Management Certificate. Get more information on the MLMC.

Managing people can be difficult and stressful, especially now with historically low levels of employee engagement and technologies that accelerate almost everything. However, it doesn't have to be so overwhelming. Learn about the recent neuroscience discoveries that reveal how our brain triggers stress and poor interpersonal reactions. Exploration and practice of multiple methods for managing your brain will greatly improve your ability to lead others in today's organizations.

This class will focus on the real world of managing difficult people, including yourself! Employee engagement and a team's dynamism and cohesiveness will have major impacts on any manager's overall success. Team functioning is very dependent on a group's combination of psychological safety and open candor. Brain science can be utilized to accelerate the development of psychological safety and radical candor; producing a dynamic, fulfilling and successful workplace. Explore how to commit to a true sense of mission in the workplace; through personal growth, developing excellence in value delivery, and building a high-functioning community.

The second class session meets two to three weeks later to enable participants to practice some of the tools and to debrief, in addition to having time to cover additional topics.

Learning objectives

When you have finished this workshop, you will have:

1. Applied the simple and powerful lower brain (LB) and higher brain (HB) framework.
2. Explained the superpowers of neuroplasticity and brain blood flow control and the benefits of applying them.
3. Described how genius is available to everyone through seeking feedback and deliberate practice and picked an area of your life where you want to become genius.
4. Explored and integrated your personal values as the fuel for your journey. Learn multiple tools to activate the Higher Brain, making it even easier to deal with challenging times and people.
5. Become a ‘scientist’ of your unique brain and experimented with how it interacts with the world, reprogramming your brain to greater levels of effectiveness.
6. Applied multiple tools to prevent your LB from activating and to become HB dominant, thereby opening up increased creativity, joy and fulfillment.
7. Demonstrated skill at potentially difficult conversations through cooling your LB and activating your HB and ethically helping others do the same.