The art of leadership is gaining more science

A new book at the intersection of leadership and analytics is The Leading Brain, by Friederike Fabritius and Hans Hagemann. The authors recognized how the leadership market is so ready for new insights from the field of neuropsychology. We used to postulate and then wait to observe behavior. Or not. Sometimes, the theories made stickier stories than the science could support. Now scientists can postulate and watch the brain at work immediately. Get ready to re-learn how leaders must think. Our venerable darlings to drop include Maslow’s Pyramid and the 10,000-hour rule. What replaces them are dozens of usable discoveries. For example, our movement can be a leadership practice, because it affects how we actually think and it can help others to learn from what they see. The concept of flow is prevalent throughout this book, including how to achieve it as an individual and again as a team. This book reads fast and is worth the investment of time. Handy summaries at the end of each chapter will enable a quick refresher on any of the nine topics.