Understanding how your brain works can help you train your mind and influence your actions to reach your full potential.
While many people often think that good leadership skills are something you’re born with, research shows it’s a skill that can be practiced and improved. Good leaders are those who work on developing their skills, training their minds, and improving their team skills.
Neuroscience is a popular tool in the business and corporate world, and it is often used to improve an individual’s and the team’s productivity and efficiency.
The corporate world was built by men and it was designed to fit male thinking, problem-solving, and working style. Thankfully, in the latest years, more and more women are being recognized in the business world, and are reaching the top.
However, does the fact that the corporate world was built to reflect the male brain affect the women in the c-suite?
Neuroscience shows that even though male and female brains are different and have different usage and reaction patterns, nothing about those differences indicates that women shouldn’t be the highest leaders, executives, and CEOs.
Since the male and female brains are different, neuroscience can help women leaders expand on their strengths and on the uniqueness of their brain functions, in order to achieve the highest positions and goals.
Here are 5 tips for women in leadership based on the neuroscience of the female brain.
Use your emotional intelligence
One of the main parts of modern leadership is leading with emotions. While traditional, male-focused leadership, was focused purely on tasks, building a relationship with employees and leading with empathy is slowly taking over.
Women are stronger in this area, as their emotional intelligence is often higher than their male colleague’s emotional intelligence, so that is one of the things that should be your main focus as a women leader – using your strengths to your advantage.
Using your emotional intelligence to lead helps you build better relationships with colleagues and team members, and that makes you a better and more efficient leader.
Influence psychological safety in the workplace
Another very important aspect of good leadership is influencing psychological safety in the workplace.
Using neuroscience is the best way to create psychological safety in the workplace, and it will help you create a better team around you.
Team members who don’t feel safe in the workplace are more likely to be less productive, make mistakes, be less efficient, and quit.
As it’s every leader’s job to make sure their team members have the best conditions in the workplace for reaching their full potential, learning the basic tactics of influencing psychological safety in the workplace is a skill every good leader should practice.
Research shows that women leaders tend to influence safety more than male leaders, so you should use that to your advantage when it comes to growing as a better leader.
Work on your self-awareness
Self-awareness is a quality all good leaders need to have. By becoming self-aware, you know your strengths and weaknesses, you can recognize patterns in your own behavior, know your triggers, be aware of how you affect others, and you know how to deal with every situation in the best way possible. All of that makes a significant difference in your leadership skills.
Increased self-awareness can also put you on the path to promotion, by helping you with these necessary skills:
- Being more productive,
- Being better at teamwork,
- Having better management skills,
- Being more confident,
- Growing as a person and as a leader.
Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses is especially important for women leaders. As I already mentioned, the male and female brains are different in some aspects. So, knowing which strengths your own brain patterns bring you, will help you use that to your advantage.
Don’t compare yourself to others
Comparing yourself to others can lead you to self-doubt, lack of attention, lack of productivity, and lack of creativity.
Focusing on yourself and your own strengths and achievements is an important skill every great leader needs to have. Self-doubt can be a huge roadblock to growth in all aspects of your career, and comparing yourself to others can often lead to exactly that.
Everyone’s journey and everyone’s skills and strengths are different, so there’s no use in comparing yourself to others.
Focus on yourself, and you will be able to grow.
Challenge yourself
Most successful CEOs and leaders say that you’re never 100% ready for anything. You can never be 100% prepared, and you can never be 100% not scared.
So, in order to grow, you need to challenge yourself and take positive risks, even if you think you’re not 100% ready for them.
You should aim for promotion, ask for a bigger project, and take on a challenge. Doubting yourself because you feel like you’re not 100% prepared is a roadblock that can stop you from reaching your full potential.
Women leaders tend to doubt themselves more than male leaders, even though the results they’re bringing aren’t worse than the results their male colleagues are bringing, in any way.
So, challenge yourself, and you’ll see positive results.
While all of these tips can be applied to all leaders, male or female, the neuroscience of women’s brains makes these especially useful for female leaders in the c-suite.
If you’re a woman in a c-suite or senior leadership role wanting to expand your leadership skills so that you can strategically grow and reach your full potential in the workplace, apply for a 30-minute consultation here.
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