The ‘NeuroMyths’ Neuroletter NeuroTip #12, 29th April 2024

Unicorn or Zebra? Perceptions or Truths?

In the?Weekend Financial Times,?an article on ‘Women Founders’ by Anna Mutoh hit me between the eyes. ? The gist was the lack of female founders of companies. Only 5% of unicorn companies are founded by female CEOs. What a missed opportunity. Boston Consulting Group found that the 350 start-up businesses started by women delivered higher revenue – twice as much per $ invested. Why? Many reasons but in a similar vein of women and job specs:?

• If a potential funder comments negatively on a women’s pitch, she is more likely than a man to accept it as legitimate feedback rather than contest it.
• Men overpitch and oversell.
• Women are more conservative in their projections and may simply be asking for less than men.?
• And sadly only 2% of VC funding goes into women’s health.

A couple of observations. Could it be that the aggressive unicorn phase focused on growth at all costs that’s so reliant on raising capital has backfired? Now that unicorns are being replaced by Zebra’s, which is balancing profitability with sustainability, will it swing the change to women and their more conservative yet sustainable projections? We are after all only impacted by societal norms of gender, we have the choice to change our mindsets and follow our values not those that society expects. I think that women need to talk through their plans and actions creating a?dialogue and pathway in their minds. That's our confidence point, and a pause is always better than being a bull in a china shop or sending that email in a fit of anger! Plus it also gives your brain time to make connections from past and personal experience to reach a solution that works for you. And yes of course I am going to say this - need a chat, give me a call! Practical Action: Maybe the next time you feel frustrated, overlooked or ignored the question to ask and to catapult you out of the threat mode loop is “What emotion am I feeling? What emotion do I want to be feeling? If I step into that emotion, what would I be doing?”. My career observation as a leader is that confidence and self-belief are the key determinators, so

“Never wait for an invitation to join the top table, just walk in and make yourself comfortable. But be there because you want to contribute and influence change”.

And flipping the words of Jodie Foster from last month’s Neuro Tips “Women need to speak more men. And men need to learn to speak more women”.

Neuro Myth

"You can't teach an old dog new tricks!". Rubbish! Neuroplasticity constantly shapes our minds by forging new connections and enabling neurons to fire together in new or different combinations. If you want to think, feel and behave differently stay curious, ask questions, keep learning and practice the change you want to experience.

Leading with Self-Awareness

It’s so easily done you unconsciously bring irritations, tiredness, frustrations into your work forgetting the impact this will have on the people around you as their brains scramble to work out what is going on. In neuroscience, it is termed 'Theory of Mind', which describes how our brains process and understand the thoughts, beliefs, intentions, and emotions of others. TofM allows us to attribute mental states to ourselves and to others, helping us to predict and explain behaviour, and to understand and empathise with others. For any of us whether you are a leader or not, it is crucial for our quality of relationships because our brains filter information for our survival, making it an important function for our social interactions and how everyone can perform and give of their best. For the sake of brevity, the brain regions involved are the neocortex, reward networks and the limbic system working together to process the senses and make inferences about the mental states of others. Four core relational impacts it provides are:

1. Helping us to develop more effective communication in clearer, empathetic and a tailored way.
2. To build stronger relationships promoting a culture of psychosocial safety of trust, collaboration, mutual respect and heard voices.
3. Enhances empathy and emotional intelligence especially self-awareness.
4. By being more self-aware to the motivational nuances of others improves autonomy, mastery and purpose for a healthier, happier culture.

Practical Action:

As a leader before you interact pause, breath and notice your environment to engage your awareness to what is and could potentially be happening around you.

Not to be missed - Click the link below for Daniel Kahneman’s talk on self-awareness.

NEWS SPOT? When I was studying for my MSc one of the big influences on me was the work of Nobel laureate and founder of behavioural economics Daniel Kahneman, specifically his theory of ‘Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow’ and Prospect Theory. He sadly died recently at the age of 90. This Ted talk from 2010 explains how our “experiencing selves” and our “remembering selves” has implications for our self-awareness. https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory?language=en

70% of companies that unlock the impact of creativity and innovation to improve their services or products have above average total returns to shareholders.

Our 3 new guests for Series 2 are ready to go! You ‘ve asked us to explore what current management research adds to both neuroscience and AI for inspiring creativity and innovation, wanted an in-depth understanding of Psychosocial safety and how to implement it, and why creativity and innovation are so important for businesses futures even if you only make 0.1% change. ? If you sign up at https://www.brainycasts.com/ you’ll be the first to know when we go live. If you enjoyed Series One, please help us in raising awareness to the series by leaving a review on your platform of choice. It would mean so much to us as we prepare for Series Two, thank you.

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In fond and respectful memory of Dr. Paul Brown who awakened my thinking, taught and mentored me and stopped me from drifting. Paul encouraged me and my fellow authors to contribute to this his last book ‘Brains Inspiring Businesses for Leaders’ an important read for those who want to influence and be thought leaders. ? Professor Paul Brown held the world’s first visiting professorship in organisational neuroscience and started the world’s first MSc in Applied Neuroscience in Organisations. His background was as a clinical and organisational psychologist, and he was also an executive coach and supervisor.? Living in Vietnam and Laos, Paul had a special interest in how family businesses get successfully transferred to the next generation, and in start-ups. A man with a wicked sense of humour, he made furniture for pleasure when not travelling worldwide. ?

Your wisdom and smile will be so missed.

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About Us

We are on a mission to ‘Shape minds to make each day a good day.’ There is no reason work should be so unfulfilling, hard and stressful! We want everyone to bring all their brains to work so they experience and enjoy using their talents and collaborating with others to develop something positive, enduring and that they feel proud of at the end of the day. Being human is not just a nice to do, the increase in ROI will speak for itself! ? If you want to shift your organisations up a couple of gears to get all your brains on-board send us an email and let’s have a chat.

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