Post Covid Corporates need Leaders with an Active Right Brain – Does the current MBA take care of this attribute?

I thought about this aspect in great details and this seems to be the most important attribute that all leaders must have in the new world.

Servant Leadership is the new normal and the most talked about leadership style in the new world - Leadership to serve rather than Leadership to win or control is the new normal.

This shift is something that we will see more where the right brain will play a major role in decision making.

Before we get into the details of what this means I thought it would be a great to understand what the right side of the human brain is.    

The human brain is an intricate organ that is all of 3 pounds (~1.5Kg). It contains 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion connections. Your brain is the command centre for all matters that you think of, feel and do.

Our brain is divided into two halves, or hemispheres. Each half of the brain has particular regions which control certain functions.

All corporate leaders have an active left brain – thinking in words, sequencing, linear thinking, mathematics, facts and logic through reasoning are the basic functions of the left brain. All the attributes a person needs to run a business to win and compete.

Where does the right brain come into all of this and why?

The right brain bring the following capabilities – visualization, feelings, imagination, intuition, rhythm, holistic thinking, arts. To add to this list of attributes the right brain brings compassion, empathy, spirituality, feelings that go beyond numbers.

Post-Covid, global corporates have changed forever, the leaders are also changing from being number driven to becoming people driven.

Compassion for the people in your team, Empathy for the people in your team, Feeling for the people in your team and their families is the new normal.

“How are you? How is your family? How is your health?” is typically how conversations sound today. These are feelings that go far beyond logical reasoning and these feelings are coming from deep down of being human.

This takes me back to the old scriptures in the Hindu Philosophy which talks about training the mind to feel for all people and creatures that help you live your life.

Breathing exercises for example help you calm your mind and keep you aware of the consciousness at a different level.

Spirituality helps you hone the feeling of gratitude and thank the consciousness of self.

Conditioning the mind to achieve self-actualization through a more profound way rather than the Maslow’s hierarchical pyramid, is something that people are being able to do today by opening the doors to spirituality.

What is missing in today’s curriculum?

Today’s MBA is a 720 day exercise that helps activate the faculties required to develop the left brain and it’s functioning.

At the end of it we have lean, mean machines that are driven to ensure that the numbers are achieved and we get a tribe of leaders trained to win.

Like all Black Swan moments change behavior forever, the pandemic has resulted in exactly that.

Does a leader need to re-train himself or herself keeping in mind such that his/her right brain faculties – I personally believe the answer is a big yes.

All higher education (specially MBAs) must have all trimesters integrated with real-life exercises to activate the right side of your brain.

The pandemic has proved that the new age leader is a leader that will lead with compassion, empathy and with respect for self and others.

Learning will need to move from only analytical to a blend of Strategic – Functional – Operational – Spiritual.

The need of the hour is for young leaders to be trained to serve rather than to win or compete.

Post pandemic, global corporate's have changed and the time to usher in leaders of tomorrow with an active right brain has come.

We need the curriculum to take cognizance of this new trend and introduce exercises that will train the right brain as much as we have trained the left brain in the past.

The time for a new breed of leaders has come and courses need to adopt this in their curriculum to ready this new breed.