The Secret to Transformational Leadership
Tara Halliday
Transformational Leadership Coach | Imposter Syndrome Specialist | Speaker and Business Book Awards Finalist
High-Performance Executive Newsletter: Exceed your current success with ease.
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The three essentials for high performance are neuroregulation (to get and stay calm), clearing negative self-talk and the beliefs that create it (including imposter syndrome), and creating new success habits.
This week, we're looking at the secret to transformational leadership.
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The Secret to Transformational Leadership
In 2012, researchers at the ESADE Business School in Spain performed a fascinating experiment. They were trying to discover what makes an exceptional leader and to see how they might identify them in their cohort of MBA students.
They were looking at all sorts of great leadership traits. They took these students and glued electrodes on their heads to measure brainwave patterns via EEG. They stuck monitors on their skin to measure heart rate, heart rate variability and skin temperature.
All wired up, the students were then given a tricky case study to analyse and formulate a solution as a group. The researchers recorded their group discussions and problem-solving.
They managed to spot these transformational leaders, and their results were surprising to common views on leadership. The transformational leaders were not the people who spoke the most or dominated the conversation, nor were they the ones with the most creative ideas.
The transformational leaders were the ones who ‘best regulated their nervous systems and those of other people.’
Neuroregulation
I’ve talked about the importance of neuroregulation in high-performance environments in previous issues of this newsletter. It is that ability to stay calm, present and focus in times of high stress. It is the ability to ‘keep your head when all around you are losing theirs and blaming it on you’ as Rudyard Kipling said in his poem ‘If’.
Essentially, a regulated nervous system is calm and not triggered into the fight, flight or freeze states. These nervous system states are reacting to perceived threat with substantial physiological changes. Heart rate and blood pressure increase, and blood flow is diverted to the major muscles in the arms and legs, in preparation to defend yourself or flee.
The blood flow is diverted from (the digestive system and) the prefrontal cortex in the brain. This is the strategic thinking and planning part of the brain, which also regulates emotional responses. When the prefrontal cortex literally does not have enough blood flow, and therefore oxygen and nutrients, it cannot operate at its best.
The result is poor decision-making, impulsivity, increased risk-taking and emotional reactivity. Creativity is reduced by 50%, and IQ drops temporarily by 13 points. In effect, a high-performance brain becomes more of a mediocre brain.
Remaining calm is literally ‘keeping your head’, which is why good neuroregulation is essential for high performance.
There are quick techniques for calming your nervous system; see the action step at the end of this newsletter. Even better is to prevent your nervous system from being triggered in the first place. This is not achieved through willpower or mindset but requires laser-focused change of the unconscious triggers that trip you up. Imposter syndrome is such trigger.
This is why my Inner Success programme has proven to be so powerful for leaders. Eliminating imposter syndrome eliminates these nervous system triggers, so you remain calm without having to think about it. By eliminating imposter syndrome, your leadership and influence take a big step up. You’ve gained automatic neuroregulation.
Neuroregulation in Others
You may have spotted an intriguing part in the ESADE researcher's statement on transformational leaders – the ability to regulate the nervous system of other people. How does that happen?
As social animals, humans use each other as automatic watchdogs for potential danger.
What happens in a business conference if someone gasps loudly? Heads whip around to see what’s going on. This is not rubber-necking or morbid curiosity. Someone in the group has expressed shock and surprise, it's essential to know what's going on.
In caveman times, someone could have spotted a tiger stalking the group. Their nervous system response, which includes the gasp, has been activated. Hearing it, the other group members' nervous systems activate before they have even seen the tiger. It’s a group survival pattern that works well.
In the conference, it’s more likely someone has spilt hot coffee on their leg. It’s not a life-threatening danger for everyone, but their nervous systems react nonetheless. Just in case.
The same happens in meetings. If someone's nervous system gets triggered, and they go into fight, flight or freeze, the nervous systems of the other participants can get triggered too. Our nervous systems communicate via even small changes in body language, vocal tone, breathing patterns, and micro-expressions. It doesn’t have to be loud or dramatic to have this effect. It syncs the nervous systems of people in the group without conscious thought, and the mood of the room can be shifted.
When the group's nervous systems are triggered, everyone moves from high performance to mediocre due to the blood flow changes mentioned before.
Here is where a leader’s neuroregulation comes in. If the leader has poor neuroregulation, they can be triggered by anyone or everyone in the group. However if the leader remains calm, their nervous system communicates that there is no danger. That everyone in the group is safe, and their nervous systems can get back to a calm, high-performance state.
In this way, a leader can regulate the nervous systems of others in the group. Done well, the leader becomes exceptional and transformational. Opposing opinions become friendly debates rather than conflict. Creativity and IQ stay high, and decision-making is at its best.
The best news of all is that good neuroregulation is a learned skill and not some mysterious personality trait. This puts high-performing neuroregulation within the reach of everyone who wants to excel as a leader.
领英推荐
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What I've loved this week:
Business Book Awards 2024
The 2024 Business Book Awards finalists have been announced, and I’m thrilled that Outsmart Imposter Syndrome has been selected.
The all-category shortlist itself is great because it looks like a summer reading recommendation list. I’ll definitely be reading some of those!
Here’s the link to the BBA Shortlist:
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An action step you can do this week …
Once your nervous system has been activated, it stays that way for up to four hours—four hours in which you’re not operating at your best! You really want to calm it as soon as possible.
Here’s a way to calm your nervous system quickly.
Stand up and shake your hands like you’re flicking thick mud off them. Go faster, using your shoulders and whole arms. Then shake out one leg, then the other. Then shake your back like a wet dog getting dry. Do this bouncing for a minute or two, increasing your heart rate.
Then stop and breathe deeply in ‘box breath’. Breathe in for a count of four, hold for four, breathe out for four and hold for four. Then, do this a few times until your breath returns to normal.
You’ve now moved the stress hormones out of your system, so they won’t stay in your system and keep you stressed for the next four hours. Blood flow is restored to your brain.
(Of course, be mindful of any injuries, heart conditions, etc. and just do what you can. Always practice good self-care.)
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We'll cover more on transformational leadership in future issues.
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I'm Dr Tara Halliday, specialist Imposter Syndrome Coach and best-selling author. I run the 5-star Inner Success programme for executives which creates excellent neuroregulation for high performance and eliminates imposter syndrome for good! Message or email me for details.
If you think you may have imposter syndrome, take this free quiz:
If you get over 62%, then it’s causing enough stress that it’s worth addressing. You’re worth it!
Have an excellent, refreshing and recharging weekend!
Tara
P.S. Thank you for reading to the end of the newsletter, I appreciate your interest and attention!
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