I read once, “Happiness is in the waiting room of happiness.” Such a brilliant phrase for our myth-loving brain to digest and really wonder about, especially when it comes to this idea that happier, engaged employees make for more productive tenures and should be front and center on all strategic stages. How have we overdone the search for the Southwest Airlines culture of people by ignoring truth and instead hail a sort of corporate legend of an idea as it fills our hopes and HR goodie bags with half-truths?
Perhaps the answer lies in a seminar I gave some time ago in which I posed the question to my corporate mid-levels: “How important is the brain in leadership?” Remarkably over 60% of the participants stated, at least by implication, that “other things were more important” such as free will, strategic alignment and communication styles. Hmmm. Makes you think how well we know our biology as we relegate this powerful organ of ours to some primal center of us all where its main duties our consciousness mediation (not leadership, for I guess you don’t need to be conscious for this) and breathing regulation. Not things of boardrooms I guess.
At the risk of getting too “out there” with brain science, let’s get the facts straight. Our prefrontal cortex is the CEO of our decision-making, no matter who the actual CEO is in your company. It makes complex nuanced negotiations of trade-offs at a nanosecond level, calculating emotional pay-offs and manages chemical signals that decide whether you live in fear or creativity in any moment. If that isn’t the stuff of engagement I don’t know what is.
