Good morning fellow leaders and influencers. It is a lovely morning here in Vancouver, and I hope it is for you, wherever you are.

At lunch last week with a friend and sometime colleague Stephanie Sharp http://www.ferax.ca/ I was re-introduced to a her passion for neuro-leadership. Neuro-leadership is the study and application of the brain and brain research on leadership. The results are really quite compelling and challenging. For example, most if not all of our assumptions in economic theory that humans are rational beings have been completely eradicated by this research in the last decade. One of the places where this work is being explored is in Australia. (Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!) The work of David Rock is just one example. http://www.scarf360.com/index.shtml  (There’s a video in this link that is fascinating and about 8 minutes long)

Rock has complied the most recent brain research and rethought motivation models, developing what he calls the SCARF model. Like many other models , SCARF is an acronym, broken down as follows:

Status – how we relate to the people around us; so that when we experience a drop in status the brain lights up like we were experiencing physical pain, and when we experience an increase in status, our brain lights up like we were being rewarded. When we receive negative feedback, our status is threatened and therefore we will fight back. When we provide our team members opportunities to give themselves feedback, to answer questions for themelves about their own performance, we actually increase their status. People experiencing higher status will work to keep that status.

Certainty – The brain is a “certainty creating machine” according to Rock. It is always trying to predict what is going on. The clearer we can be as managers and leaders with our expectations of performance and results, the more ‘certain’ people will be, and the more likely they will be to move towards that certainty. On the flip side, ensuring that people know that there certainly are ambiguous times ahead, the more comfortable they will be in those times.

Autonomy – When we are in a stressful situation, for example an ambiguous situation, and we find that we have little or no autonomy or control, we exacerbate our stress level. The more autonomy our brain experiences, the less the stress level we experience. The more choices I have, the more autonomous I believe I am.

Relatedness – Our brains are wired to see people we don’t know as a ‘threat’. That threat alarm will be reduced dramatically if we simply engage in a short conversation with them; they become, to our brains, ‘like us’. So for example, in a country like Canada, or Australia, where there are people from around the world working in the same office, if we don’t actually speak to each other, we will continue to view ‘the other’ as a threat. Bring people together for meetings and give them opportunities to speak with each other, to share experience and knowledge and the threat (and the concomitant implications) will dissipate.

Fairness – A fair exchange will activate the reward lights in the brain, an unfair exchange will activate the threat lights in the brain. This means that as leaders and influencers we need to be fair and transparent. (I can also suggest this very important article from HBR; http://hbr.org/2003/01/fair-process-managing-in-the-knowledge-economy/   with which to explore this important concept of ‘fairness’) The more fair I am as a leader, the more likely the people with whom I work will work more effectively with and for me. That is how our brains function.

And by applying the SCARF model to our work as leaders and influencers, we can  help build and enhance our workplaces. I’m curious about what you think about this model?