3 Ways Our Brains Undermine Our Ability to Be a Good Leader

To be successful, our research at the Neuroleadership Institute has found we must excel across three core domains of great leadership: being future-focused, being good with people, and being able to drive results. And yet, as we develop as leaders, our brains evolve in ways that challenge our ability to excel in these areas.

For example, if you’re embarking on a new project and think it should take three weeks to complete, ask for the perspectives of others who will execute the day-to-day tasks to ensure alignment on how much time it takes to deliver a quality product – and then be open to shifting your timeline, if possible.

According to management consultant Elliott Jaques, the higher you go in an organization, the further out you need to think.

The result is that leaders become more “vision-focused” and less concerned with detail.

Rather than just doing the work of today, leaders must constantly scan for what’s next and make sure their teams are prepared. This is at odds with how our brains evolved to value the immediate and short-term future. Indeed, in one study, 27% of Americans say they rarely or never think about what might happen five years into the future.

So how many of these unicorns are out there? One of us (David), along with Tricia Naddaff, CEO of Management Research Group, analyzed data from thousands of employees in which people rated their bosses on goal focus and people focus. Less than 1% of leaders were rated high on both.

However, for leaders who were strong in both results and social skills, the likelihood of being seen as a great leader skyrocketed to 72%.

The purpose of presenting challenges is not to frighten the board but to enlighten them and engage them in the operational and strategic questions that preoccupy the person presenting the material.

Fortunately, research suggests the habit of thinking about and predicting the future is a learnable skill, and it’s one of many cognitive skills leaders can and should learn as part of leadership training. One way to get started is to block off time each month and map out a “future state” for where you’d like your team to be in three to six months.

Our brains also have to battle distance bias, which causes us to prioritize ideas and decisions closer in time over things further in the future. What’s more, only 16% of the executive leadership programs we studied have outcomes dedicated to thinking about the future, and the numbers are even lower for mid-level and first-time leader programs, at