Neuroscience, Ukraine and Leadership (video)

With the war in Ukraine supplanting the pandemic as our leading source of anxiety, we’ve been exploring the impact of existential threats on approaches to leadership.

How should business leaders respond to the pervading VUCA-ness of the world? How can they adapt their behaviour to lead a permanently uneasy workforce?

Here Andrew Dyckhoff takes us on a whistle-stop tour of David Rock’s SCARF model, explaining how our brains are wired to respond to threats, and how insights from neuroscience can help leaders work more effectively with their people.

At the heart of David Rock’s thesis is the fact that evolution has left us hard-wired to be hyper-sensitive to threat, and much less powerfully motivated by potential reward.

The implications of this take some unpacking, and even at a good clip with no filler this is 17 minutes long, but we think you’ll find it worth investing the time. If you’re not already familiar with SCARF we guarantee you’ll find some valuable insights into your own behaviour and that of others.

You can do your own SCARF self-assessment on the NeuroLeadership Institute's website.

(The video was edited from the latest monthly Partners meeting at Strengths Unleashed, so Zoom production values prevail.)