Assignment | The significance of the brain based leadership approaches

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Abstract:
The paper discusses regarding the significance of the brain based leadership approaches that
are used in the modern world of business. The paper covers various aspects of the brain based
leadership such as the leadership through the thinking brain approach, emotional brain
approach, rational brain, survival brain and brain automations. Along with that, the paper
provides an in depth critical assessment of the topic. In addition to this, the paper provides
two real life examples from the modern business world for specifying the application of the
brain based leadership approaches and the significance of the neuroscience in leadership. The
paper includes the cases of Walmart and Amazon for portraying the impact of the brain based
leadership in restructuring and changing the techniques that both the organizations used in the
management of their human resources and employment relations inside their organizations.
Other than this, the paper provides some of the crucial recommendations such as the
improvement of critical thinking, emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills for the
improvement of the effectiveness of such leadership.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Literature Review:......................................................................................................................3
Analysis of the Company examples:..........................................................................................7
Analysis of the Examples:..........................................................................................................9
Recommendations and Conclusion:.........................................................................................12
References:...............................................................................................................................15

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Introduction:
The concept of the brain leadership is significantly prominent in the modern world of
business and the brain based activities for the management of the leadership inside the
organizations, is observed to play a crucial role improving the capability of the companies in
managing the organizational changes. Jones (2013) claimed that the management of the
changes in the modern organizations are largely dependent on the change agents and in
organizational context, the largest change agents are the employees at majority of the cases.
Hence the success of the change initiatives significantly depends on the ability of the leaders
in managing the grievances of the employees or in motivating the employees. Under such
situation, the precise anticipation of the behaviours and the apathy of the employees for
aligning their business operations with the changes, has the capability to provide a significant
competitive advantage to the leaders. Hence the increasing significance of the brain based
leadership is pretty prominent. The paper provides an in depth analysis of the various brain
leadership approaches. Along with this, the paper provides two real life examples of the
organization changes that have taken place with a precise application of the brain leadership
approaches.
Literature Review:
The importance of brain in leading the other individuals is significantly prominent.
According to Sprenger (2015), the main basis of leadership is born inside the brain and that
increases the significance of the neurosciences and the impact of it in the leadership. With the
introduction of the neurosciences in the concept of the leadership development, Goleman,
Boyatzis and McKee (2013) anticipated that the traditional thought process regarding the
basis of the leadership is expected to have a shift and that might also change the conventional
leadership as well. According to Casey (2015), brain is recognized as a social organ and that

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makes sure that each and every individuals are born to connect. In addition to this, it is
evident that expecting the best results while having a thought process which considers
individuals as mere impersonal machines has to be vague proposition. Tonvongval (2013)
claimed that the employment cannot be considered as the location that is full of isolated tasks.
Hence, it becomes important to link the influence of brain in leadership. With a precise focus
on the concept of brain based leadership, it is understandable that the efficiency of the leaders
and the effectiveness of their leadership significantly depend on their ability to understand the
impact of the neurosciences in leading others. While specifying the brain based leadership,
Ghadiri, Habermacher and Peters (2013) claimed that an efficient leader who has the
potential to understand the impact of the neurosciences while leading other will certainly
have the capability to identify the significance of the physical environment over productivity,
the importance of strengthening the relationship with the other individuals, the interplay of
between the emotions and the thoughts and the effect of the task variation over brain and
productivity.
According to Batool (2013), the effective leadership from the part of the modern
leaders require a sound understanding capability of the leaders for understanding the
emotions of the other individuals. Along with this, the effective leadership at each every
occasion require the existence of the empathy skills amongst the leaders and at the same time,
the success factor of the leaders is seen to be largely dependent on the ability of the leaders in
building the relationships. Aktas, Gelfand and Hanges (2016) commented that the brain based
leadership approaches influences the individuals towards the development of the social
leadership and also claimed that the application of the social leadership plays a crucial role in
improving the confidence level of the employees or the followers. The list of benefits of the
social leadership also includes the improvement of the relationship between the employees
and that effectively improves the productivity of the organizations. There have been several

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researches conducted for the evaluation of the impact of the brain and the usage of it while
leading the other individuals. As it becomes important for the leaders to improve their ability
of coordinating with the employees, the acceptance level of the employees towards the
leaders reflect the quality of the leadership. Case Western Reserve University is able to
contribute in the mentioned case in a significant manner where a group of researchers
investigated the link between resonance and the effective leadership (Case.edu. 2019).
With a precise focus on the concept of the resonant leadership, it is evident that a
leader with the empathetic leadership skills and significantly high emotional intelligence
level is generally recognized as the resonant leader and on the other hand, a dissonant style of
leadership includes authoritarian leadership. With the application of the fMRI scanning, the
group of researchers were able to find out an important fact regarding the acceptance level of
the employees and the interest of them towards a particular for of leadership (Case.edu.
2019). From the research, it is visible that the employees were able to achieve the response of
14 different regions of brain when they tried to think about the experience that they had with
resonant leaders (Case.edu. 2019). On the other hand, six regions of the brain responded
when the employees were asked to think of the experience that they had with the dissonant
leaders. Hence, from the analysis, it is pretty evident that the resonant leaders have the
capability to activate the social awareness attention and positive relationship with their
employees and other individuals (Case.edu. 2019).
However, the dissonant leaders are seen to have the possibility of triggering the
disregard, negative emotions, limited awareness and a significant decrement in the social
awareness. Ghadiri, Habermacher and Peters (2013) claimed that there are several structures
of brain that play a significant role in leading the individuals and under such situation, the
variation in the structure has greater significance for the leaders in increasing the variety of
the leadership. On the basis of the varied functionality of the structures of brain, the

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leadership style is seen to differ. Hannah et al. (2013), claimed that the survival brain is more
concerned regarding the safety and security and the objective of this form of leadership is to
make sure that the leaders are capable of identifying the changes that are occurring in the
environment and have the potential to place individuals at threat. Under such situation, the
leaders are expected to lead the employees in such a manner that helps the employees in
getting a predictable and stable workplace. The leaders with the survival brain approach face
the need of improving the predictability with the application of the mutually accepted
agendas and procedures.
On the other hand, Dimitriadis and Psychogios (2016) claimed that the concept of
emotional brain plays a significant role in linking the emotions with the memory. The
importance of social awareness is significant for the leaders with the skill of emotional brain
approach. Dimitriadis and Psychogios (2016) raised an important point of view with the
claim that it is important for the individuals to note their feelings, however, it is equally
important to not let that get the best out of the individuals. Being a leader, the effective
management of the self -control and the emotions increases the effectiveness of the skills and
the significance of the leadership. With a precise understanding of the emotional brain
approach, it is evident that the leaders have the necessity to emotionally connect with the
employees. Ruderman, Clerkin and Connolly (2014) claimed that the emotions are
contagious and at the same time, any information that is well connected to an emotion has the
possibility of becoming a memory. Having said that, it is understandable that what a leader
feels, will be effectively transmitted to the employees or the customers and that increases the
necessity of being positive for the leaders with the emotional brain leadership approach.
Cross and Brohman (2014) claimed that the leaders with the mentioned form of leadership
requires to be optimistic at each and every situation as that increases the confidence level of

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the subordinate employees and places them in perfect position for the achievement of
performance improvement.
Other than this, the thinking brain leadership approach of the individuals is considered
to be the responsible part for the management of brain’s majority of the executive functions
where the leaders are responsible for the management of the effective decision making along
with the future planning. Apart from this, the leaders with the thinking brain leadership
approach have the capability to control their emotions while managing their employees and
along with that, the mentioned approach plays a crucial role improving the capability of the
leaders in judging or evaluating the performances of their employees or the followers. Dinh
et al. (2014) claimed that the leaders with the mentioned form of leading has the capability to
handle the organizational changes in an effective manner and at the same time, the leaders
with the thinking brain approach has the expertise of providing prompt and constructive
feedback to the employees. With such leadership approach, it becomes important for the
leaders to maintain their integrity as it becomes necessary for shaping himself or herself in
such a manner that the employees to the customers are provided with someone to believe in.
Analysis of the Company examples:
For the efficient elaboration of the concept, two of the organizational examples are to
be discussed. The first one will be of Walmart, an organization that has established
significant business in the global retail industry and at the same time, the leadership at
Amazon will also be discussed for providing a clear understanding of the brain based
leadership and the impact of it on the changes that have happened in both the organizations.
Considering the profile of the companies, it is evident that Walmart operates in the
retail industry. The organization was founded in the year 1945 by Sam Walton
(Walmart.com. 2019). The organization is headquartered in Bentonville, US. Apart from this,

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the company is currently operating across the globe with a store presence in 11389 places
(Walmart.com. 2019). The company is currently managed by a leadership team that includes
the chairman of the organization, Greg Penner along with the president and the CEO of the
company named as Doug McMillon (Walmart.com. 2019). The company has the expertise in
selling products such as electronics, home and furniture products, clothing, footwear,
jewellery, health and beauty products, fitness and sporting goods along with the most
important and largely purchased grocery products. Along with the products, the company is
seen to be significantly efficient in providing their customers with the services such as the
Walmart Moneycard, Walmart.com and Walmart Pay. With the excellence of the
management team and the skills of 2.2 million employees of the company across the globe,
the company is able to secure a revenue of 514.405 billion US dollars (Walmart.com. 2019).
Along with this, the company is able to increase their operating income to 21.957 billion US
dollars (Walmart.com. 2019). With a precise focus on the rich history of the company in the
business industry, it is visible that the company has faced considerable amount of changes
and one of the prime changes have happened with the incorporation of the brain based
leadership approach in the people management inside the organization. In the previous
century and to some extent in the early stage of this century, the company is seen to suffer in
a significant manner in the training and development of the employees and that was pretty
prominent with the concern of the senior management of the company regarding the
declining service quality. Hence with the application of the thinking brain leadership
approach, the company was able to manage the training bang development of the employees
in an efficient manner. The success of the company was prominent with the improvement in
the quality of the business operations conducted by the employees of the company and the
increment in the sales and revenue of the company provides the proof of the improvement.

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Considering the other company, Amazon is one of the largest organizations operating
in the modern world of business with the expertise of operating in a conglomerate industry.
The company has significant presence in the consumer electronics industry, digital
distribution and e- commerce industry. With the name Cadabra Inc., the company started its
journey in the year 1994 (Amazon.in. 2019). The founder of the company was Jeff Bezos and
the company is currently headquartered in Seattle (Amazon.in. 2019). With the expertise in
operating across the globe, the company is capable of providing their customers with the
products such as Amazon Fire, Amazon Echo, Amazon Kindle, Amazon Fire TV and
Amazon Fire OS. Apart from this, the company offers the services such as Amazon.com,
Amazon Alexa, Amazon Appstore, Amazon Prime Amazon web services and Amazon Prime
Video (Amazon.in. 2019). The management team of the company includes the visionary
leaders such as the chairman, president and CEO of the company, Jeff Bezos and the CTO of
the company, Werner Vogels has played a significant role in increasing the revenue of the
company to 232.887 billion US dollars along with an operating income of 12.421 billion US
dollars (Amazon.in. 2019). Majority of the business researchers are able to consider the
improvement of the people management inside the organization and the success of the
company in producing the best seller products to be responsible for such significant
increment in their profit. In addition to this, the success of the company in improving their
financial stability is considered to largely dependent on the capability of improving the
human resource management and employment relations inside the organization. The
improvement in the employment relations and the people management inside the company
provides a significant proof of the application of the thinking brain leadership approach
inside the organization.

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Analysis of the Examples:
With a precise focus on both the examples, it is evident that the companies are able to
improve their human resource management techniques and employment relation procedures
inside the organizations in a significant manner. Considering the example of Amazon, the
company is able to conduct considerable amount of restructuring from their style of
operations with Cadabra along with the technique that they used during early 2000. With the
application of brain thinking leadership approach, the company is able to understand the
importance of corporate culture and that is pretty prominent with their urge of providing the
scope to the employees in conducting their operational activities in a free flowing manner.
The mentioned approach of leadership enabled the management of the organization in
understanding the importance of providing the scope to practice the culture of the employees.
The senior managers of the organization understood the fact that it is important to make sure
that the employees of the company are feeling involved with the company as that certainly
increases their urge of them towards the improvement of the performances in terms of quality
and quantity. With a precise understanding of the fact, the senior managers at Amazon were
observed to apply the brain thinking approach which enabled them to create a dress code
policy where there was no mandatory formal attire required for the employees (Forbes.com.
2019). The senior managers of the company had the idea of the fact that the capability of
them in providing the scope to the employees of the company in trying out the dresses in
accordance to their own culture will be crucial in improving the involvement of the
employees towards the organization. On the other hand, Walmart was observed incorporate a
significant change in their style of human resource management where the human resource
managers of the company in association with the senior managers of the company were able
to identify the need of an efficient training and developmental activities.

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The introduction of the Walmart Academies was a significant proof of the application
of the brain thinking approach of leadership where the developmental needs of the employees
were identified in an efficient manner for the formulation of the training and the
developmental activities inside the organization. Along with this, the senior managers of the
company were able to identify the need of incorporating the much required flexibility for the
employees of the company in improving their skills and competencies which was pretty
prominent with the structure and mode of usage selected for Walmart Academies
(Corporate.walmart.com, 2019). The managers at Walmart were able to gain the importance
of soft and hard skills amongst the employees of the company and that influenced the
managers to formulate an immersive training program in association with the working
supercentres where the employees of the company had the chance to learn the technical retail
skills or sales floor skills and at the same time, the design of the training was significant for
the employees of the company in providing them the scope to learn the soft skills such as the
leadership, ethical business practices and the change management. The managers of the
company had the idea of increasing the flexibility of the employees in taking the training
sessions, hence the managers made sure that the training is available in both online and
offline medium. The improved flexibility of the training sessions had greater significance for
the employees of the company and that is pretty prominent with the participation of 450000
numbers of associates from the company in the year 2018 (Corporate.walmart.com, 2019).
Babu et al. (2017) claimed that the success of the company in increasing the
importance of the training activities is largely dependent on the selection of the medium for
the delivering he training. Babu et al. (2017) further added that the companies have the
necessity of identifying the most suitable and appropriate medium which is largely preferred
by the employees of the company for delivering the training. Under such situation, the senior
managers of the company were observed to apply the thinking brain leadership approach

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which effectively helped them in designing a new video gamed named as Spark City for
providing the training to the employees of the company (Corporate.walmart.com, 2019). At
the same time, the managers of the company faced the necessity of providing the much
required scope to the employees of the company for their further business learning. This
influenced the managers of the company to form an association with the Guild Education for
the development of the Live Better U program which enabled the employees of the company
to take the debt free and high quality business degrees in various business domains and in
supply chain management (Corporate.walmart.com, 2019).
Other than this, the company was able to identify the importance of good health of
their employees and that influenced the managers of the company to provide a strong
emphasis on the effective management of the workplace health and safety of the employees.
The visionary leadership of the senior managers of the company played a crucial role in the
development of the Centers of Excellence program of the company where the employees of
the company had the scope of getting quality treatment in organ and tissue transplants, breast,
lung and colorectal cancers, knee and hip replacement surgeries and spine and heart
procedures (Corporate.walmart.com, 2019). The significant restructuring that took place
inside the organization for improving the human resource management were a clear of proof
of the fact that the managers of the organization were able to apply the thinking brain
approach of leadership.
Recommendations and Conclusion:
With a precise understanding of the thinking brain leadership approach along with the
emotional brain, rational brain and brain automation approaches, it is evident that one of the
major need for the leaders in applying this form of leadership is seen to be the strong
emotional intelligence. The leaders that have the capability to understand the emotion of

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other employees and lead decisively, have the ability to excel in his or her position. Having
said that, such leaders are also expected to control their emotions while lading others. Hence
the success of such leaders is notably dependent on the ability of the leaders in improving
their emotional intelligence skills. Apart from this, one of the major requirement for such
leaders is seen to be the ability of creative thinking. Any sort of emotional barrier that
restricts them from thinking out of the box and in a creative manner, will possess
considerable amount of detrimental impact and will certainly reduce the effectiveness of such
leadership. Hence the leaders that are capable to apply the brain based leadership and
considers the impact of the neurosciences in their leadership to be significant, are expected to
improve their ability in thinking creative manner. The objective for such leaders will be to
identify considerable number appropriate solutions instead of the correct solution. It is
understandable that the varying parameters of the business environment will create
difficulties for the leaders in applying a particular solution at various occasions and under
such situation, the capability of the leaders to develop a pool of suitable solutions will
increase the effectiveness of the leadership. Hence the leaders with the brain thinking
approach, are expected to improve their capability in thinking creatively.
Other than this, such leaders are also expected to improve their interpersonal skills
and the skills of effective communication as that enables the leaders to have the capability to
communicate with the employees in an efficient manner. With the application of the brain
based leadership, the leaders have the necessity to make sure that they understand the
grievances and factors of happiness of the employees as such ability helps the managers to
motivate the employees of the company in an effective manner.
On a concluding note it is visible that the brain based leadership is gaining much
improved prominence in the modern world of business. The success of such leadership is
significantly evident with the improvement in the business operations of some global market

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giants such as Walmart and Amazon. With a precise focus on the above discussion, it is
prominent that the brain based leadership approaches have evolved in a significant manner
over the years. With higher degree of success and acceptance level, the mentioned form of
leadership is observed to have the capability of being an integral part of modern leadership.

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References:
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vocational training and evaluation system to compare training approaches for the workplace.
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Dinh, J.E., Lord, R.G., Gardner, W.L., Meuser, J.D., Liden, R.C. and Hu, J., 2014.
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