adminComments Off on Ode to One Senator’s Brain Based Innovation!
As a registered “independent” and as MBA professor of leadership, I support men and women on either side of any isle who chase truth, facilitate benefits for all concerned, and lead innovation with the brain in mind.
Jeff Flake led an innovative improvement this week. that exemplifies my master level leadership course. Based on five mind-bending actions illustrated in the video below, Jeff united warring opponents, in a robust search for truth.
Senator Jeff Flake moved the needle from toxins that crippled an entire senate who appeared to many to be stuck in partisan paralysis. Jeff led innovation with the brain in mind, the way top graduate students do exceptionally well during our 14 week MBA course. How so?
1). Jeff spotted and named a key problemthat prevented harmony that many crave but far fewer possess skills to lead in ways that benefit all. The senator stated this problem clearly, in a way that others can identify with, and without blame or rancor.
“This country is being torn apart,” the senator said. Then Jeff added, “People on every side feel uneasy with a process that would appoint a person to the highest court without an FBI investigation into credible sexual assault accusations levied against the judge in question.”
Toxins such as cortisol tend to shut down brainpower in settings that we all face. Toxins make it easier to hurl insults or accusations. That cortisol toxin flooded the senate floor from leaders of every political persuasion. It caused leaders to fixate on the problems, and prevented them from proposing solutions. Have you seen it happen?
2). Jeff chose a calm and careful tone that reflected the brain’s plasticty’s pathway to communicate innovative leadership. Good tone ignites opportunities and cultivates open-mindedness to lead change that builds goodwill among those who differ. It benefits all. You could say this senator tamed his brain’s amygdala first, so that he said precisely what he meant without disparaging others. His own mood gave no reason to diminish others who disagreed.
3). Jeff showed brain-based skills for leading progress fueled by serotonin. He stated his brain based innovative solution in terms that all understood.Few could find fault with this leader’s serotonin-driven suggestion to order an FBI investigation that would last for one week only, and would also satisfy people across the country that the process of choosing a supreme court judge had become fair. This innovative brain based solution addressed the toxic problem, by fostering a fair process that would bring diverse people together and strive to benefit all concerned.
4). Jeff risked being ridiculed, laughed at or ignored, because he stepped into a toxic setting with courage that nobody else possessed and skills to improve the misery many felt. This senator leader showed brain based and innovative leadership here by accessing the dopamine needed to risk standing up to lead courageously what others cannot, or will not risk. Using this chemically driven courage Jeff chose to leverage his proposal with carefully chosen words. He stated firmly that he’d not vote for Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the supreme court, unless there was an FBI week long investigation first. A well-chosen leverage since Jeff surmised his vote was needed to get this candidate through.
5). Jeff did not make this innovative proposal about himself, his party, or his ego. Instead he conferred with and found support from key senators who desired truth to be ferreted out, from both sides of the isle. He let others know that support was established from several sincere leaders. Hope emerged and rose when the senator skillfully used his interpersonal and intrapersonal IQ (two of his eight distinctive intelligences) to form a diverse team. Jeff sought others who would lead change with him. He welcomed peers who also modeled the innovation he hoped to lead forward in ways that benefit all.
As both a Canadian and an American citizen, I rarely see our leaders use the brain based and innovative leadership modeled so well here by Jeff Flake. Could this become the beginning of a sentient leadership standard, a facilitation model with the brain far more in mind for a new era?
What do you think?
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