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LEADERSHIP Change is rarely easy,


but altering the way we actually think and make decisions is probably one of the most difficult transformations of all to achieve and, ultimately, sustain. Te ability to make that change, however, can often be a vital component in becoming or remaining a good leader. According to Dr Kevin Fleming, president and CEO of


the US-based neuroleadership consultancy and coaching firm Grey Matters International, the process of transforming how we think can involve actually rewiring the brain. Fleming, who has a PhD in clinical psychology, says he has


spent the past 10 years working to refine the neuroscience of leadership and behaviour change and help people think more about their thinking. Working with clients that range from Fortune 100 CEOs,


White House officials, professional athletes and people with addictions, he says that “utilising alignment principles of human nature, virtues/ethics, and working with the ways of the brain”, he is in the practice of “moving individuals, part- nerships, families, and teams away from rote behaviour to- ward areas of creativity and shared accomplishment”. Simply put, his solutions are often about using neural sci-


ence to rewire the brain and its ingrained ways of thinking, followed by one-on-one coaching. “A lot of people talk about rewiring, but I don’t think people


BRAINTRAIN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST


DR KEVIN FLEMING SPECIALISES IN REWIRING PEOPLE’S BRAINS, HELPING THOSE IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS, OR ‘DERAILED


EXECUTIVES’, TRANSFORM THEIR THOUGHT PROCESSES THROUGH THE REARRANGEMENT OF THEIR NEURAL NETWORKS. HE TELLS


24 OWNER MANAGER VOL 4 ISSUE 1 2011 THE


really do it,” he says. “Because my background is in neurop- sychology, I’m able to at least understand a bit how neural plasticity works and what are those conditions of changing your thinking.” He often works with high-powered, high-profile individu-


als who find themselves at a breaking point in their careers or personal lives, people who he describes as “derailed execu- tives”. “Tere’s some impairment in decision-making, be it at work, at home, or both,” he explains. “Tere are times in your professional career when you have


problems on a different level, where all of a sudden your strengths become your problems. Tis is a hidden area for a lot of cognitive, analytical, bright people, who are used to solving problems through effort, and smarts and manipula- tion or influence. “I work with people at that tipping point. Einstein said it


best when he said no problem will ever get solved on the same level of thinking the problem was created on. In my opinion, there are some no-turning around places in the brain where once you get to a certain level you need some new thinking.” Te first step in dealing with the problem, he says, is to fix


“the sabotaging capacity” of the brain. “If you have a shopping bag and it’s full of stuff and you try to put more stuff in it, it’s going to fall out. “We’ve really got to rearrange the neural networks and


GRAINNE ROTHERY HOW IT’S DONE illness, but because of constant demands on the brain. He


make sure that we aren’t sabotaging ourselves. Nine times of out ten, most human beings in this modern world are suf- fering from some kind of emotional trauma, unconscious sabotaging, some kind of disordered or imbalanced brainwave patterns.” Tis, he maintains, is not because of dysfunction or mental


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