Booknotes on “Quiet Leadership” by David Rock. (Affiliate link: I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you if you click through and make a purchase with an affiliate link. Thank you for your support!)
Pathways in our brains are formed as connections are made through our experiences. Attempts to change those pathways are difficult and often ineffective. A more effective way to improve performance is to create new connections. The best way to learn is to make connections yourself. To form new connections, focus on thinking and solutions. When new connections are made, we are excited by the possibilities in the aha moment. Grab onto that energy and follow-up with concrete ideas for actions.
If your advice is sought to solve problems, ask others questions about their thinking to help them come up with solutions.
- How important is this to you?
- How often have you been thinking about this?
- How do you feel about your thoughts on this?
- Do you know what you need to do?
- What are the possibilities?
- What actions can you take?
- What have you learned?
Listen to the 800-CEO-READ podcast interview with the author. For some reason, these podcasts sound like Mickey Mouse on my computer, but maybe they’ll work for you!
I too appreciated the book. I thought you might be interested in the resources here related to Quiet Leadership and the neuroscience of leadership:
http://westallen.typepad.com/idealawg/2006/10/seems_about_hal.html
As you will see there, Booz-Allen is holding next week a webinar with David Rock and his co-author Dr. Jeffery Schwartz.
[…] neuroscience of leadership I spent an hour last night listening to an awesome webinar featuring Jeffrey Schwartz (author of The Mind and the Brain) and David Rock (author of Quiet Leadership) as they discuss the neuroscience of leadership at strategy-business.com. It covered some very interesting ideas and I highly recommend it. I have read "Quiet Leadership" and it made the point the most effective way to improve is to create new connections. […]