Is your boss giving you brain damage?

THIS is not a joke. Your boss really could be doing long-term damage to your brain. Take this test to see if you’re affected.

Dr Fiona Kerr is fascinated by the brain science behind bosses.

IS YOUR boss giving you brain damage?

It’s not the start of a joke — it’s a serious question, and one to which the answer may very likely be ‘yes’, according to a leading neuroscientist.

Dr Fiona Kerr, systems and neural complexity specialist with the University of Adelaide and management consultant with some of the world’s biggest companies, has spent the last few decades investigating the link between the brain, our work environment, and the leaders who ultimately shape both.

She’s particularly interested in neurogenesis — building new brain — which her research has shown can and does occur when we work in a creative, stimulating, innovative workplace.

The flip side, however, is exactly what you would expect. Bad bosses lead to bad workplaces, which is bad news for your brain. So much so that scientists can observe marked effects on the brains of under-stimulated, overstressed workers.

“The best worst-case scenario is that people just kind of shut down, just go through the motions — I call it quit-but-stay,” said Dr Kerr, who presented last month at the Commonwealth Bank Wired for Wonder conference in Sydney.

In the worst-case scenario, people actually start to get fearful, which causes the body to produce cortisol and adrenaline. “Cortisol acts like a chemical blanket over your brain, so you can’t even get to the knowledge you normally have, never mind learning new things,” she said.

“It has a really big neurophysiological effect on people.”

So, in a very real way, your boss could be making you dumber, not to mention opening you up to the risk of heart attack from chronic stress.

Dr Kerr said the brain of a person in a flourishing environment will look much different — more complex, allowing them to be faster in how they can think outside the square.

And like everything else in the organisation, it flows down from the leader.

In her research, Dr Kerr found that innovative organisations all had a leader with a clear vision for the business who exercised “steerage” rather than control, and a “strong, positive value set”.

“It’s the sense of, ‘We’ve all got a very clear idea of where we’re going, and we’re going to keep each other safe getting there’,” she said. “That’s the ‘what’, which means the ‘how’ can be quite creative.”

Importantly, however, that doesn’t mean flat structures. We need boundaries to set rules. Structure puts information into the system, but rules should never get in the way or interconnectivity.

“If I know you’ve got a really good way of dealing with X, and the rule stops me from coming to you, it’s an inefficient rule,” she said.

Leaders who are good at shaping innovative organisations are good at making people feel safe about jumping into the unknown, and typically have a very hands-on management style.

That’s because actual face-to-face interaction is crucial — in person, your retinas synch, mirror neurons begin firing, which then stimulates dopamine and oxytocin, building trust.

That sense of trust and shared risk makes people excited and enthused, fires the parasympathetic nervous system, creating a “chemical soup” which can increase the size of the brain.

“If I put you in an MRI, and you’re a transformational leader with a clear sense of purpose, if I get you to talk about your organisation, various parts of your brain light up,” Dr Kerr said.

“If I then put a very autocratic, hierarchical, controlling leader in the MRI and do the same test, their brain lights up quite differently — and in fewer places.”

Those leaders tend to have very high levels of structure and process, which stops people sharing. This drags on productivity, which often causes the leader to tighten the screws and introduce even more rules.

“Eventually they start saying, ‘We’re going to have rules around five-minute toilet breaks.’”

So, how does your boss stack up?

Use it or lose it

Does your boss build or break your brain?
Take Dr Fiona Kerr's quiz to find out.