Business success success is all in your head

Brains and business; it’s the perfect business partnership.

Jenny Brockis is the author of Future Brain: The 12 Keys to Create a High Performance Brain.

At the simplest level work is an exchange of labour for money. For success, business owners rely on their staff to do their work and do it well.

However, the modern workplace is facing numerous significant challenges where fatigue, being overwhelmed and burnout are contributing to the rapidly increasing levels of reported stress, stress-related illness, anxiety and depression.

With depression the leading cause of disability and one in five Australians at risk of some form of mental illness in any given year, addressing these issues is becoming increasingly urgent.

How can business owners ensure they are getting the best out of their staff without them feeling over-pressured or bullied?

Traditionally, business has viewed new technologies and expertise as the way to achieve business growth and success. People skills were the soft underbelly not requiring much attention.

New brain science is challenging that view as research demonstrates the importance of emotion in decision-making, of social skills in building strong and trusting relationships, and the lifestyle ­choices that support clarity of thought and higher mental performance, such as getting enough sleep and mental down time.

As life and work get faster and busier, there is no place for business as usual. We need to ask how we can apply our thinking differently to maximise capability.

The human brain has proved to be a far more complex organ than we could have ever imagined. Much of what we once thought we knew has been shown to be wrong.

Assumptions of what drives motivation or efficiency have had to be rethought as they have been found not to work or to be counter-productive because they go against the way the brain was designed to operate.

Our brain primarily wants to keep us safe, to conserve energy and feel rewarded.

We have evolved as highly social beings, which is why the solution to problems such as the high levels of disengagement in the workforce will come from the creation of a brain-safe working environment and reconnection at the human level.

By teaching people how to understand how their brain works and become more brain aware, it becomes far easier to understand why we think and behave the way we do, to reflect on existing thought patterns, and to be more open to exploring ways that can enhance our levels of mental agility, flexibility and innovative thinking.

The single most valuable concept derived from brain science has been the realisation that the brain is continually rewiring in response to changes in our environment. We can always adapt to change, learn new skills, lay down memory and create new habits.

Naturally, being a neurobiological process, this takes time, effort and practice.

Brain fitness or health has been seen as something to take note of as we get older to stay sharp and maintain our cognition. It is something that provides the means to stay cognitively fit across our lifespan.

Brain science alone will not solve all of modern business’s ills, but it can provide a useful starting point to re-humanise the workplace.

Being people-focused leads to greater organisational health, which leads to a more productive, profitable and happier workplace.

Brains and business; it’s the perfect business partnership.

Jenny Brockis is the author of Future Brain: The 12 Keys to Create a High Performance Brain.