This is how Tony Blair, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, describes leaders in his book On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century.
These leadership attributes remain the same regardless of leadership level or type of organization. They apply across cultures and different eras worldwide, at least for the past three thousand years.
The attributes mentioned above are more nature than nurture. In daily business practice, however, they must be supported by a myriad of skills and behavioral acts that are more nurture than nature. Today, all leadership must be framed within the context of the current VUCA environment and advances in neuroscience.
VUCA World and Leadership
A “VUCA world” describes our modern environment as Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous, a term originating from the military to explain rapid, unpredictable change that demands new, agile strategies for leadership, business, and life. It means things change fast (Volatility), the future is hard to predict (Uncertainty), many interconnected factors exist (Complexity), and meaning isn’t always clear (Ambiguity).
2- VUCA reshapes the role of leaders - In this environment, you are not the one with all the answers. You are the one who:
- holds direction even as paths change
- creates psychological safety for fast decision-making
- supports learning in action, not perfection
- works with emotions, not only with KPIs
4- Core capability: the leader’s inner stability - You can manage uncertainty outside only if you can hold it within yourself. Self-awareness, stress regulation, and the ability to slow down thinking under pressure are now strategic capabilities, not merely “soft skills.”
What Leaders Should Know About Neuroscience
Our brains dislike change because they seek predictability and meaning. We are often more comfortable with certainty about a negative outcome than with uncertainty itself.
Our Social Brain
The brain is a “social organ.” Social pain is processed in the same neural systems as physical pain. For the brain, social rejection equals pain. As a result, people are highly sensitive to exclusion and rejection.
Emotions
Most people are familiar with happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, disgust, and anger, the six basic emotions. In reality, there are more than 230 emotions.
Try a simple exercise with your team: ask people to write down as many different emotions as possible in 90 seconds. You will be surprised how few most people name, often fewer than ten. Women usually perform better. Unfortunately, the higher the leadership position, the less awareness leaders often have of the role emotions play during change.
Decision-Making and Problem-Solving
Do you start a new project only after finishing the previous one, or do you begin new projects while others remain unfinished? Do you solve one problem at a time, or several simultaneously? Do you prefer gradual change, or fast and dramatic shifts?
Your answers reveal your problem-solving style. If you identify more with the first options, you are likely an adaptor; if with the latter, an innovator.
Adaptors improve existing approaches. They think and act in standard ways, value structure, complete projects, and focus on systems. They generally prefer safe, stable environments, clear rules, and step-by-step change.
Cognitive Biases
A cognitive bias is a systematic error in thinking that affects judgment and decision-making, leading to deviations from logic or rationality. Biases often stem from the brain’s use of mental shortcuts, or heuristics, that help process information quickly but can also lead to flawed conclusions.
There are around 180 cognitive biases. Some key ones leaders should actively manage include:
- Confirmation bias – You seek information that confirms your view and ignore signals that challenge it. The result: blind decisions.
- Overconfidence bias – You overestimate your judgment and experience. Risk increases precisely when you feel most certain.
- Anchoring bias – The first piece of information sets your mental frame, even when it is wrong.
- Availability bias – You decide based on what comes easily to mind, not on data but on recent experience or emotion.
- Groupthink – Teams preserve harmony at the expense of critical thinking. Conformity replaces challenge.
Cognitive biases cannot be eliminated but they can be systematically managed.
No Decision Is Better Than Action
Let me conclude with my favorite quote from Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back.
Yoda, the Jedi Grand Master, guides Luke Skywalker. Yoda says: “You must unlearn what you have learned.” Luke responds: “All right, I’ll give it a try.” Yoda replies: “No. Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.”
Every leader who wants to be successful, effective, and recognized for results must unlearn habits that worked in a stable, predictable world and acquire new ones. It is a tough job.
Peter Benkovič, Co-Founder, Maxman Consultants
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