Ben Morton explains how leaders stuck in task mode rely too heavily on the brain's Central Executive Network at the expense of the Default Mode Network, which handles perspective and emotional processing. Switching between both networks is essential for developing people and sustaining results.
Fundamentally, leadership is about two things: tasks and people. The Central Executive Network helps us manage the tasks. The Default Mode Network helps us to understand the people. And if we live permanently in task mode, yes, we might gain some short-term efficiency, but we start to lose perspective. We lose the space needed for creative problem-solving. And we reduce our capacity to process emotion, both ours and other people's. And perspective is one of the most valuable things a leader can offer. If our job is to support, develop, and look after the people we have the privilege and responsibility to lead, so that they can deliver the results we're accountable for, then we need access to both modes of thinking. We need to be able to access the Central Executive Network and the Default Mode Network.
