Leadership Development with the Brain and Relationships in Mind

Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) is an interdisciplinary field that brings relational neuroscience central to understanding human development and functioning. I was instantly hooked when I first heard Dr. Daniel Siegel present about this fascinating perspective. It confirmed and extended my career-long commitment to relational practice and advocacy within healthcare settings.

Now, fifteen years later, I am even more convinced that bringing the principles of IPNB to leadership is crucial for leaders’ development and their capacity to be effective change agents. This includes positional (managers, directors, executives) and situational (emergent, distributed) leaders.

One of the foundational principles of IPNB is that mind, brain, and relationships are primes of human experience. There are many new and innovative approaches to leadership that focus on one or two of these primes (i.e. brain-based/neuroscience informed leadership, mindful leadership, relational approaches to leadership); however, IPNB brings all three into simultaneous focus, which offers a unique opportunity for development that is dynamic and transformative.

Holding these three primes in focus has far and deep implications for how leadership development is approached. Given IPNB asserts that the mind is both embodied (brain and body) and relational, conscious engagement with neurobiological and relational experience becomes the foundation for transformative (i.e. neuroplastic, systemic, mental, physical) change.

In my doctoral research, l spoke to IPNB-informed leaders who used this triangle of human experience in various ways. Some taught this principle to others in their organizations and explicitly used it to reflect and guide decisions and operational procedures. Others embraced this triune to guide their own development and practices. For example, Siegel (2012) defines the mind as “…personal subjective experience, consciousness with a sense of knowing and that which is known, and a regulatory function that is an emergent, self-organizing process of the extended nervous system and relationships” (p. AI-51). In keeping with this, these leaders shared stories that revealed their capacity to consciously engage their attentional focus in ways that regulated their own embodied (neurobiological, emotional, mental) responses, while bringing awareness (an aspect of mind) to their relationships moment by moment so as to foster optimal wellness and functioning, also known as integration.

Please stayed tuned for future blogs, where I will be sharing more insights from IPNB-informed leaders and explore how this framework can transform your own development.

Siegel D. (2012). Pocket guide to interpersonal neurobiology: An integrative handbook of the mind. W.W. Norton & Company.