Stephen H Baum Leadership

Kate Zernike (Never Let Them See You Sweat, New York Times, November 30, 2008) has written an important and timely article on leadership. In brief, she reports that the “uncommon” calm, confident manner you see in Barack Obama is only partly genetic, partly the result of experience (challenges, setbacks, recovery and learning). And she points to a particular learning – emotional self-regulation, figuring out and changing the assumptions you make about a challenge or threat based on long-ago events and memories that instilled a fight or flight response.

My book about how ordinary people become extraordinary leaders provided anecdotal evidence from the life stories of two dozen CEOs of what shaped their leadership traits, especially their emotional intelligence: their appetite to lead, confidence to embrace risks and ability to engage and inspire others.

At the time the book was written, there was also emerging evidence from brain research as to how and why a particular set of experiences can shift behavior: each experience leaves a new wiring in the brain: a fistfight in the schoolyard, an intense competition. If the memory in the amygdala (which controls emotions) is all there is, the fight or flight response to equivalent later threats will be the same. If, however, the memory is thoughtfully processed and stored in the hippocampus,

In recent experiments, researcher Kevin Ochsner at Columbia University showed people horrifying photos of auto accidents and measured the energy (via blood flow) in different parts of the brain. Unprepared, they were horrified and their amygdala energy soared. Then they were asked to review similar pictures with the thought that they were the ambulance driver or EMT who would soon provide medical help and relief. The energy in the prefrontal cortex (center for thinking) rose and the energy in the amygdala decreased. In short, they were able to re-assess what they saw to a different interpretation and different (calmer) reaction.

While there are a few leaders genetically advantaged from birth, the vast majority of extraordinary leaders have taken a modicum of intelligence and empathy and grown from experience while their peers experienced onlyt Groundhog Day.

That is why, when I interview successful CEOs before a student audience at Pace University in New York, the stories these leaders tell are messages of hope and inspiration. Sweat equity generally outperforms entitlement.