Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership

www.hbr.org New studies of the brain show that leaders can improve Social Intelligence and group performance by understanding the biology of empathy. the Biology of Leadership by Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis Included with this full-text Harvard Business Review article: 1 Article Summary The Idea in Brief—the core idea The Idea in Practice—putting the idea to work 2 Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership 8 Further Reading A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further exploration of the article’s ideas and applications Reprint R0809E New studies of the brain show that leaders can improve group performance by understanding the biology of empathy. Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership by Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis In 1998, one of us, Daniel Goleman, published Rather, the individual minds become, in a in these pages his first article on emotional sense, fused into a single system. We believe intelligence and leadership. The response to that great leaders are those whose behavior “What Makes a Leader?” was enthusiastic. powerfully leverages the system of brain inter- People throughout and beyond the business connectedness. We place them on the opposite community started talking about the vital role end of the neural continuum from people with that empathy and self-knowledge play in effec- serious social disorders, such as autism or As- tive leadership. The concept of emotional in- perger’s syndrome, that are characterized by telligence continues to occupy a prominent underdevelopment in the areas of the brain as- space in the leadership literature and in every- sociated with social interactions. If we are cor- day coaching practices. But in the past five rect, it follows that a potent way of becoming a years, research in the emerging field of social better leader is to find authentic contexts in neuroscience—the study of what happens in which to learn the kinds of social behavior that the brain while people interact—is beginning reinforce the brain’s social circuitry. Leading ef- to reveal subtle new truths about what makes fectively is, in other words, less about master- a good leader. ing situations—or even mastering social skill The salient discovery is that certain things sets—than about developing a genuine inter- leaders do—specifically, exhibit empathy and est in and talent for fostering positive feelings become attuned to others’ moods—literally af- in the people whose cooperation and support fect both their own brain chemistry and that of you need. their followers. Indeed, researchers have found The notion that effective leadership is that the leader-follower dynamic is not a case about having powerful social circuits in the of two (or more) independent brains reacting brain has prompted us to extend our concept consciously or unconsciously to each other. of emotional intelligence, which we had OPYRIGHT © 2008 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.RIGHTS ALL SCHOOLCORPORATION. BUSINESS PUBLISHING HARVARD 2008 © OPYRIGHT C harvard business review • september 2008 page 2 Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership grounded in theories of individual psychol- emotions. Collectively, these neurons create ogy. A more relationship-based construct for an instant sense of shared experience. assessing leadership is social intelligence, Mirror neurons have particular importance which we define as a set of interpersonal com- in organizations, because leaders’ emotions petencies built on specific neural circuits (and and actions prompt followers to mirror those related endocrine systems) that inspire oth- feelings and deeds. The effects of activating ers to be effective. neural circuitry in followers’ brains can be very The idea that leaders need social skills is not powerful. In a recent study, our colleague new, of course. In 1920, Columbia University Marie Dasborough observed two groups: One psychologist Edward Thorndike pointed out received negative performance feedback ac- that “the best mechanic in a factory may fail as companied by positive emotional signals— a foreman for lack of social intelligence.” More namely, nods and smiles; the other was given recently, our colleague Claudio Fernández- positive feedback that was delivered critically, Aráoz found in an analysis of new C-level exec- with frowns and narrowed eyes. In subsequent utives that those who had been hired for their interviews conducted to compare the emo- self-discipline, drive, and intellect were some- tional states of the two groups, the people who times later fired for lacking basic social skills. had received positive feedback accompanied In other words, the people Fernández-Aráoz by negative emotional signals reported feeling studied had smarts in spades, but their inabil- worse about their performance than did the ity to get along socially on the job was profes- participants who had received good-natured sionally self-defeating. negative feedback. In effect, the delivery was What’s new about our definition of social more important than the message itself. And intelligence is its biological underpinning, everybody knows that when people feel better, which we will explore in the following pages. they perform better. So, if leaders hope to get Drawing on the work of neuroscientists, our the best out of their people, they should con- own research and consulting endeavors, and tinue to be demanding but in ways that foster the findings of researchers affiliated with the a positive mood in their teams. The old carrot- Consortium for Research on Emotional Intel- and-stick approach alone doesn’t make neural ligence in Organizations, we will show you sense; traditional incentive systems are simply how to translate newly acquired knowledge not enough to get the best performance about mirror neurons, spindle cells, and oscil- from followers. lators into practical, socially intelligent behav- Here’s an example of what does work. It iors that can reinforce the neural links be- turns out that there’s a subset of mirror neurons tween you and your followers. whose only job is to detect other people’s Daniel Goleman (contact@ smiles and laughter, prompting smiles and danielgoleman.info) is a cochairman of Followers Mirror Their Leaders— laughter in return. A boss who is self-controlled the Consortium for Research on Emo- Literally and humorless will rarely engage those neu- tional Intelligence in Organizations, Perhaps the most stunning recent discovery in rons in his team members, but a boss who which is based at Rutgers University’s behavioral neuroscience is the identification laughs and sets an easygoing tone puts those Graduate School of Applied and Pro- of mirror neurons in widely dispersed areas of neurons to work, triggering spontaneous fessional Psychology in Piscataway, the brain. Italian neuroscientists found them laughter and knitting his team together in the New Jersey. He is the author of Social by accident while monitoring a particular cell process. A bonded group is one that performs Intelligence: The New Science of Human in a monkey’s brain that fired only when the well, as our colleague Fabio Sala has shown in Relationships (Bantam, 2006). monkey raised its arm. One day a lab assistant his research. He found that top-performing Richard Boyatzis (richard.boyatzis@ lifted an ice cream cone to his own mouth and leaders elicited laughter from their subordi- case.edu) is the H.R. Horvitz Chair of triggered a reaction in the monkey’s cell. It nates three times as often, on average, as Family Business and a professor in the was the first evidence that the brain is pep- did midperforming leaders. Being in a good departments of organizational behav- pered with neurons that mimic, or mirror, mood, other research finds, helps people take ior, psychology, and cognitive science what another being does. This previously un- in information effectively and respond nim- at Case Western Reserve University in known class of brain cells operates as neural bly and creatively. In other words, laughter is Cleveland. He is a coauthor, with Annie Wi-Fi, allowing us to navigate our social world. serious business. McKee and Frances Johnston, of Be- When we consciously or unconsciously detect It certainly made a difference at one university- coming a Resonant Leader (Harvard someone else’s emotions through their ac- based hospital in Boston. Two doctors we’ll Business Press, 2008). tions, our mirror neurons reproduce those call Dr. Burke and Dr. Humboldt were in harvard business review • september 2008 page 3 Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership contention for the post of CEO of the corpo- job. Within one-twentieth of a second, our ration that ran this hospital and others. Both spindle cells fire with information about how of them headed up departments, were superb we feel about that person; such “thin-slice” physicians, and had published many widely judgments can be very accurate, as follow-up cited research articles in prestigious medical metrics reveal. Therefore, leaders should not journals. But the two had very different fear to act on those judgments, provided that personalities. Burke was intense, task focused, they are also attuned to others’ moods. and impersonal. He was a relentless perfec- Such attunement is literally physical. Fol- tionist with a combative tone that kept his lowers of an effective leader experience rap- staff continually on edge. Humboldt was no port with her—or what we and our colleague less demanding, but he was very approachable, Annie McKee call “resonance.” Much of this even playful, in relating to staff, colleagues, feeling arises unconsciously, thanks to mirror and patients. Observers noted that people neurons and spindle-cell circuitry. But another smiled and teased one another—and even class of neurons is also involved: Oscillators co- spoke their minds—more in Humboldt’s de- ordinate people physically by regulating how partment than in Burke’s. Prized talent often and when their bodies move together.

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