Brain Dominance and Leadership

Mary, a keen strategist, was working on a new campaign with a team of content creators. As the group of one strategist and three creators continued to meet, one Mary was beginning to get frustrated because she felt that the group wasn’t thinking strategically enough about the problem. One of the creators caught on to Mary’s frustration and said, “Mary, you’re here because we need someone who can think analytically, someone more left-brained but we also want you to be able to see the problem from our perspective. We still need you to think creatively.” Mary thought about it and smirked. She’d heard this many times in her career and wrote herself a reminder to exercise her right brain more to flex her creative side.

Have you ever experienced this scenario? For years, people have been told or self-determined whether they were right or left brain dominant. The study of brain dominance is centuries old with hundreds of thousands of studies conducted. Most of these say the same thing. Newer studies indicate this also affects your personality or behavior, but that is for another time. Brain dominance is purely how the brain organically processes information.

Left Brain Dominant

Those who are left brain dominant are considered to be more analytical or strategic in nature. These are people who think and process information in lists or tables. They prefer step by step directions with fact-based evidence because that is how their brain processes information.

Right Brain Dominant

Those who are right brain dominant are considered to be more creative or emotional in nature. People who are right brain dominant tend to think more intuitively. They process information more in an emotive form and can see the big picture more readily than those who are left-brained.

Do leaders need one side more than another? No. The good news is that neither is superior to the other, especially in regard to leadership. Being right or left-brain dominant just means that you have a specific way that you receive information.

Those who are considered to be left brained are:

• Naturally analytical

• Centered in reality

• Think sequentially

• Prefers to learn through verbal information

Those who are considered to be right brain are:

• Naturally intuitive

• Centered in fantasizing

• Think subjectively

• Prefer to learn through visual information

Tips for Left Brained Leaders

1. Avoid auditory distractions when trying to absorb information

2. Create lists to stay on track

3. Do puzzles regularly to exercise your short-term memory

Tips for Right Brained Leaders

1. Play music while learning to get more involved in “feeling” the lesson

2. Create charts and graphs to show information

3. Draw or color regularly to relax your brain to allow new information in

Once you understand how your brain naturally processes information, you can play more to your strengths. When learning a new skill, conducting research, or having your team present information to you, leverage your brain’s dominant side to help make the learning process easier.