Thursday, 08 September 2022

14:15

Are You a Left-Brain or

Right-Brain Leader? Here's
How to Embrace Whole-
Brain Thinking
Whether you use more logic or more
creativity when making decisions, it's worth
learning to lead with both of these principles
in harmony.




BY MARTIN ZWILLING, FOUNDER AND CEO, STARTUP PROFESSIONALS@STARTUPPRO

Getty Images
Based on my own experience in business, the best results come from a
balance of vision and creativity, combined with a clear focus on
logical problem solving and results.
This balance is rare and often called whole-brain thinking, versus the
traditional right-brain or left-brain orientation. Accenture research from
2019 indicates that less than 10 percent of business leaders show this
balance in their leadership.
Most of the entrepreneurs I meet as an investor and advisor have no
shortage of right-brain thinking, showing vision and creativity. But
often, they don't realize that their potential is being limited by a
balancing focus on results, metrics, and customer specifics.
Here is my list of key principles for creating and capitalizing on a
balanced focus as a business professional or an entrepreneur.
Start by marketing your vision and purpose.
Too many entrepreneurs I know start by highlighting their new
technology and assume that it will sell itself. Unfortunately, technology
doesn't create a vision, and it usually frightens customers away, unless
they understand the vision and value first. Every balanced leader does
marketing early.
Break your creativity into specific deliverables.
Most people need manageable product, time, and price specifics related
to them, to appreciate the value of the big picture that you paint. Don't
expect investors and customers to follow you, based primarily on the
strength of just your passion and your long-term strategy.
Show results with a minimal viable product (MVP).
Trim your vision into a simple and focused quick solution that
illustrates your potential, but doesn't have to wait too long or cost too
much to be appreciated. If you try to strike out in too many directions
all at once, you will confuse customers, and likely not do anything well,
due to limited resources.
Listen to customer feedback and tune your vision.
Even your best vision of the future is likely not perfect, and stubbornly
following it in the face of pivot recommendations is a recipe for failure.
Learn to take action quickly on feedback, diligently solve problems,
and build momentum toward your objective. This is where balanced
thinking is critical.
Build trusted relationships and listen to advisors.
Peer relationships and good advisor relationships are key to any
balanced leadership, especially for right-brained people. Even Steve
Jobs, who relished his visionary thinking, later learned to listen to his
advisors and his board, after losing his leadership role in the early days
of Apple.
Keep up with the curve, but don't get too far ahead.
Some very creative leaders try to move too fast, in their passion to get
the ultimate impact. They overwhelm and lose their followers, and they
tend to run out of money. This is where metrics and real data must be
used to guide your business, complementing your own vision and
intuition for the pace.
Celebrate every progress step along the way.
Visionaries and their followers tend to burn out, never noticing
progress toward that final dream. Your job is to break the big objective
into small steps, and celebrate every success. This will keep you and
your team energized, learning from each step, and willing to do the
work for the final success.
Balance your business with your personal life.
Personal growth and satisfaction is rarely all about business. Whether
you are right-brained or left-brained, you need to find time for your
family, external entertainment, and your health. Business leadership
and success requires whole-brained satisfaction with you and the whole
environment.
If you find it impossible to think adequately right-brained and left-
brained at the same time, then I recommend that you find a partner you
can trust to complement your strengths and interests. Certainly you
need to keep this in mind as you select key team members as well.
Don't fall for the delusion of yes people, or feel successful when
everyone on the team thinks like you do.
Real business success from the right balance of interests, skills, critical
thinking, as well as execution. Don't let your dream idea and business
slip away due to a lack of focus on results, and don't let your
technology invention fail to start by never communicating the context.
With the right thinking, your potential these days is huge.
From <https://www.inc.com/martin-zwilling/are-you-a-left-brain-or-right-brain-leader-heres-how-to-embrace-whole-
brain-thinking.html>