New Book Review: "Your Brain and Business"
New book review for Your Brain and Business: The Neuroscience of Great Leaders, by Srinivasan S. Pillay, FT Press, 2011:
Copy provided by Amazon.
It is apparent that one has a controversial text on their hands when some reviewers assign the label "too scientific", and some reviewers assign the label "pseudoscientific". Reading through the other reviews here, if I had not recently read this book myself I might be hard-pressed to find any answers to what the author provides in his discussion, and rather than make a decision to read this book based on facts, give up trying due to lack of information.
According to Pillay, "at the end of this book, the coach or executive will have a good idea of several concepts in brain science that can be applied to his or her own coaching relationships and interventions so as to add to the available tools for coaching." The author later elaborates by noting that "these interventions are a reframing of conventional coaching methodologies but they also add new insights. At a time when leaders are tiring of old concepts and are therefore not receptive to them, this reframing can be very helpful in informing the appropriate coaching, management, or leadership plan."
The author explains his view that there are 6 basic ways in which brain science can enhance understanding within the executive environment: repackaging advice with biological explanations rather than psychological jargon, decreasing threats by depersonalizing explanations of behavior, debunking myths when brain science provides a different explanation than personal or organizational psychology, providing further insights and evidence beyond what has been traditionally provided in the past, providing a system for targeted interventions, and developing coaching protocols and tools.