SHOULD WE GET ABOARD THE BRAIN TRAIN?

As part of a special issue on neuroscience, this article for Consulting Psychology Journal considers the evolving impact of neuroscience on leadership and therefore on coaching, counseling, and therapy practice. The author cautions that we are at the very beginning of applying brain science to human behavior, including manager and leader behavior, and that there is a lot of junk science to contend with. Nevertheless, he believes that enough has been learned to get started, and he discusses two mega "findings" that can have a major impact: neuroplasticity and automaticity. He then recaps a third significant area: the study of working memory, describing how it is affected by task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs), automatic negative thoughts (ANTs), and persistent unsolved worries (PWs). Finally, he looks at the role of motivated memory and motivated recall. The author also provides a summary of the focal articles in this special issue, with an emphasis on key points and contributions. Throughout he cites foundational books that can help the reader gain a greater understanding of these issues.