The "Active" Leader Within: Harnessing Non-Conscious Brain Power to Move from Ideas to Action

With our constant stream of emails, voicemails, meetings, conference calls, pages, faxes and so on, it is a minor miracle that any of us can accomplish anything. With our Blackberrys surgically implanted into our hands, our time is sliced so thinly
that we never have the focused time to develop the big-picture perspective
required for an action plan, let alone the time to execute it
“Daily routines, superficial behaviors, poorly prioritized or
unfocused tasks leech managers’capacities—making unproductive
busyness perhaps the most critical behavioral problem” in business today, contend Heike Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal in their book A Bias for Action.
For so many of us—whether CEOs for major corporations, small business
owners or solo-entrepreneurs—there is a fundamental disconnection
between knowing what should be done and actually doing it. Calling
this disconnection the “knowing- doing gap,” Stanford University
researchers Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton pose the question: “Why does knowledge of what needs to be done frequently fail to result in action or behavior consistent with that knowledge?”
Is there anyone in business today who hasn’t wondered the same thing?
The answer, argue Bruch and Ghoshal, is both simple and
profound. They sum it up with the term “willpower.” The problem
they say is not that managers’ time is sliced, but that their intention or
“volition” is sliced as well.Getting things done requires two
critical components: energy and focus.And both are at risk in the modern
workplace. Building a bias for action in yourself and your organization requires developing and reinforcing the skills to become a “purposeful” or “volitional” manager. These are people who can consistently achieve their objectives by making
an unconditional commitment to their goals and then leveraging the
power of that intention to overcome the obstacles in their way, whether
their own doubts or the bureaucracies within their organizations.
“Purposeful action-taking depends on engaging the power of the non-
conscious mind,” according to John Assaraf of One Coach. “Not only does your non-conscious mind galvanize your mental and emotional energy, it also enables you to make your intention happen against the most powerful odds: distractions,
temptations to move in a different direction, self-doubt, and negativity. Non-conscious brain power is the force that strengthens your energy and sharpens your focus throughout the action-taking process.” Anutza Bellissimo of the Stress
& Anger Management Institute identifies four key steps that form the basis of uccessfully taking action:Gain clarity of your beliefs To work, your goals must be in alignment with your core beliefs. Your professional beliefs must be aligned with your personal beliefs so you can clearly visualize its success.
Your beliefs will affect your habits and your perceptions.Empower your conscious mind
This is the key step. When we do not take the time to align our
beliefs with our intentions, a chaotic mental vibration causes us to feel
uncomfortable; doubts, fear or anxiety begin to set in. This leads
to the amygdala releasing stress hormones and we revert to our old habits, thereby creating difficulty in accomplishing our new goals.Protect your intention Once you have made your commitment, you have to protect it from forces both within yourself and your organization.Disengage from your intention. The point of success—or failure—
from which you walk away and take up the next challenge depends on whether or not you can allow the seed you have planted to grow. Many times we stunt our own growth by not allowing the changes we’ve put into place to naturally come to life. From the commitment comes both the emotional energy and the focus that are critical to your success. In short, the process of getting things done in business is pretty much the same as in any other aspect of life: The only things that get done are
those that you genuinely believe in, and believe will get done.To your success! [The SAMI Group provides individual coaching and group classes on the power
of the non-conscious mind and how to use your brain power to harness your
ultimate goals and success. Please call for
an appointment at 310-372-3765.
The "Active" Leader Within:
Harnessing Non-Conscious Brain Power to Move from Ideas to Action