Connected Cognitive Coaching

The Cognitive Environment
When considering an environment for growing crops, herbs, or flowers, one considers an environment free of problems or obstacles to achieving the desired goals of bearing fruit or harvest. Similarly, when a team or organization’s leader considers an environment for achieving their goals, they determine how and when to attain the desired goal. This may occur as a personal desire, as the leader contemplates in the convenience of a home or office, or the leader might solicit a think-tank or mastermind alliance to help think through the desired outcome. Whatever approach is employed, the leader needs an environment that allows thought to occur and clear, unbiased, unadulterated, and unencumbered thought to thrive. This is what I call the cognitive environment. A highly toxic cognitive or intellectually lopsided environment means more technocrats than bureaucrats or philosophers will yield a seemingly one-sided outcome. An environment where leaders can think freely about how best to lead and tap into their intellectual repertoire demands critical self-awareness. An environment that does not provide serenity and clarity of purpose and intent will hurt and distort the mind's efforts to think. A healthy cognitive environment nourishes clear goals clear objectives, no external stimuli or pressure from any professional or social source, and no personal nuances or agendas that could potentially derail or adversely affect the outcome of the leader's thought objectives.

Katherine Johnson, an American mathematician, considered one of the most powerful and brilliant minds of the Space Race, excelled in helping transform one of NASA's greatest historical operations, launching astronaut John Glen into space. Because her nurture environment was limited by racial segregation of the time, her intellectual prowess was not validated until she could exercise her cognitive aptitude. The rationale here is that she recognized her giftedness and knack for numbers. She sought mentorship from another brilliant man, math professor W. W. Schieffelin Claytor, the third African American ever awarded a Ph.D. Though the segregation environment appeared challenging and did not foster opportunities for enhancing performance for African Americans at the time, Johnson's desire to excel and passion for numbers drove her into action and pro-action. She consequently made the most of her intellect – she would later become a force multiplier and instrumental asset to the nation's space program. What does this say about the cognitive environment? One can almost always have the mind of excellence and competence. Still, one needs an opportunity to express it – this is why the right climate for cognitive expression is essential.

In a McKinsey study of several Chief Executive Officers, effectiveness and best practices from their mindsets revealed that they set up an office of a special or executive assistant and a chief of staff that enabled sorting out of priorities and allowance of "alone time" to think and prepare for daily objectives. This study revealed that what made CEOs excellent was not being superhuman or super busy, but including, among several other strategies, the need to make time and a place to think. This place and time to think creates an environment conducive to thought leadership and excellence. Such an environment must not just yield an opportunity to thrive and excel but a forum open for feedback and constructive performance critique. An environment that fosters a mechanism for such introspection and reflection is certain to remedy errors or mismanagement before it festers into misfortune.

So what does this mean for the leader who may have several competing requirements and multiple issues to think through because they have not developed a mechanism or system that enables thought-leadership? If that is you, four approaches will jump-start seeking a cognitive environment to free your mind and time for reflection. They are based on the acrostic SELF to imply, Seek, Empower, Learn, and Foster:
1. Seek – Look for a specific time and place to consistently and faithfully be uninterrupted to do your thinking.
2. Empower – Find one or two team members (if you are alone, you are not leading anyone but yourself). You can delegate some of your most critical tasks and efforts.
3. Learn – Discover and understand what new ways and strategies you can employ to enhance your cognitive aptitude and intellectually self-improve.
4. Foster – Create a workplace for professional growth and collaboration where decisions can occur at the lowest leadership level without your direct input. A measure of your effectiveness is a measure of decisive action in your absence.
To create a cognitive environment, you must create a team interdependence culture. Remember, Leaders lead best when others lead to their best!

Power of Intellectual Stimulation
Intellectual stimulation is when a leader encourages followers to stretch their imagination toward innovative and problem-solving initiatives. This leadership approach not only stimulates the mind to do more than it thinks it can do but also allows the leader to leverage followers' expertise, intellect, and performance. Often, leaders find themselves more interested in tapping the expertise of followers but not contributing as much to ensuring that the health and wellness of followers are adequately nurtured or enhanced to perform at their peak. When a leader makes every effort to stimulate and encourage discovery, that leader significantly increases their leadership potential and scope of excellence.

In a study conducted to determine the correlation between the influence of intellectual stimulation leadership behavior on employee performance among small and medium-sized enterprises in the African country of Kenya, the research revealed a strong positive and statistically significant correlation between the leaders' intellectually stimulating behavior and employee performance. The integrity of the research methodology and results demonstrated the reliability of the research to imply that regardless of the type of industry, leaders' intellectual stimulation is imperative to affect the desired innovative and transformational results needed to excel. However, it is essential to note that a leader cannot reach that measure or level of intellectually stimulating behavior if the leader lacks the impetus, drive, or standard of self-awareness to elicit such inspiration within the organization.