What is this book about?

"This is a book about improving your work performance by more fully using your brain to maximize your thinking skills and work productivity. ...Neuroscience, or the study of the human brain, can offer solutions to performance problems. Literally everything we think, process, do, feel and experience is channeled through our brains. This is evident in the recent explosion of business studies and articles looking toward brain science for answers. As the technologies for studying the inner workings of the brain have advanced (e.g., neuroimaging techniques such as functional MRI), there has been a parallel emergence and proliferation of business-related articles on how brain science relates to the workplace ...Of particular interest to us ...was new research linking special thinking abilities or cognitive skills - executive cognitive skills of the frontal lobes of the brain -- to work performance...."

The book introduces the Executive BrainSmarts^TM, tools for improving performance that are based on executive cognitive skills of the frontal lobes of the brain.

Who is this book for?

This book will appeal to a wide audience, including:

• leaders, executives and others looking to maximize their performance
• employees, supervisors and managers seeking to improve their own career paths and prospects
• students wanting practical strategies for improving their academic performance
• coop students and recent graduates seeking an understanding of work performance issues and solutions
• clinicians wanting to offer their patients and clients a guidebook to the frontal lobes and high performance
• academic learning specialists looking for new resources for students
• anyone wanting to take steps to help maintain cognitive function over time
• managers supervising people and trying to improve employee performance
• professors and lecturers teaching courses in psychology, business and applied neuroscience
• EAP consultants/counselors dealing with work issues

Case studies illustrate performance shortfalls:

"Kim is an intelligent and capable employee ... He has the potential to produce substantially more and rise further up the ranks in this company. However, he is failing to demonstrate the focus required to live up to his potential."

"Tim struggled to hide his mounting frustration as he met with Lauren for their weekly update. As usual, she arrived late looking disheveled and flustered, her arms overflowing with documents and papers. Why was it so difficult to get any decent work out of this employee? None of his other staff had difficulty following instructions. ...She seemed incapable of making any progress and was constantly missing important deadlines."

"Ryan began to listen intently to what Mark was saying to the client. A look of puzzlement crept over Ryan's face. This was not what they had rehearsed! Mark was not following the script or the order of the slides. He was rambling on and on, jumping from one topic to another in his eagerness to convince the client. Ryan scanned the boardroom table, noting the reception of the attendees. One was checking for text messages and another was drumming his fingers on the table. ...One week later Mark and Ryan were informed that they had not been awarded the contract."

Start using practical strategies to close performance gaps:

"As you map out your personal action plan for implementing the Executive BrainSmarts, refer to the Executive BrainSmarts Feedback Loop. Your success in developing and adapting behaviors associated with high performance will be maximized when you use the Prepare, Perform and Check components as a behavioral template. With this, you will be more likely to incorporate all of the Executive BrainSmarts. Because they typically are interdependent, your overall work effectiveness will improve. Furthermore, bringing in all of the components of the feedback loop will help reinforce development of a behavioral routine based on executive cognitive skills of the frontal lobes of the brain.

When you finish this book, you will have a concrete action plan for improvement."

Executive BrainSmarts is a trademark of Lorie Saxby and Phylis Hiebert.