The COVID-19 pandemic put world leaders to the test. Some dealt with the crisis head-on while others floundered or prevaricated. Some spared no efforts to contain the virus while others saw raging outbreaks on their watch. An example from the former category is New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, whose leadership style focused on empathy, compassion and decisiveness.

The New York Times Editorial Board observed:

“Beyond politics, economics and science lie qualities of character that can’t be faked, chiefly compassion, which may be the most important in reassuring a frightened, insecure and stricken population.”

Politics aside, the events of the past two years have given us deeper insights into the powerful traits of effective leaders. By no means am I implying that running a company is parallel to coping with the demands of leading a country. But I’d argue that almost all great leaders demonstrate a similar ability to make decisions regulated by emotional and by analytical thinking.

Luckily, according to experts, even if you have the propensity for one way of thinking or the other, you can learn how to sway between the two.

Let’s see how that can be done:

1.     Become aware of your dominant neural network

It is important to identify where your tendencies lie in the neural network. Try to become informed about your own predilection by practicing mindfulness. Figure out which side do you naturally lean towards across a variety of situations.

You may ask yourself some questions like:

• How am I processing information at the moment? Am I pondering more creatively about possibilities? Or am I ruminating on the facts and solutions?
• Am I comparing objective right and wrongs. Or am I weighing the moral and ethical implications of the situation?
• All in all, do you engage your analytic network more or the empathic network?

2.   Exercise the neural network that you’re less likely to incline towards 

There are a number of ways to bring the empathic and analytic neural network ‘muscles’ into play. Just like left-handed basketball players work on dribbling and shooting with their right hand to up their overall game, I recommend that you spend more time exercising the network that isn’t your go-to.

To train your analytic network:

Adopt a more disciplined approach if you already haven’t. Commit yourself to specific windows of time within which you need to complete certain tasks. Apart from that, try to immerse yourself in activities that involve making rational decisions, gathering data, solving complex problems or summarising data and executing well-thought-out projects.

To train your empathic network:

Hold a short conversation with someone every day solely to understand how it would feel to be in their shoes, not to give advice or understand their problem. Try to go beyond what you hear. Attempt active listening by making effort to understand their tone of voice, body language, facial expression, emotional cues, etc.

3.   Achieve the right balance between logic and emotion

While it may be slightly challenging to gain full mastery of switching between analytic and empathic networks, once you recognise which network do you tend to operate on it will become much easier.

That said, it’s critical to understand the importance of both the networks. There is an incessant battle going on between the analytic and empathic networks, but you don’t have to pick a side. The key lies in being able to toggle back and forth between the two networks when needed.

Learn how you can take your leadership teams through a growth model which will help them mature on a personal and professional level by following me on LinkedIn and subscribing to the Keijzer Community.

Paul Keijzer is the CEO and Founder of Engage Consulting and the co-Founder of The Talent Games, which aims to transform HR by digitising talent processes and creating more engaging and productive workplaces through gamification and mobile technology. As a global HR and Leadership Management expert, Paul knows how to combine business insights with people insights to transform organisations and put them on the path to growth.