Brains love new things. There is a region in your brain called substantia nigra/ventral segmental area or SN/VTA, which lights up (in MRI, not literally, but you probably got that) when new, positive things happen. Research has shown that this is then followed by a dose of dopamine. Dopamine makes you feel good.

Feeling good makes it rewarding for the brain to make some effort to keep engaged. And this is something we can use in our leadership. If you’ve been working with or within a team for some time, it could be really good and refreshing if you completely change the way you approach meetings, communicate or organize work. It does not really matter what you do, as long as it is something new and unexpected. This makes everyone feel good, make them more engaged and listen more intently to your message.

The same goes for yourself and you don’t even have to spend (lots of) money to do this: simply reorganizing your workspace or change the way to do your work in any way can make you more engaged and more productive.