Nano Tools for Leaders® — a collaboration between Wharton Executive Education and Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management — are fast, effective leadership tools that you can learn and start using in less than 15 minutes, with the potential to significantly impact your success as a leader and the engagement and productivity of the people you lead.

Contributor: Michael Platt, Wharton marketing professor and director of the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative; professor of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine; author of the new book, The Leader’s Brain (Wharton School Press).

The Goal:

Make sure your message gets across by fine-tuning your communications.

Nano Tool:

Real-world, face-to-face communication — complete with eye contact, body language, and other important sources of information — is a rarity in business today, and the potential for failing to convey an intended message or giving the wrong impression has grown. Neuroscience research has uncovered specific ways that you can fine-tune your message — whether it’s giving performance feedback, persuading your team to embrace a change initiative, or selling a product or service — to make sure others listen, attend to the message, and act on it.

Action Steps:

Two of the most effective methods for connecting with your audience, whether an individual or a group, are making eye contact and mirroring (subtly mimicking the gestures of the other person). Both of these methods lead to synchronized brain waves, which are linked to engagement, learning, and good rapport. Both methods are much harder to do when you’re not meeting in person, but that doesn’t mean you can’t engage. Try one or more of the following ideas to improve your chances of being heard.

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