At the 2008 NeuroLeadership Summits in Sydney, Australia and New York, David Rock presented a model that uses the acronym: SCARF.  This acronym evokes a visual, for me, of an important accessory for all leaders.  This practical model serves as a powerful and practical guide for leaders at all levels to optimize the approach signals and minimize avoidance behaviors in the workplace.  When individual brains detect a threat, the limbic system is aroused which reduces the ability of the prefrontal cortex to plan and create. This guide helps leaders overcome this challenge to promote a higher degree of collaboration and creativity.

SCARF stands for Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness.  

Status:  The simple act of a leader offering advice to an individual or telling someone how to do something better can imply a lower status and therefore set off a threat response and shut down the prefrontal cortex disabling that individual’s capacity to think positively.  Leaders who learn how to reward employees with a status boost can reap the benefits of a more engaged workforce.

Certainty:  Quite simply, individuals don’t like uncertainty.  It creates an error response in our brains that reduces our ability to attend to our goals.  Research has shown that even if it is bad news, individuals would rather know than be left in a state of limbo.  Leaders who create a sense of certainty, even if it sounds something like,"I don’t know the answer now but I will report back to you tomorrow at our 2p meeting…" will evoke a calmer more productive state among employees.

Autonomy:  Individuals like to have some sense of control over the environment.  Leaders who allow teams to determine their own ground rules for achieving goals can go a long way to balancing autonomy with group needs.

Relatedness:  The feeling that you are considered a valued member of a group or organization is a major motivator and contributor to positivity.  In fact, when an individual moves from what was perceived as a position outside a team to inside the team there is a actually a comforting release of of the hormone oxytocin that further increases trust and the likelihood of collaboration.

Fairness:  Our brains have a built-in unfairness detector.  Parents witness this frequently as children decry "That’s not fair!"  Modern leadership practices promote transparency and open communication to decrease employee dissatisfaction and sense of being treated unfairly.

I have found the SCARF model to be a very valuable guide when coaching executive leaders.  In fact, I recently gifted a scarf to an executive client and his team at the end of a six-month engagement.  Interestingly, the Keys to Success that the team had developed over the course of the engagement incorporated most of the components of the SCARF model.

A special thank you to David Rock, founder of the NeuroLeadership Institute and creator of the SCARF model, a powerful and practical reminder for leaders to initiate brain-wise responses in day-to-day interactions to increase creativity and collaboration.