How having a work uniform can make you a better leader

Bear with me on this one.

It’s really true – having a work uniform can make you a better leader. As can having a meal plan sorted in advance. Let me explain.

Have you ever been asked “what’s for dinner?”, only to think “I don’t know and I wish someone else could decide.” Or, spend minutes looking blankly in your wardrobe in the morning, not really seeing the clothes hanging there.

Where you feel like your brain is literally overloaded with the minutiae of unimportant and mundane decisions?

How can neuroscience help make you a better leader?

Now, neuroscience gives us the answer to these questions, and shows us how systemising some of these day to day decisions can make us a better leader.

Research shows that making just one decision, reduces the glucose (or blood sugar) available in the brain to make the next decision. The brain doesn’t differentiate between how important the decision is – just that you’re depleting the supply of available energy.

This means that by the time we have got to the point in our working day where we actually need to make an important decision, we’ve already used up some portion of our daily allocation.

It’s why seemingly easy decisions don’t get made. Why some leaders seem paralysed and overwhelmed. It answers the frustration as to why a simple email request isn’t responded to. Or why a decision to approve leave can sit in the in tray for an agonisingly long period.

Frustrations then build from other staff who see the sign of inaction as not caring or lack of competence.

So where does the uniform come into it?

It’s about freeing up your mind from having to make hundreds of every day decisions so that you can make the decisions that count, when they count.

By choosing in advance what you’re wearing for the week, or by having a work uniform – the decision has been made and you simply execute it. Think about the founder of Facebook- Mark Zuckerberg who wears a uniform or Steve Jobs- very clever men who simply spent their brain power wisely.

When you spend five minutes working out the meal plan for the week, the decision has been made, and so long as the food is in the cupboard, it can be executed with little drama (always assuming that it’s not your immense dislike for cooking that is the issue!)

By working out the arrangements of who does what when in advance, on the spot decisions don’t need to be made.

For some people, this sounds like over systemising – taking the spontaneity out of life. But in reality – you can always deviate from the plan if need be- it is just that you don’t need to invent the plan every day (and then reinvent it again the next day).

If you feel like life is overwhelming – give this a whirl and see if it makes a difference. Pick three things in your life that you could spend 10 minutes making a decision on and then execute those for a week or two. And then, reflect on whether other aspects of your work life seem a bit easier. As always – report back with your observations.