Two of our recent podcasts dove into how service leaders need to evolve in 2025 (with Roy Dockery, Director of Field Service Research at TSIA) and how to overcome or avoid the most common missteps leaders make in EQ (with Sara Mueller, Emotional Intelligence EQ Keynote Speaker, Leadership Trainer, and Executive Coach). Topics like these are crucially important to our audience, because effective leadership is inherently woven into what it takes for businesses today to achieve operational excellence, delight customers, attract and retain talent, and innovate at a pace necessary to maintain success over the long term.

But what if some of the ways in which we’re asking today’s service leaders to evolve are at odds with how their brains are wired?

It’s an interesting question to explore, posed by John Walls, Insight Instigator at NeuroBuilt, LLC, who sent me an email with some compelling food for thought about my conversation with Roy. His perspective is that, based on neuroscience, there are some scientifically backed challenges to overcome for technically inclined service leaders to embrace and enact a more modern, communicative approach.

“What we’ve learned from fMRI-based neuroscience research during the last 15 years provides us with the tools to better understand the brain’s natural tendency to get in the way of effective communication,” John says. “It also points to how we can most effectively strengthen communication and practice other virtues which are necessary to be a motivational leader.”

If we think about how many of how today’s service leaders have gotten to where they are (moving up the ranks from technician to leader) and the core skillset that helped them achieve much of their career success (strong technical skills), it begins to make sense that expecting them to innately grasp characteristics and skills like those discussed in the two podcasts mentioned above might be unrealistic.

“Neuroscience explains precisely how technically minded people think differently. One reason is because of a natural brain state known as Reciprocal Inhibition, which is the way the brain has evolved to conserve precious cognitive energy,” John explains. “In short, there are certain neural pathways of the brain that strengthen during the learning, and repeated practice, of technical tasks. These technically related pathways suppress neural pathways within the brain's Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) that are responsible for communication skills. Pathways associated with empathy and communicating empathy are suppressed when technical pathways are activated. As technical abilities improve, interpersonal skills lag, perhaps even weaken…just like an unused muscle. We unconsciously play to our strengths, one of the brain’s clever ways of conserving cognitive energy. The outdated practice of promotions based on subject matter expertise (SME) and/or tenure often compounds the effects of reciprocal inhibition as leaders turn to technical skills rather than people skills when facing a challenge.”

And until not too long ago, service leaders could excel with stellar technical skills alone – because they were working in relatively stable environments with many like-minded individuals. As service has evolved from a transactional, break-fix environment where mechanical skills and technical knowledge were revered above all to a more customer-centric business driver drastically changed by rapid technological advancements and a very different talent landscape, what we need from leaders is far different. As many of these leaders have honed their technical prowess and relished in its effectiveness, much of the world around them has changed.

In the recent podcast with Roy, he spoke about how a “culture of complaining” is fueled by service leaders feeling like the rest of the business doesn’t understand their work, almost like “speaking a foreign language.” John sheds light on the neuroscience behind this feeling, saying, “This is explained to some degree by Reciprocal Inhibition; realize that the service organization is technically minded, and the rest of the organization is socially minded. Service organizations have traditionally been considered successful based on practicing and demonstrating exceptional technical skills. The rest of the organization is thinking with their PFC, (think sales, marketing, C-suite).  When viewed through the lens of neuroscience, the disconnect between a technically minded service organization and the various Prefrontal thinking organizations of a business is no surprise.”

EQ is Essential

Perhaps better understanding the factors that have kept service disconnected from the rest of the business is the first step to really breaking down the silos?

John also feels philosophy plays an important role. “The ‘That’s the way we’ve always done it’ mentality is a culture killer. So are service leaders who have fixed mindsets or believe being technically good is enough to overcome the lack of a growth mentality. It’s simply not so these days,” he says. “This is an area where applying philosophy to service comes into play. The Stoics teach us growth and fulfillment are not from competing with others, but from striving to be better than we were yesterday. This focus on internal competition fosters intrinsic motivation, genuine improvement, builds resilience, and leads to a deeper understanding of ourselves and others. That attitude is what differentiates a service representative from a service professional.”

For businesses that understand the true potential of service, and really want to enable technical talent to thrive, it’s worthwhile to consider what practical steps this information could prompt. A few that come to mind:

• Providing all employees with soft skills training
• Ensuring technical talent isn’t promoted into management roles simply because they’re strong individual contributors
• Providing all supervisors, managers, and leaders with ongoing training and development that emphasizes the importance of EQ
• Encouraging personal development and a growth mentality by not only providing ample opportunities for learning and progression, but recognition and rewards

Each of these potential actions is underpinned by the importance of better embedding EQ into the business, across functions, from the frontlines to the top-level leaders. “You made an important point when you mentioned the association between empathy and curiosity. Empathy is the most important virtue of a leader,” says John. “Service people are curious, no doubt, they are simply not curious about things that are not on their mind.  Therefore, many service leaders fail to develop the skill, the virtue, of showing empathy. As I mentioned earlier, the effects of reciprocal inhibition suppress the strengthening of neural pathways associated with empathy and communicating empathy. Simply training service minded people to be as curious about others as they are about technology will go a long way along the path of leadership development.”