Leaders Do Not Know About the Power of the Brain1
In their excellent book, The Leading Brain, Friederike Fabritius and Dr. Hans Werner Hagemeier (2017) note the role that our brains have in our leadership decision making.
According to Fabritius and Hagemeier, there are two key regions of the brain (Figure 7.1), whose basic makeup and effects must be understood by modern leaders: the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the limbic system (LS).
Figure 7.1 The key areas of the brain for leadership, performance, and motivation
Limbic System
The limbic system is the old part of the brain. It could be found in our ancestors’ brains tens of thousands of years ago and is the part of the brain that deals with fundamental, basic human emotions and decisions. The challenges of our prehistoric counterparts could be described as less complex than our present-day worries, but one could argue that they regularly had to make decisions, which directly affected their (and their families’) survival chances. Literally, life-and-death decisions. Dilemmas that the majority of us, on a day-to-day basis, thankfully, are not faced with today. When the saber-toothed tiger attacked, the prehistoric hunter had three opportunities: he could try to kill the animal before it killed him, he could run from the danger, or he could freeze or play dead and hope that the predator turned its attention to other prey. These three limbic responses are often referred to as:
Fight;
Flight; and
Freeze.
These remain, to this day, the three main abilities of the limbic part of our brains. When danger or pressure present themselves, limbic brains quickly and inadvertently compute our survival chances and implement appropriate responses. Although the number of man-eating tigers on the streets has, thankfully, dropped significantly in recent centuries, our limbic brains are still regularly challenged to develop 21st-century survival options. People’s decision making is, of course, also affected by their personality (nature) and their habits (nurture), but modern-day limbic responses might take the following form.
Examples:
- The boss vociferously expresses her disappointment with you, and you stand silently listening, unresponsive, apparently unable to formulate a pithy response, hoping the moment will pass. Freeze.
- A subordinate berates a colleague for a mistake he claims she made and she snaps back at him reminding him in no uncertain words of the dreadful performance he delivered in the last project. Fight.
- For a while, you have been intending to arrange a one-on-one with a member of your team to discipline them for their recent, poor performance, but you have put off scheduling the appointment a number of times because you do not feel ready. Flight.
When our brains receive input and stimuli that requires computation—for example, we see or hear something (not if we burn ourselves for example)—it first arrives at the receptors at the back of the brain before it is sent to the limbic system. This is the first part of the brain that deconstructs what it has detected, and it has two distinct modes in which it can function: reward mode and threat mode (Fabritius and Hagemann 2017). If the stimulus is deemed dangerous or threatening, then threat mode drives on, the powerful hormone cortisol is released, and the system goes into survival mode. The brain switches on any parts of the physiological complex it deems necessary for survival and inhibits those it presumes surplus to existential requirements. However, if the brain registers the impulse as nonthreatening, then the signal is diverted to the PFC where it is analyzed in greater detail, and with support from the hormone dopamine, rational cognition fires up. Unfortunately, evolution has trained us to be in threat mode as our default setting. Our first instinct is to protect ourselves, and when working in threat mode, cortisol is in the ascendancy.
But, our reaction to stress situations is not only cerebral. In threat mode, along with dopamine, the brain also releases the hormone noradrenaline, which can be thought of as the messenger to the body to switch to survival mode. When we are under stress, we often notice uncomfortable physiological reactions in addition to the stunted deductive skills we experience. Think of a time when you felt under pressure, under stress, in a powerfully nervous state or scared or unsure of a situation. Before an exam, in the period leading up to an important deadline, moments before a job interview, for example. At such junctures, we often experience some or all of the following in our bodies: clammy or cold hands, racing or uneven heart rate, sweating, a sick feeling or butterflies in our stomach, fidgety hands and feet, flushed skin, and others. This physiological activity is nothing more than the body switching to threat mode and protecting itself.
Think back to the flight/fight/freeze status. When faced with such plight, the brain is not the only organ that switches on survival mode; the body is prepared for to protect itself too. The brain, with the help of noradrenaline, diverts energy away from the parts of the body which it deems less necessary in times of danger, and toward systems that will need blood, oxygen, glucose, and all the chemicals we need to fuel ourselves in precarious times. To transport these goodies to the areas in need, noradrenaline drives up heart activity, making it pump more blood faster around the body; this is why, our heart races when we are nervous or stressed. The brain deems the stomach less important (we can go weeks without food in times of crisis), so activity in and energy to the digestive system is reduced with the valuable fuel sent to parts more in need; this digestive shutdown sometimes feels like butterflies in the stomach. Our clammy, fidgety appendages are preparing for fight and feel as such as they receive less blood than normal with it being diverted to major muscle groups needed to run and defend (i.e., the legs and arms). And, I have sadly watched many nervous students’ faces flush deep red during university examinations—this being also a reaction to the body’s frenetic diversion of blood to key areas. All in all, threat mode (and its ubiquitous hormones cortisol and noradrenaline) puts a great demand on our cognitive and physiological state, and its effects and symptoms should not be underestimated by aware leaders.
The limbic system’s alternate mode, however, is reward mode. Driven by the hormone dopamine (the happiness hormone that gives us a kick when thrill seeking), reward mode opens up creative centers in the brain that help us to work in a positive, original manner.
If it was a matter of choice, I think most of us would simply switch on reward mode, flood the system with the fun hormone dopamine, and spend our days being innovative and productive (and probably with a big smile on our faces). Unfortunately, it is not as easy as that. Sadly, we do not have direct control over our untrained brain. Threat mode is on as default and we cannot just switch parts of the brain on and off at our pleasure. Regular, focused, mindful, and determined self-reflection is required to train our brains to work more in reward mode. Furthermore, cortisol is stronger and lingers in our brain nine times longer than dopamine, so reversing the control of cortisol is very hard for us (Fabritius and Hagemann, 2017). Want as we may to believe that we are in cognitive control over all our adjudicature, it is often the chemicals which hold the upper hand.
However, there is another issue.
Prefrontal Cortex
The other key part of the leader’s brain is the PFC. Sitting proudly in the front of our heads, it is the younger part of the brain that humans have only developed in the last few thousand years. We share this part of the brain with only a few other animals (including dolphins and apes). It is the exciting hub of rational, objective, inventive thought, and its size and cognitive power are what separates us from our cousins in the animal kingdom. Our developed PFCs have helped us build the astonishing, interconnected world we live in today. It allowed us to think up the engines that power the cars on our roads, to calculate the science that has allowed us to put planes in the sky, to discover cures for thousands of microbial diseases, and every other great accomplishment that we, as the human race, have achieved. The PFC is the site of rational cognition. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, there is an issue, namely that:
The PFC reduces activity when we are in threat mode.
In other words, when we find ourselves under stress in pressure situations, cortisol streams through our system, fueling threat mode in the limbic system and blocking the PFC from helping us consider the options rationally, objectively, and intellectually. So, when the boss screams at us, the deadline rears its ugly head all too fast, or the potential client pulls out of a huge deal; snatching from you the bonus that you had already spent on that sofa, rational thought is very difficult (the PFC is largely inactive), and threat mode and the cortisol of the limbic system are in control. We revert to our prehistoric tendencies; fight, flight, or freeze. What is more, the PFC guzzles hundreds of times the glucose that the limbic system requires, but when the PFC is inhibited, some of the glucose is diverted to the LS, starving the PFC of the energy it needs to aid rational focus.
The perfect example of a situation where the PFC seemed inhibited and the cortisol-fueled LS apparently in command, was in the soccer world cup final game between France and Italy in 2006. The Frenchman Zenedine Zidane, for many at the time the greatest player in the world, playing in his last game for his country after a glittering career, inexplicably and suddenly turned and head-butted his opponent, the Italian Marco Materazzi, in the middle of the field, in clear view of all spectators and the match officials (Guardian 2007). Zidane was subsequently shown the red card and ejected from the game. His team, France, duly went on to lose the game on penalty kicks. Ironic, as Zidane had a record as a world-class penalty taker, and had he remained on the pitch, very possibly might have helped his team win the match.
The rational, focused, intelligent action in that moment would have been to have ignored the alleged insults from his opponent (Guardian 2007) and to have continued playing, utilizing all of his significant skills and talents to help his team win the game and his country the world cup. But, Zidane was probably not thinking clearly at that moment, that is, his PFC was almost certainly not fully switched on. His system was in threat mode, cortisol was doing its dastardly hormonal work, and his LS propelled him (literally) to fight against what it deemed a genuine threat. Whatever stimulated him to slip into threat, mode we do not know, but the lack of rational thought at an otherwise hugely important moment was conspicuous by its absence, and the prevalence of pure survival fight instinct powerfully apparent. So you can see, even the greats experience moments, where threat mode presides.
In threat mode, we all react in different ways. Some panic, overreact, overwork, or lash out. Some cover-up their feelings, some turn to other stimulants and satisfiers such as alcohol, tobacco, or calories, some bottle-up deep-lying beliefs and thoughts for fear of recrimination, some run from their responsibilities. Some are confrontational and seem to seek conflict at any opportunity. Many react differently again (Demptser 2012). Whatever the symptoms, the root cause in labor-induced stress scenarios is almost always a stunted PFC; the cerebral system flooded with cortisol; an LS in threat mode, that is, in fight, flight, or freeze status; and so a lack of cognitive control and rationality.
In addition to the mental stress we put ourselves under when we are in threat mode, there are very real and potentially damaging physiological effects that the overload of cortisol in the system can lead to. Chronic cortisol release, over years of working in stressful situations in threat mode, has been shown to reduce hippocampal functionality (Sheline et al. 1996) and an underperforming hippocampus (a further part of the brain) has been connected with a host of medical conditions, including (but not limited to) memory loss (Luipen et al. 1994), severe weight loss (Pelleymounter, Cullen, and Wellman 1995), and immune system dysfunction. (Dantzer, R., O’Connor et al. 2008). Notably, a number of studies have also reported a direct correlation between the onset of burnout and heightened levels of somatic cortisol. (Melamed et al. 1999; Joyce, Mulder, and Cloninger 1994). So, the dangers of threat mode are threefold.
- We stand a far greater chance of reacting to an otherwise soluble challenge irrationally.
- Noradrenaline puts our bodies under increased physiological pressure.
- We run the risk of serious, deep-rooted medical problems if we subject ourselves to lasting cortisol release.
Fighting Back Against Fight or Flight or Freeze
Your people, when under stress or in conflict, are not only disappointed that their needs are not being met at a micro or macro level, but their actions are also strongly chemically driven. Hormones, synapses and millennia of genetic training stimulates them to react (both physiologically and mentally) as they do. Your responsibility as a leader is to free people from the red mist of limbic subordination and get them back to the rationality of PFC supremacy.
According to Klaus Dürrbeck (2018), there is a program of options available to leaders to help their associates switch on reward mode, and they can be handily subdivided into short- and longer-term adjustments:
Short-Term Measures (Prerequisite Is that the Person Under Stress Is Aware that They Are in Threat Mode)
1. Combat breathing: Four cycles, repeated as long as required. Long, slow intakes of breath (four seconds). Hold (four seconds). Long, slow exhale (four seconds). Through such breathing execution, one is able to focus attention on the technique itself and away from the threatening subject. One’s heart rate is also slowed in a controlled manner and one’s parasympathetic nervous system (the division of your autonomic nervous system, closest to the brain and responsible for guiding the body in times of rest) engages and relaxes you.2
2. Avoid inhibition: Attempting to consciously suppress one’s threat reactions can lead to exhausting the PFC’s limited energy resources (glucose). Do not think of a pink elephant! We all immediately cannot think of anything else, other than a pink elephant, now. And the same applies to threat mode. When you try tell yourself not to be in threat mode, you think more about threat mode. Instead:
3. Labeling: Describe the threat or emotions in your own words. Giving the bugbear a name helps it to appear less threatening. One feels more in control. For example, when faced with a project cancelation from a client, resulting in threatened financial independence, name it: “This is bad situation. I have had the rug pulled from under my feet.” After having labeled the threat, the next step could be:
4. Reinterpretation or reappraisal: (Requires practice) identify and emphasize the positives from the negatives (“the situation with the client has shown me that I have a weakness in my client network/in my business model, that I can now improve on!”)
5. Conscious (paradox) intervention from another person (targeted distraction). To channel attention away from the threat subject. “Where did you last go on holiday to?” “What did Stephen say to you after in that meeting the other day?”
6. Physical activity: The pent up energy has to have a release for examples through a walk in the fresh air, 30 squats, 20 push-ups, and so on.
7. Metacognition: (Requires practice) reflect over one’s own thought patterns and reactions to draw farther and farther away in order to take an external position. Reduces stress and opens up new perspectives.
8. Appreciative recognition or Permission from manager: Sometimes, it can help to show a subordinate that the superior recognizes and can appreciate his or her (threat) reactions and to clarify that it is okay to feel under pressure or feel stress, at times. For example, “In your situation, it is ok to feel like you have been treated unfairly.” Such action breeds an atmosphere of emotional appreciation and recognition.
Long-Term Measures
- Mindfulness techniques: such techniques help people to tolerate more arousal or stress before they slip into threat mode. At the same time, they allow you to recognize faster when a threat is approaching, so allowing you to instigate short-term measures before you fall down the rabbit hole.
- Emotional self-regulation: Practice and implement.
- Establishing a fear-free climate through consistent use of the SCARF model:
Status: How do I gauge my relative importance to others.
Certainty: How good am I at predicting the future.
Autonomy: How strong is my perceived sense of control over events.
Relatedness: My sense of comfort, when working with others
(friends rather than foes).Fairness: How fairly do I perceive exchanges between people.
- Awareness of which factors I require for peak performance: am I the kind of person who requires (time) pressure to achieve top performance or do I fall easily and uncontrollably into threat mode? Understand your own hormonal release and balance. Seek medical advice.
- Regular sport: Sport or physical activity of any sort heightens your stress tolerance and burns-off energy otherwise stored to fuel threat mode and helps to regulate cortisol levels, thus reducing potential buildup of somatic cortisol and preventing chronic stress.
- Sufficient sleep: Chronic sleep deprivation increases susceptibility to stress.
Chapter Leadership Challenge
Our challenge as a leader is to try to facilitate a positive working and communicative environment so that potential conflicts and stress can be avoided by offering a harmonious setting, where colleagues can work positively and with creativity in reward mode.
If you feel that a process partner, or indeed you, are stuck in threat mode and unable to act intellectually with the PFC, then try introducing new stimuli to challenge their brains to compute new information. This should lead to them switch on their PFC to interpret the new challenge, so reducing the damaging control that the cortisol and limbic system were having.
Keep a retrospective diary of moments, when you noticed the red mist settling in and try to record what triggered threat mode, in the first place. Develop strategies to avoid such red zones in the future.
1 I am hugely grateful to Gabor Holch for his editing, advice, and input in this chapter.
2 The technique originates from a Special Forces soldier, who trained himself to relax in situations of extreme stress in action in Afghanistan.