Do you know people like this?
At another company, a brilliant systems analyst “can’t be put in front of our clients,” as his boss says, because he instantly starts talking about his solution to their problem. He pays no attention to them – no small talk, no questions, nothing.
And, then there is that new team leader who is failing although she was a bright star as a lone contributor.
The Brain at Work
Each of these common performance deficits is caused by a particular brain system. Take that executive who lashes out, alienating the very people she depends on for her own success. Research by neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux at New York University tells us such emotional hijacks suggest an amygdala insufficiently controlled by the prefrontal cortex.
That pattern of amygdala hijacks can be seen in toddlers, many teenagers – and quite a few executives. In the case of kids and teens, the normal maturation of the brain’s self-management circuitry should take care of the problem. For the executive, this could call for some focused work with a coach.
That systems analyst who can’t relate to clients most likely suffers from a deficit in the brain’s wiring for empathy. As Jean Decety, a neuroscientist at the University of Chicago has shown, there are three distinct wiring patterns in the brain for different kinds of empathy – understanding how other people are seeing things; feeling what they are feeling; and caring. Good client relationships – or relationships of any kind – take all three.
And, the bright lone star who fails as a leader may have trouble integrating circuits for managing herself with those for effective relationships. The work ofDaniel Siegel, a psychiatrist at UCLA, shows the smooth integration of the whole brain marks an ideal for leadership – an inner reality that translates into optimal performance.
Brains Can Change
But don’t give up on any of these executives. The brain is plastic, changing with repeated experiences, practice, and learning. Tania Singer at the Max Planck Institute, for example, has designed training programs for the empathy circuitrythat produce positive changes. And Daniel Siegel’s “wheel of awareness” exercisehelps boost brain integration. And better amygdala management can come from exercises ranging from anger management courses to meditation.
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