"The human brain hasn't had a hardware upgrade in about 100,000 years." According to world-renowned emotional intelligence expert (and area resident) Daniel Goleman, most of us are still acting out of the ancient fight-or-flight response, and that upgrade is long-overdue.
Goleman battled illness to bring this message to FBC's December gathering at the Clarion. "Emotions make us pay attention right now-- this is urgent - and give us an immediate action plan without having to think twice. The emotional component evolved very early: Do I eat it, or does it eat me - you don't sit around and Google it." and that emotional response "can take over the rest of the brain in a millisecond if threatened.
Today the threat is symbolic ('he's not treating me fair)' but we respond with the same biological response."
Goleman calls this eruption an "amygdala hijack." The amygdala is the center of the brain that controls this response, and also controls empathy; when it feels threatened, it can respond not just irrationally, but destructively. "When Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's ear, it was a very bad business decision - it cost him $3 million. It was an amgdyala hijack."
Here are three signs of an amgdyala hijack: strong emotional reaction, sudden onset, and "when you reflect later, you realize it was inappropriate".
The opposite of an amgdyala hijack is emotional intelligence: "the integration of the emotional center and the executive center. Interestingly, boredom also correlates poorly with emotional intelligence. "When your amgdyala is hijacked, or when you're bored, your performance is very poor, despite your abilities." The emotionally intelligent person is engaged, focused, motivated and attentive, and matches these skills to the situation.
And one of the hallmarks of an emotionally intelligent leader is the ability to reshape the emotional landscape of a potentially troublesome situation. "When you realize that emotions are contagious, you understand a primal task of a leader. Your spleen, your lymphatic system couldn't care less about the spleen or lymphatic system of the other person- but emotions are designed to be in tune." Thus, humor and empathy are traits that can de-escalate conflict and help move toward a working consensus of how to handle the problem - while emotionally unintelligent behavior such as visible anger creates contagion of unpleasant emotions, and makes it tough to get anything resolved."Observing videos of the best leaders, they got people to laugh three times more often. It's a brain to brain link."
http://www.umass.edu/fambiz/articles/va ... rship.html
Goleman battled illness to bring this message to FBC's December gathering at the Clarion. "Emotions make us pay attention right now-- this is urgent - and give us an immediate action plan without having to think twice. The emotional component evolved very early: Do I eat it, or does it eat me - you don't sit around and Google it." and that emotional response "can take over the rest of the brain in a millisecond if threatened.
Today the threat is symbolic ('he's not treating me fair)' but we respond with the same biological response."
Goleman calls this eruption an "amygdala hijack." The amygdala is the center of the brain that controls this response, and also controls empathy; when it feels threatened, it can respond not just irrationally, but destructively. "When Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's ear, it was a very bad business decision - it cost him $3 million. It was an amgdyala hijack."
Here are three signs of an amgdyala hijack: strong emotional reaction, sudden onset, and "when you reflect later, you realize it was inappropriate".
The opposite of an amgdyala hijack is emotional intelligence: "the integration of the emotional center and the executive center. Interestingly, boredom also correlates poorly with emotional intelligence. "When your amgdyala is hijacked, or when you're bored, your performance is very poor, despite your abilities." The emotionally intelligent person is engaged, focused, motivated and attentive, and matches these skills to the situation.
And one of the hallmarks of an emotionally intelligent leader is the ability to reshape the emotional landscape of a potentially troublesome situation. "When you realize that emotions are contagious, you understand a primal task of a leader. Your spleen, your lymphatic system couldn't care less about the spleen or lymphatic system of the other person- but emotions are designed to be in tune." Thus, humor and empathy are traits that can de-escalate conflict and help move toward a working consensus of how to handle the problem - while emotionally unintelligent behavior such as visible anger creates contagion of unpleasant emotions, and makes it tough to get anything resolved."Observing videos of the best leaders, they got people to laugh three times more often. It's a brain to brain link."
http://www.umass.edu/fambiz/articles/va ... rship.html