Many of us in the United States feel that we are in a recession. Gas and food prices are going up and up.
A number of my executive coaching clients are feeling pressure to do more with fewer resources. Everyone seems overloaded with how to handle all of the information and struggling to stay organized.
How resilient are you in hard times?
Our emotional brain remains essential to our biological survival. While the danger of being chased and eaten by a tiger is no longer environmentally relevant, our reaction to danger remains the same. Fear is triggered by perceived danger, or even a hint of it in any form. Any time we sense a threat (real or only perceived), our brain speed-dials a reaction, bypassing its information-processing parts. Usually, the executive brain kicks in a few milliseconds later to determine whether a threat is real and modulate our behaviors and expressions. The rational brain collects more information and sorts things out.
But when the emotional brain reacts too strongly and frequently over time, our highly sensitive, survival-based emotions become the brain’s preferred response. After a while, the emotional brain hijacks the executive brain.
The Opposite of Fear
As long as fear dominates, the brain centers for creativity and high-level thought are constrained. Any sense of appreciation is shut down. The human brain cannot process fear and appreciation at the same time.
The executive or manager who screams at his staff whenever he feels thwarted creates a fear environment. He’s shooting himself in the foot because his staff’s fears prevent the development of new ideas and solutions.
Sometimes, our wiring creates the perception of hard times when they really don’t exist. Because this response is so automatic, fear frequently manifests in situations where proneness to reactivity is extremely maladaptive.
An emotionally charged workplace can create fear reactions that short-circuit higher, more effective business thinking. Under stress, fear contributes to faulty decision-making, stretching of ethics and rules, and misconduct and false accounting.
How do you react differently when stressed out!
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