What exactly is a happy work culture? You hear a lot about leaders establishing the culture of an organization in the early stages of its development.
Over the years as a leadership consultant, I have observed that I can walk into an organization for the first time and in a few minutes get a sense of the culture. You probably experience something similar when you visit a company for the first time. In the sixties we used to call it the “vibes’.
What do people experience when they walk into the place where you work?
To understand the machinations and culture of work environments, we must pinpoint how our brains function. In the most basic terms, the brain has three functional parts:
• Self-preservation (fear and sexual drive). The personal-survival brain is reflexive, causing animals under attack to react first and think later, thus triggering the fight-or-flight-or-freeze response. Our biological drives to reproduce are also centered here.
• Personal and group bonding. The social-survival brain enables us to bond to survive hostile environments. When we cooperate with others, we have strength in numbers to overcome larger, stronger enemies. Bonds are strongest between individuals versus small groups (families, clans, teams) or villages (tribes, companies).
• Moral awareness, inspiration, creativity and awe. What makes humans unique and extraordinarily more capable than other mammals is the forebrain — specifically, the frontal lobes. In this part of the brain, we experience consciousness and awareness of our feelings. The frontal lobes orchestrate the rest of the brain’s activities, also providing the ability to discern right from wrong. They house these functions:
o Leadership capabilities
o Creativity
o Planning for the future
o Morality
o A sense of spirituality
o Analytical decision-making
Humans have two sets of linked circuitry: the ancient wiring that protects and the modern wiring that serves. We refer to the “emotional brain” (from Daniel Goleman) to describe our primitive and reactive parts and to the “executive brain” (from Elkhonen Goldberg) to describe the frontal lobes, the center of conscious thought and logic.
When business executives see that sales numbers are well below forecast, they have a gut reaction of fear. This reflexive emotional state comes from the prehuman brain, which perceives danger (to career, status in the “tribe”).
Conversely, when businesspeople feel remorse over an emotional outburst, deliberate a decision or weigh several options’ ethics, they’re using the executive brain.
Are you leader working in a happy company with a healthy culture?
Comments