Here’s the conundrum. The part of the brain leaders most need access to is also the part of the brain most sensitive to the detrimental effects of stress. Research suggests 70%+ of leaders are stressed most of the time.
As a leader, if you have any chance of effectively responding to complex problems you need to access your prefrontal cortex (PFC). The PFC is your most evolved brain region and subserves your highest-order cognitive abilities. It’s the part of your brain that makes you human. It includes all the high level thinking capacities required by today’s leaders grappling with emergent and unconventional business environments.
In fact the purpose of the PFC is often referred to as Executive Brain Function. It’s like a person specification list for leadership. Those functions include:
Planning
Decision making
Working memory
Personality expression
Moderating social behaviour
Controlling certain aspects of speech and language
Determining: Good and bad; Better and best; Same and different
The orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals
Recognising future consequences of current activities
Differentiating conflicting thoughts
Working toward a defined goal
Expectation based on action
Prediction of outcomes
The problem is, when you are stressed, your body produces a cocktail of adrenaline and cortisol. In this state you defer to your limbic brain (emotional centre), while access to your PFC is impaired. In simpler terms it sets you up to react rather than respond.
In extreme cases it triggers an amygdala hijack. This is an emotional overreaction to stress which activates your fight-or-flight response and disables access to your PFC. It's perfect for keeping you alive in the jungle, but extremely limiting if you are trying to win a game of chess!
You will probably recognise the moment of amygdala hijack. Think of a recent heated discussion that escalated to a full blown argument (families are a good place to source these examples). There is a point where listening and reasoning gets replaced by defensive attacks and the explosion of words you regret as they leave your mouth. Once you hit this point nothing useful is exchanged. From a brain chemistry point of view the train has left the station! You are no longer in control.
We might refer to the leadership brain conundrum as the complexity gap.
Leaders exist in stressed states jumping from meeting to meeting, from fire to fire and reacting to all the metaphorical sabre toothed tigers jumping at them, (both real and imagined). Weeks, months and years can disappear into a sort of business as usual blurr. It becomes normalised.
The unnoticed, or perhaps ignored gap, is the need to create an environment where the PFC can arrive fully online. This is a deliberate setting up of conditions where executive brain function is able to consider complex challenges.
Furthermore, not only might these conditions need to be set up for yourself, you might also need to help your team and organisation do the same. I believe high performance cultures do proportionally more of this type of work.
The adrenaline fuelled state of leadership can become addictive. I notice some leaders chose to operate entirely from this space and actively find reasons for not stopping, scheduling reflective practice, or making time for strategy and planning.
My sense is the reactive approach becomes familiar and safe, and that the alternative of stopping and being intentional becomes uncomfortable. I think some leaders and some organisations get stuck here.
But there’s more to it. Some of my clients seek support for both how to make it happen (reflective practice), and what to do with the space once they've created it. That tells me their challenge is on multiple levels. I think about it like this:
The why challenge (Will it make a difference if I do it)
The how challenge (How do I go about doing it)
The what challenge (What specifically will I do)
A comprehensive dive into the leadership brain conundrum (the complexity gap) is beyond the scope of this article. However, as a start point, here’s some things that help move you forward:
1) Acknowledgement of the issue
Acknowledging the need to access your PFC to solve complex issues
2) Understanding of your brain at work
Understanding what's going on with your brain and why being stressed impairs your capacity for problem solving
3) Awareness of your brain state
Recognising the feeling of your stressed brain and the feeling of your higher thinking brain
4) Managing your brain
Finding your tools for getting your brain into the state it needs to be in. There are many including: How you schedule your time; Diet; Exercise; Sleep; Meditation; Breathwork; Brain hacks…
5) Thinking together
Knowing more about how you create the conditions and environment for thinking together
6) Developing your leadership choices
Having more models and approaches for working with complexity, ambiguity, change, uncertainty, and emergence
Matt helps leaders and teams develop their mindset and resourcefulness so they can relate productively, communicate effectively, and navigate challenge, change and complexity with confidence.
Through coaching and training, he empowers leaders with better choices and more options for progress - building better leadership from the inside out.
Curious what that could look like for you or your organisation? Let’s talk.