The Psychology Of People Management
Matthew Lieberman, a neuroscience researcher at UCLA, says human beings are hard-wired to feel physical discomfort when they experience exclusion from a group or from the good will of a significant person within their social structure. As he puts it, (for us as mammals) being socially connected to caregivers is necessary for our survival.”
Brain research is consistently confirming one thing: That the human brain is a social organ in which physical and nervous reactions are directly and deeply shaped by our interaction with others. As Lieberman puts it, “Most processes operating in the background when your brain is at rest are involved in thinking about other people and yourself.”
Neurology at Work
This fact presents some interesting challenges – and huge opportunities – to those of us who associate with others in a work situation (that is, most of us).
While many people may consciously think about work as a transactional environment – I trade my time, talent, intelligence for money – at an unconscious level our brains experience our workplace primarily as a social environment.
The consequences of that fact are profound.
Regardless of how we may like to consciously rationalise our situation at work, we unconsciously experience events in which we may feel betrayed or unrecognized (as when we are reprimanded, given an assignment we see as unworthy, or paid less than we feel we are worth) as a neural impulse that is as powerful and painful as a blow to the head.
While we don’t have any choice in experiencing the neural impulse, most of us learn to rationalize or temper our reactions – to “suck it up,” as it were. But in doing so, we also “suck up” our commitment to and engagement in the pursuit of the goals of the enterprise. We act as though we are in a purely transactional relationship, and we withhold our best efforts because the social environment is blocking or not supporting us. And most of this at an unconscious level!
In the words of one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of coaching psychology, David Rock: “Leaders who understand this dynamic can more effectively engage their employees’ best talents, support collaborative teams, and create an environment that fosters productive change. Indeed, the ability to intentionally address the social brain in the service of optimal performance will be a distinguishing leadership capability in the years ahead.”
Physiology at Work
Our unconscious brain runs our body. It breaths us, pulses us, digests for us, and each day manages and keeps in balance thousands of processes. It does that so successfully that most of our bodies survive for eight decades or more.
When that same unconscious is stressed by perceived threats it arms the body for fight or flight.
It does that with a battery of potent chemicals:
• adrenalin to open up the blood vessels and crank up our heart rate;
• dopamine to increase both heart rate and blood pressure;
• norepinephrine to heighten our attention, narrow our focus, release glucose for energy and channel blood from internal processes such as digestion to the skeletal muscles for running or fighting; and
• epinephrine heart stroke volume, dilate the pupils and elevate blood sugar.
Add in a few pain killers and euphorics so that we’ll go the extra mile when being pursued by a sabre tooth tiger and you can start to understand why some of us do pretty crazy things when we’re stressed!
The Cost of Stress
So, what happens when you create a work environment that stresses people most of the time?
The short answer is “not much that’s good”.
To quote David Rock once more, “The threat response is both mentally taxing and deadly to the productivity of a person – or of an organization. Because this response uses up oxygen and glucose from the blood, they are diverted from other parts of the brain, including the working memory function, which processes new information and ideas. This impairs analytic thinking, creative insight, and problem solving; in other words, just when people most need their sophisticated mental capabilities, the brain’s internal resources are taken away from them.
“The impact of this neural dynamic is often visible in organizations. For example, when leaders trigger a threat response, employees’ brains become much less efficient. But when leaders make people feel good about themselves, clearly communicate their expectations, give employees latitude to make decisions, support people’s efforts to build good relationships, and treat the whole organization fairly, it prompts a reward response.
“Others in the organization become more effective, more open to ideas, and more creative. They notice the kind of information that passes them by when fear or resentment makes it difficult to focus their attention. They are less susceptible to burnout because they are able to manage their stress. They feel intrinsically rewarded.”
Wear a SCARF for Better Productivity
Rock has proposed five social qualities which enable leaders and their teams to reduce the incidence of threat responses and increase the incidence of reward responses within their environments. Those five social qualities are:
1. Status
2. Certainty
3. Autonomy
4. Relatedness
5. Fairness
Status: We feel secure when our personal worth is accepted as inherent and affirmed; and when our contributions to the progress of the enterprise are recognised, valued and sincerely praised. Praise is the lowest cost, highest value coin in the corporate treasury – and the least used.
Certainty: Certainty is usually an impossibility in any business environment, but you can go a long way towards minimising uncertainty in your team by articulating strong, clear values; by acting in accordance with those values (honouring the rules of the game); by negotiating plans, goals and strategies in an inclusive fashion; and by providing information as to the position and performance of the business in its marketplace. One rule here is probably, “No unpleasant surprises”.
Autonomy: Lack of control evokes stress; being given a degree of control over one’s circumstances lowers stress. Being given control over something beyond one’s ability increases stress. So, train, support, coach and grow your people to be able to take control of their own responsibilities and as much of their own environment as is possible within the enterprise.
Relatedness: Blending people into a team is a work of art and yet the potential commercial rewards for getting this right are enormous. Creating strong, core values and guiding everyone to share, talk about and act in accordance with those values while in the work situation is a strong first step in creating “relatedness” or esprit de corps. “Leaders who strive for inclusion and minimize situations in which people feel rejected create an environment that supports maximum performance,” says Rock.
Fairness: Injustice triggers a powerful stress response; justice, the opposite. Even the perception of unfairness makes it impossible for most people to commit their energies to an enterprise. So strong, in fact, is the need to pursue justice in the minds (brains) of some people that they are prepared to die for it! On a more positive note, people have been known to remain loyal to enterprises for their entire lifetime with little more justification than the fact that they are seen to “always do the right thing by their people”. (On this score it’s probably worth reading “Transforming Giants” by Rosabeth Kanter Moss in which she examines the loyalty given and received by large corporations who choose a deliberate path of social justice and fairness to all.)
Bottom Line
If you are in a leadership role at the moment, how aware are you of the effect of the factors outlined above, on the unconscious awareness – and hence the behaviours – of your team?
