Different parts of our brain govern certain functions. While primitive survival instincts are hardwired, our potential to manage complex relationships lies in the uniquely human ability to intentionally change.
As a leader, your behavior affects the physical health of your direct reports, for better or for worse, just as your supervisor's affects yours. How is this possible? What can you do about it?
For answers, we need to look inside our brains. An explosion of scientific knowledge in the past few decades allows us to take a deep look using such tools as brain imaging, neurochemistry, and neurobiology. We can now study the activity of individual cells in a living brain! The science is being put to good use by leading-edge managers and management consultants who recognize the enormous practical advantage of applying these discoveries to individual and organizational well-being.
Anatomy and Behavior
To keep things simple, let's start with three major distinctions in the human brain. Each evolved at a different time and "has its own intelligence, subjectivity, memory, motor, and other functions," according to Paul MacLean in The Triune Brain in Evolution (Plenum Press, 1990) but they are also deeply interconnected and overgrown. Very different behaviors originate from these evolutionary formations and each has contributed survival advantages.
The oldest parts have retained the basic structures and neurochemistries of the reptilian brain, from which our ancestral line parted company 250 million years ago. It consists of the core of the cerebellum, the brain stem, and the basal ganglia that MacLean called the reptilian or R complex, aka the "alligator brain."
The second oldest parts coincide with the emergence of mammals about 150 million years ago. Common structures, neural paths, and neurochemistries are responsible for generating very similar primary-process, raw emotional feelings across all mammals, including humans, according to Jaak Panksepp and Lucy Biven in The Archaeology of Mind (Norton and Company, 2012).
The most recent parts constitute the neocortex, which rapidly grew to four times the size of our nearest relatives' (chimps) over the past 2.5 million to 3 million years. The neocortex, especially the prefrontal cortex, is designed to regulate behavioral impulses from the older formations, both of which can generate powerful emotions.
There are more signals coming from the R complex up through old mammalian structures to the neocortex than going the other way, so the alligator brain has a strong—if subliminal—impact on behavior. And experiencing trauma or hurt changes the way a person's neurochemistry operates in the face of the next perceived threat, according to Debra Niehoff in The Biology of Violence (The Free Press, 1998).
Key Behaviors Originating in the Alligator Brain
Primitive survival instincts are "hardwired." We cannot change them. They prompt the same reactions in us as they did in our reptilian forbears.
Reptiles such as alligators, crocodiles, and lizards are extremely territorial. They all have ritualistic displays, including body language, which can be characterized as fight/approach, flight/avoidance, or freeze/submission. For example, if a reptile enters the established territory of another of its species, the current tenant sees a potential threat and reacts immediately with a simple signature display, such as a head bob, indicating "I see you." If the intruder does not leave, the tenant begins the first in a predetermined series of challenge displays that include a stance or expansion of body parts to appear larger. If the interloper still does not leave, the tenant next displays more aggressive challenging behavior as it approaches. Displays can lead to physical violence (fight), if necessary, to scare off the intruder. If the tenant succeeds, the intruder lowers its head in a submission display to the dominant animal and then withdraws or the tenant chases it off (flight).
For lizard species that live in groups, one mature male dominates the territory and the group. Immature males are allowed to stay with the group as long as they do not display challenge behavior or mature coloration. They respond to the dominant male with a submission display, which carries a protective survival value by avoiding or reducing punitive actions by the dominant animal. Females also fight, but generally over resources rather than territory.
Reptiles are almost entirely subject to routine, precedent, and ritual. A difficult and roundabout path to return to shelter that was observed in one group probably resulted from an older lizard finding a safe path around a long-gone threat. The path was being followed every evening by the next generation of lizards, says MacLean.
Persistent, harassing behavior by a challenger within artificial confines of a cage has been shown to result in the death of the lizard being harassed.
The Alligator Brain in Modern Humans
Are any of the preceding behaviors evident in humans? Think about personnel issues. Are people territorial? Do some people dominate or harass others? Can you think of professions that rely on routine, precedent, or ritual? How often have you heard someone say, "It's always been like this," or "This is just the way I am?"
Workplace Examples Through Lens of Neuroscience
As a leader, you may be attempting to change an organizational process or structure. The disturbance can be experienced as a threat to the familiar, comfortable routine. Have you ever seen a fight, flight, or freeze response from your employees or mid-level managers when seeking to make a change?
Or, two friendly colleagues experience a deteriorating relationship in the fight to fund their respective programs as budgets shrink. Could the prospect of diminishing resources be perceived as a threat to territory or status? Rage and fear both have origins in the R complex; they may very likely be provoked by threat to social dominance or status, as witnessed in reptilian territorial displays. Rage or fear revs up the heart, coils muscles, and sends blood pressure soaring.
Applying Alligator Brain Knowledge
The good news is the huge difference between humans and reptiles. The human brain has "neuroplasticity." We can change the "wiring" in our neocortex, a uniquely human gift.
We have far more complex brains with an enormous amount of neural territory devoted to managing the complex social relationships that are critical to our well-being. We can develop the capability to choose our actions in the microseconds after our survival reactions have been triggered.
Need proof? An elite wide receiver is trained to behave in a completely unnatural way. He protects the football rather than his own body when he drags both feet to stay inbounds and successfully completes a pass play before crashing heavily to the ground over the sideline, while still cradling the pigskin. To be able to override his original self-defensive "programming," he must intentionally practice the new behavior until it becomes a reliable option.
World-renowned management consultant David Rock, who established the NeuroLeadership Institute (NLI) in 2007, has written a book that would benefit all managers: Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long (HarperCollins, 2009). If time is short, watch his eight-minute YouTube video on managing others.
He says there are five domains of social experience your brain treats the same as threats to survival, which can trigger the alligator brain when handled badly by a leader. His SCARF model incorporates them: status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness. You can use this model to improve work relationships—especially subordinate ones—by minimizing threats and maximizing rewards.
Tips for Leaders
Like it or not, as a leader you are a model for others. How can you learn to do what is unnatural to your alligator brain? How can you help your employees do the same?
Accept that emotions arrive first. The primitive brain has shorter neural pathways than the neocortex.
Declare a time out from the conversation. Have you ever reacted with a powerful emotion, especially when another person also is reacting? Things can escalate quickly. Revisit the conversation when you are both calm and see if you can stay calm in the discussion. Practice the methodology in Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High (McGraw Hill, 2012).
Take a few deep breaths when you are upset. Intentional deep breathing has an immediate and calming impact on the autonomic nervous system, which is part of that ancient brain. Practice deep breathing a few minutes a day when you are not upset, so it's easy to do when you need it most.
Seek and embrace feedback. Notice the behavior about which you have difficulty taking in feedback. What happens when you hear it? You might be defensive or even in denial. This author has noticed a peculiar phenomenon. Some feedback slips by without auditory processing; I literally don't hear the words. When I catch what my brain just did, I ask the person to repeat what was said, explaining that it must be something I really need—but don't want—to hear. This always turns out to be true.
Be curious about your motivations. What is driving you to speak to someone a particular way? When are you dominating a conversation to make a point? Notice the behavior you prefer to ignore or quickly "reframe" to yourself to maintain your current self-image and status in your own eyes. Everyone wants to be the good guy.
Learn more about yourself. Get a mentor or a coach. Become a better observer of your internal state and how your emotions affect you and others. Practice building skills in vigilance and self-control until they become reliable options.
Become a better coach for your employees. Read books such as Rock's Coaching with the Brain in Mind—Foundations for Practice (Wiley, 2009).
Help create well-being around you. Introduce employees and peers to your new knowledge of the alligator brain. Then use this common reference, simply by observing and acknowledging when a conversation or a meeting has become a tussle between two or more alligator brains, to help calm a situation, especially if your demeanor remains composed and unruffled.
Remember, as a leader you have an outsized impact, for better and for worse. And if you do not own your alligator brain, it will own you.