Thought Leader Insight: 30-second circuit breaker
Neuroscience teaches us how 30 seconds in a leader’s morning can improve, or damage, the productivity of their workforce.
THE HARD WORD’S THOUGHT LEADER INSIGHT SERIES IS INSPIRED BY MOMENTS FROM OUR REGULAR INTERVIEWS WITH THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST IN BUSINESS.
Many years ago, when I was working in the London head office of Guinness World Records, the company’s Vice President was a tall, broad-shouldered gentleman whose personality was as imposing as his physical stature.
He was well liked and respected in the business, partly because he was always open with his emotions, whether that be happiness and appreciation or frustration and anger. He wore his heart on his sleeve, meaning staff always knew exactly where they stood.
One day, soon after word of a potential redundancy program had leaked, our VP slammed his phone down, stormed out of his office, walked angrily to the lift and punched the button. The lift arrived and he was gone.
Most of his team witnessed the exit and until his return did very little work. At lunch, many retreated to the pub to discuss which of us might be facing the axe.
Once he was back in the office, I explained to our VP the effect his dramatic exit had had on the team. I suggested it might be better for morale if he spoke with us as a group, to give us the bad news. He broke into riotous laughter, then gathered the team.
That morning, he explained, he had taken his car for a service. The call he’d received was from the mechanic, telling him a brake problem would cost over £800 to fix. He was infuriated – he clearly didn’t trust the mechanic. So he went to the service centre in person to figure things out.
That was all. Nobody was to lose their job – although after our VP’s visit, the mechanic probably wished he could lose his…
Neuroscience and leadership
I often consider that workplace moment in terms of the mental model known as ‘ladder of inference’. It’s a theory of cognition and action developed by Professor Chris Argyris from Harvard Business School.
It says we begin with a massive pool of potential information. We then foolishly identify just one piece of data from that pool (“a redundancy program might be on its way”), then we use other information (“our boss is suddenly angry”), and we begin climbing the ladder. It’s a classic recipe for bad judgement and terrible decision making.
And there’s another important lesson in it for leaders of people, particularly during difficult times.
Recently I spoke with thought leader and neuroleadership expert Kristen Hansen, CEO of EnHansen Performance and author of Traction: The Neuroscience of Leadership and Performance. Kristen reminded me of the effect of a leader’s emotions and moods.
“We help managers recognise that for peak performance, they need to be in a reward state,” she says. “If they’re in a threat state, they’re underperforming.”
“A reward state is any time you’re feeling positive emotions like happiness, joy, curiosity, interest and calmness. A threat state is any time you’re feeling impatient, nervous, anxious, worried, concerned, annoyed, frustrated or angry.”
So the first thing a leader should do before coming in contact with their teams, whether onsite or off, is to consciously ensure they’re in a reward state.
“Emotions are highly contagious,” Hansen says. “If they’re spreading a threat state throughout their team, then they’re essentially dampening the cognitive and creative capacity of themselves as well as the entire team.”
Breathe boss, breathe!
How does a leader get themselves out of a threat state? How could my VP have exited his office in a way that would have allowed his team to have a more productive day?
It’s as simple as taking a quick breather, Hansen says. She calls it a ‘30-second circuit breaker’.
All it involves is a couple of deep breaths to assist relaxation, a conscious recognition and labelling of the emotion (helping the manager to identify and take ownership of it), and a reappraisal of how they should be presenting themselves to their teams.
“If you don’t do this, it can be very damaging to productivity,” she says - just as it was with my colleagues in London.
“It’s easy for something that has frustrated you – whether it be from your professional or personal life – to hijack your day and, in doing so, to destroy the day for your team. A recognition of what you can do about it can be very powerful in terms of the performance of yourself and your team.”
