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Fight or Flee: Mastering Your Emotional Brain

Barb Krantz Taylor | December 2, 2014 | Blog | Leadership/Other | 2 minute read

sabertoothtiger-cropped When our “emotional brain” kicks in, our primitive nature comes out. For example, our ancestors found it advantageous to, in the presence of a Saber Tooth Tiger, either fight or flee. As CEO, you aren’t likely to come face to face with that tiger, but I am fairly confident that your emotional brain feels like it has—many, many times.

Our neurological wiring is behind this and we have little conscious control over the immediate reaction—emotionally or physiologically. In the presence of a perceived threat, our heart rate goes up, our respiration gets faster, and some of us will feel the need to actively defend against that threat (fight) or avoid (flee) it.

What happens to you? Are you aware of what triggers your emotional brain and whether you habitually fight, flee, or do some of both?

Here is what I observe are the typical fight behaviors of CEOs in the modern world, facing threats from their board, executive team members, poor financial results, etc.:

  • Voice gets louder
  • Debates points of view
  • Believes him/herself to be “right”
  • Believes him/herself to be better/smarter than others around them
  • Drives to an impossible standard of perfection and is irritated over minor mistakes of others
  • Gets unreasonably and righteously angry when someone “oversteps” their authority or inadvertently does something that diminishes the CEO in the eyes of clients

 
And here is what I observe are the typical flight behaviors:

  • Believes misalignment of the executive team doesn’t exist—but their evidence is “intuitive”, not based on direct conversation
  • Does not provide direct feedback to executive team members when the team member doesn’t meet expectations
  • Believes conflict will “all work out” between executive team members
  • Gives hints or provides suggestions of improvements or changes that need to happen instead of “telling”
  • Being unwilling to discuss directly differences of opinion with the board

 
CEO threats today are not as obvious as the Saber Tooth Tiger crashing into your village. In fact, they are rarely threats to our lives, but to our ego and identity. However, these threats create the EXACT same emotional reaction as the tiger did to our ancestors. And our reactions are sometimes what today, we call leadership derailleurs.

The good news is you can become aware of these threats, aware of your habitual tendencies and learn new strategies to not fight or flee at the wrong times. The Bailey Group can help.