Where Did My IQ Go and How Do I Get It Back?

Any strong emotion, anxiety, anger, joy, or betrayal trips off the amygdala and impairs the prefrontal cortex's working memory. The power of emotions overwhelms rationality. That is why when we are emotionally upset or stressed we can't think straight.

In today's economy most people are walking around with more stress, apprehensiveness and fear for the future. You could say that every organization is suffering at some level from emotional hijacks and thus their organization may be operating in a dumbed down fashion.

We know emotions are contagious, so if one person is emotionally hijacked on your team or organization most likely others will catch it, like the flu. So quickly the team IQ can lose points and jeopardize executive decisions and deteriorate the teamwork and collaboration.

The leaders' ability to manage their emotions then is paramount as they are the "emotional thermostat" for their team and can influence their team's mood and productivity.

Self-Management: How to regain your IQ points
The good news is this loss of IQ points is temporary. Self-management is a leader's ability to be aware of what they are experiencing as another data set of information and be able to accept, manage and adjust to their emotions. These emotions are just as important as our thoughts, if not more, given their power to overwhelm us. Neuroscience tells us the brain changes with attention and focus, these actions can help refocus executive functioning.

1. Name it to Tame it
"You seem very frustrated and upset that now you have to rework the report, let's see how I can support you." Now we know from new research using the functional MRI that labeling these feelings helps reduce their intensity and return some of the activity back to the prefrontal cortex, resulting in more cognitive control. This identification can help the individual accept and normalize what he or she is feeling. The feelings are cognitively reappraised or reframed and thus less aroused. This is called "affect labeling." For people to know you SEE their perspective you have to SAY their perspective.

2. Don't Inflame it
If the leader commiserates too much and shares the feelings for too long both can become hijacked. The art of Emotional Intelligent leadership is to know when the venting is enough to connect and then move into the future searching for solutions, see below. You should be able to read that their venting is running out of fuel and you don't want to inflame it again with too many "me too" comments.

3. Physical focus: Move, walk, stretch take deep breaths for a few moments to change the state of the person and the brain focus. Changing the physical focus will help access other brain regions.

4. Solution Focus: "Let's talk about what some of the options we have available." This will help activate the prefrontal cortex, like turning back on the light on the executive functioning. It brings energy and more hope to the situation and pulls you out of the hijack hole. Dr. Srinivasan Pillay in The Brain and Business says future anticipation actually prepares the brain for those actions. So in effect you are" leaning into" the future and becoming more committed to your plan.

5. Mindfulness focus: Focus on the moment in whatever you are doing. Take in the internal senses, movements and tightness. Then focus on the external environment in detail. If you are in your room or office truly study, examine and focus on the shapes, lines and minute details. If you are washing dishes study the patterns on the dishes, the water flushing off the food and the flow of the water. Immersing yourself in the here and now is way to "clear the deck" and refresh the brain.

6. Next steps: Talk about the next action to take which again will engage the PFC, lessen the overwhelm and start some progress moving.

We all get hijacked at times, but great leaders with Emotional Intelligence know themselves well, anticipate situations that may be stressful for them and take preventative measures. In the stressful moment, they know what they are feeling AND thinking. They then have multiple constructive solutions to handle the amygdala hijack and maintain their top performance.

Dr. Relly Nadler is CEO for True North Leadership, Inc. an Executive and Organizational Development firm, master certified coach and author of the Leading with Emotional Intelligence. For more information and FREE EI Assessments go to: www.truenorthleadership.com or Rnadler@truenorthleadership.com