Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

New research shows that bad bosses often get promoted - not punished. What’s at the core of the Cortisol Crank? He’s mean… she’s a grump … they’re moody…. You just want to hit the back button and restart their day and yours. 

Unfortunately, you’ve likely met them where you work ... so you feel like you just walked into a dragon’s den. Some work next to you .... others live inside you and me ... and most look for fights more than for solutions....

What causes people to jump on others, and defend themselves like a Banshee’d  defend a bottle of water in a desert battle? What makes them stick to stubborn opinions, and refuse to hear evidence that supports any opposite views?

Surprisingly, the culprit is related to a chemical hormone, cortisol, and we now know a great deal more about its influence in the brain and at the workplace.

So how can we reason with people who’s brains are saturated in cortisol, related to stress? It’s especially tough when that person complains, throws tantrums, or just shows up daily with new tactics to make life miserable. There are brain based tactics that help.

Perhaps a more important question is … How can we shake off the surge of cortisol that brings us down… a few times daily?

Cortisol shuts down a person’s ability to communicate with civility. Our brains are orchestrated by 200 kinds of cells with trillions of neural signals actively communicating in the cortex. Observed through brain imaging, brain chemicals seep through clefts in the brain and convert to electrical impulses which impact what you learn and sway your reactions to life around you. 

Will it be smile or sneer?  Chemicals called neurotransmitters act as biochemical messengers, which generate learning, and act as stimuli to excite neurons or as inhibitors to suppress them. Drugs can stimulate or block synapses, another name for communication and electrical activity among neurons.

We now know that people operating under high levels of cortisol … especially depressed people … tend to lack images that secure, comfort and console.  So their negative images and recriminating inner voices plague and disturb their thoughts.

Imagine yourself failing at work today. Instead of inner mental responses that soothe and show lessons about recovery, depression shoots darts of fear, so you dread further disasters.

The best key is to raise serotonin levels one drop at a time, which will soon replace its enemy – cortisol – in your brain.

At first, it’s simply a matter of choice …. After a few serotonin tactics though, you begin to fire your dendrite brain cells into new neuron pathways ... that help you cope with stressors that tend to strike us all– especially on a busy day....

Worth a shot?