Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

I pushed the remote control panic button on the Chrysler Sebring I was driving and everybody in the rent-a-car parking lot stopped and stared. 

Expressions of surprise, angst, and alarm reminded me that I’d just triggered cortisol to myself and others. Have you seen it happen where you work?

Sadly, workers daily push panic buttons and trigger cortisol, through:

1. Anxiety - about changes coming at them fast and without many benefits.
2. Fear – from growing financial losses all around them.
3. Panic – about increasing health issues and decreasing insurance.
4. Threat – from younger or smarter competition replacing them.
5. Fluster– from faster, more current people in their field reducing their value.

Each factor above impacts people and many erode the bottom line in current firms.  Do you agree?

Luckily, we have multiple intelligences that help people to regain the serotonin the human brain needs to fight back. The key is to reduce cortisol and raise serotonin … which adds to calm, control, curiosity and contentment.

Want to solve problems … take winning risks and inspire others today?

1. Use kinesthetic intelligence … to move and  keep active. Regardless of how busy or stressed you are … pass by elevators and walk the next staircase you meet. You’ll add oxygen and serotonin to spike more brainpower.

2. Jumpstart spatial intelligence. Place an artistic image such as a painting or sculpture nearby and watch it inspire more creative decisions today.

3. Draw on mathematical intelligence … as you lay out your budget for the next month in a way that shows you profits you can make by reorganizing a few habits.

4. Cull intrapersonal intelligence … and take yourself to a favorite lunch spot … alone. Or walk through a public park and think about the Rotarians mandate to live with service above self.

Why not survey your intelligences to see more strengths? These rather simple starts will begin to move your brain past its tendency to push the panic button – a habit which slows down workers and knocks targets off track. Do you agree?