Does just seeing this photo make your heart beat faster? Just seeing a picture of something upsetting, hearing a word that seems accusatory or in a tone that seems abrasive, being next to someone at a meeting at work that has “thrown you under the bus” recently can trigger cortisol to be pumped into our body. When it’s at a low level we can quickly regain our composure and may not even know that our anxiety is slightly higher. In the worst of circumstances, we have a difficult time containing our emotions and we literally have a cortisol bath.
This flood of cortisol in our system is what Daniel Goldman calls an "Amygdala Hijacking". Your amygdala is the part of your brain that is linked to emotions and aggression and controls fear responses and the secretion of hormones. It's "hijacked" when you experience an emotional response that is immediate and overwhelming and that part of your brain basically takes over. It happens to us more than you might think and could be at the root of some outcomes we don't intend. Learn more here:
LISTEN TO THIS: Podcast with Becky Freemal of WFXR, with Ron and me. We cover the subject at the beginning of that podcast. “Every human being has an immediate response to something that is threatening. The concept of threat is not confined to things that can hurt us. Threat can be trigger by someone confronting our beliefs, confronting our biases, confronting what we hold dear to us. The body can not differentiate between the “snake” from the verbal threat. They are both triggers. When you are triggered by somebody inflaming you with something you don’t necessarily agree with you must realize what is going on biologically so you can deal with it,” says, Ron Bonstetter, Senior VP of Research for TTI Success Insights.
WATCH THIS: Loved this 4-minute video that explains what happens during an Amygdala hijacking. We perceive a threat and we go right into fight, flight, or freeze mode to protect ourselves. It sometimes could take hours for us to regain our full intellectual capacity. Important to know for us but also explains what might be happening to our team members or clients sometimes.
READ THIS: Article from Psychology Today that outlines how leaders are affected when their amygdala takes over. Turns out your IQ actually goes down and the options that you see to solve the problem you are presented with decrease as well. Any strong emotion, anxiety, anger, joy or betrayal tips off the amygdala and impairs the prefrontal cortex's working memory.
TRY THIS: A series of questions designed to reduce the attack (see details about why these questions work in the article above): What am I thinking? What am I feeling? What do I want now? How am I getting in my way? What do I need to do differently now?
I have found that even the best among us experience these hijackings. When stress levels and stakes are high, they can occur more often. Your ability to reach the level of leadership you aspire to and have the potential to reach may depend on your ability to deal with and reduce the occurrence of hijacks.
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