Your Brain and Business: The Neuroscience of Great Leaders by Srinivasan S. Pillay Page B
Authors: Srinivasan S. Pillay
Ads: Link
the client a chance to convert unconscious feelings into more known conscious feelings that he or she will have more access to. The insula has also been implicated in the prediction of aversive or negative outcomes. 22 Therefore, it is essential that we involve this brain region in the action plan because it can signal real threats. Mounting an internal image with emotion calls the insula to action.
Note that imagining the spatial position of one’s own hand from the first-person perspective activates the left hemisphere motor and motor-related structures more than imagining in the third person. This occurs especially in the inferior parietal lobe. Also, imagining compatible actions from the first-person perspective activates the parietal lobe and insula much more than incompatible positions. That is, people have to be able to imagine the possibility of something as being real for this to stimulate the corresponding action. 23
Another study also showed that imagining positive descriptions of one’s self from the first-person perspective results in more positiveemotions than imagining one’s self through an observer’s eyes. 24 The same has been shown for negative emotions (which increase skin conductance, especially with first-person imagery). 25 However, a contrasting earlier study on imagery raises the question of whether this is always true. This study examined whether imagining future success can sometimes enhance people’s motivation to achieve it and found that students experience a greater increase in achievement motivation when they imagine their successful task completion from a third-person rather than a first-person perspective, in part because they conceive of this achievement abstractly. 26 It also reduces the pressure. Thus, both first- and third-person perspectives may be helpful, and using third-person perspectives initially may help people overcome the anxiety necessary to imagine in the first person.
The application: Imagery acts as a precursor to action. Note that worry tendencies disrupt the necessary brain regions from activating. When encouraging people to benchmark their goals, it is crucial to ask them to imagine this, preferably in the first person and in the third person. Follow when the imagery breaks down in integrity and continue to practice until it is fluent enough to facilitate the necessary actions. Managers and coaches can tell team members the following: “By imagining what you want, you stimulate the action centers of the brain. Also, if you observe other examples of your goal being achieved, it will feel more real. It is important for this to feel real, and when you do imagine reaching your goal, try to imagine yourself doing it so that you cannot see yourself and instead see things in front of you in addition to observing yourself doing it in the third person.”
Action-Oriented Questions
The concept: Brain-imaging experiments have shown us that imagining an action stimulates the same brain region involved in the actual performance of that action, 19 although this activation may be at a lower level than occurs when the actual movement or action occurs. 27 Therefore, in coaching, during the education, data collection, and planning phases, when we engage clients in their goals, we are ideally asking them to imagine the course of action they are about to undertake. The pre-action stages of coaching in fact involve observation, planning, imagery, and verbalization. How you verbalize may impact how much you stimulate the left frontal cortex (which is necessary for commitment). For example, if a client asks you to help the company’s sales force improve their selling statistics, you can take several approaches when asking the sales force to observe, plan, imagine, and verbalize. Note the differences within the following two examples:
Example A:
• “What have you been doing so far to make the sales you have made?”
This focuses on the past and is more akin to the
Note that imagining the spatial position of one’s own hand from the first-person perspective activates the left hemisphere motor and motor-related structures more than imagining in the third person. This occurs especially in the inferior parietal lobe. Also, imagining compatible actions from the first-person perspective activates the parietal lobe and insula much more than incompatible positions. That is, people have to be able to imagine the possibility of something as being real for this to stimulate the corresponding action. 23
Another study also showed that imagining positive descriptions of one’s self from the first-person perspective results in more positiveemotions than imagining one’s self through an observer’s eyes. 24 The same has been shown for negative emotions (which increase skin conductance, especially with first-person imagery). 25 However, a contrasting earlier study on imagery raises the question of whether this is always true. This study examined whether imagining future success can sometimes enhance people’s motivation to achieve it and found that students experience a greater increase in achievement motivation when they imagine their successful task completion from a third-person rather than a first-person perspective, in part because they conceive of this achievement abstractly. 26 It also reduces the pressure. Thus, both first- and third-person perspectives may be helpful, and using third-person perspectives initially may help people overcome the anxiety necessary to imagine in the first person.
The application: Imagery acts as a precursor to action. Note that worry tendencies disrupt the necessary brain regions from activating. When encouraging people to benchmark their goals, it is crucial to ask them to imagine this, preferably in the first person and in the third person. Follow when the imagery breaks down in integrity and continue to practice until it is fluent enough to facilitate the necessary actions. Managers and coaches can tell team members the following: “By imagining what you want, you stimulate the action centers of the brain. Also, if you observe other examples of your goal being achieved, it will feel more real. It is important for this to feel real, and when you do imagine reaching your goal, try to imagine yourself doing it so that you cannot see yourself and instead see things in front of you in addition to observing yourself doing it in the third person.”
Action-Oriented Questions
The concept: Brain-imaging experiments have shown us that imagining an action stimulates the same brain region involved in the actual performance of that action, 19 although this activation may be at a lower level than occurs when the actual movement or action occurs. 27 Therefore, in coaching, during the education, data collection, and planning phases, when we engage clients in their goals, we are ideally asking them to imagine the course of action they are about to undertake. The pre-action stages of coaching in fact involve observation, planning, imagery, and verbalization. How you verbalize may impact how much you stimulate the left frontal cortex (which is necessary for commitment). For example, if a client asks you to help the company’s sales force improve their selling statistics, you can take several approaches when asking the sales force to observe, plan, imagine, and verbalize. Note the differences within the following two examples:
Example A:
• “What have you been doing so far to make the sales you have made?”
This focuses on the past and is more akin to the
Similar Books
Space Station Crisis: Star Challengers Book 2
Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, June Scobee Rodgers
