The art of managing emotions | Daniel Goleman | WOBI
Summary
TLDRThe transcript explores the concept of 'flow' as an optimal state for job performance, where individuals excel both in skill and emotional well-being. It emphasizes the role of leadership in facilitating this state through clear goals, immediate feedback, and challenging tasks. The discovery of 'mirror neurons' highlights the social brain's impact on emotional contagion, underscoring the leader's responsibility to positively influence the emotional state of their team and, by extension, the company's image.
Takeaways
- 🔍 Majority of people feel disengaged at work, which suggests a lack of optimal brain state for performance.
- 📈 The optimal state for performance is called 'flow', characterized by high focus, flexibility, and a sense of joy and rapture.
- 🛠 The art of leadership is to help individuals achieve and maintain this 'flow' state for peak performance and well-being.
- 🎯 Clear goals and flexibility in approach are crucial for creating an environment conducive to flow.
- 🔁 Immediate feedback is essential for individuals to gauge their progress and adjust their efforts accordingly.
- 💪 Challenging tasks that stretch an individual's skill set are vital for maintaining engagement and promoting growth.
- 🧠 The 'social brain' concept highlights the importance of brain-to-brain interactions and the influence of mirror neurons in empathy and emotional contagion.
- 🤝 Mirror neurons allow us to sense and match the emotions and intentions of others, which is fundamental for smooth social interactions.
- 🌐 Emotions are contagious, and leaders, being the most influential figures, can significantly impact the emotional state of their team.
- 🏢 The emotional state of customer-facing employees directly affects how customers perceive the company.
- 🗣️ Leaders have a 'secret weapon' in their ability to harness the social brain to improve team performance and company image.
Q & A
What is the common issue with people's feelings towards their job according to the transcript?
-A large proportion of people feel disengaged at work, treating it as merely a job they do just enough to keep.
What is the role of cortisol in the context of job performance mentioned in the script?
-Cortisol levels are an indicator of a person's brain state at work. Too little cortisol suggests a lack of engagement, while too much can lead to feelings of being overwhelmed and a drop in performance.
What is the optimal state for job performance and why is it significant?
-The optimal state for performance is called 'flow.' It is significant because it is the state where people perform and feel their best, leading to the best return on investment for both the individual and the company.
How did researchers discover the concept of 'flow'?
-Researchers discovered 'flow' by asking a diverse group of people, including ballerinas, basketball players, chess champions, surgeons, and business people, about a time when they outdid themselves and were surprised by their own performance.
What are the characteristics of the 'flow' state as described in the script?
-The 'flow' state is characterized by unperturbed attention, flexibility, adaptability, skills being challenged to their highest level, and a feeling of great joy or rapture.
What are some tips provided in the script to create a 'flow' state?
-Tips to create 'flow' include having clear goals, immediate feedback, challenging assignments that grow a person's skill set, and matching people's abilities with the tasks given to them.
What is the 'social brain' and how does it relate to leadership?
-The 'social brain' refers to the recent discovery of brain circuits that facilitate interaction between two people, including mirror neurons. It is relevant to leadership because leaders can use this understanding to skillfully manage the emotional states of their team members and clients.
What are mirror neurons and how were they discovered?
-Mirror neurons are brain cells that fire both when we perform an action and when we observe someone else performing the same action. They were discovered by scientists in Italy while studying a monkey's brain, noticing a neuron that fired when the monkey raised its arm and also when it observed a human raising a gelato.
Why are emotions considered contagious according to the script?
-Emotions are considered contagious because of the presence of mirror neurons, which create a brain-to-brain bridge that senses and matches the emotions and intentions of others.
What is the special condition or caveat for leaders regarding the 'social brain'?
-The special condition for leaders is that people tend to pay more attention to and be influenced more by the most powerful person in the group. Therefore, leaders have a significant impact on the emotional state of their team and clients.
How does the emotional state of the interface between a company and its customers affect the company's perception?
-The emotional state of the individuals at the interface of a company and its customers directly affects how the customers feel about the company, as their feelings at that moment are a reflection of their perception of the company as a whole.
Outlines
🧠 The Art of Leadership and the Flow State
This paragraph discusses the importance of engagement in the workplace and the concept of the 'flow state'. It suggests that many people feel disengaged at work, which can be attributed to a lack of optimal brain chemistry, specifically cortisol levels. The speaker explains that as individuals become more motivated and engaged, they move towards an optimal performance zone. However, too much pressure without adequate support can lead to a decline in performance. The 'flow state' is described as an optimal internal state for peak performance, characterized by intense focus, adaptability, skill challenge, and a sense of joy. The paragraph concludes with tips on creating flow, such as setting clear goals, providing immediate feedback, and matching tasks with individuals' abilities. It also introduces the concept of the 'social brain' as a tool for leaders to help their teams achieve flow.
🤝 The Power of Mirror Neurons and Emotional Contagion
The second paragraph delves into the discovery of mirror neurons, which are neural cells that activate both when we perform an action and when we observe someone else performing the same action. This discovery was made by observing the brain activity of a monkey, where a specific neuron fired not only when the monkey moved its arm but also when it observed a human raising an ice cream. The paragraph explains that mirror neurons create a 'brain-to-brain bridge' that allows us to sense others' movements, emotions, and intentions, contributing to the phenomenon of emotional contagion. It emphasizes the importance of leaders being aware of their influence on the emotional state of their team and the company's image, as they are often the most powerful figures in the group dynamics. The leader's emotional state can significantly impact the overall mood and performance of the team and the company's customer interactions.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Disengagement
💡Cortisol
💡Optimal Zone
💡Overwhelm
💡Leadership
💡Flow
💡Clear Goals
💡Immediate Feedback
💡Challenge and Growth
💡Social Brain
💡Mirror Neurons
Highlights
A large proportion of people feel disengaged at work, which is linked to a lack of optimal cortisol levels.
Leadership is about helping individuals find and maintain an optimal state for performance, which is neurologically beneficial.
The optimal state for performance is known as 'flow', characterized by high focus, flexibility, and skill challenge.
Flow was discovered through asking people about times when they performed exceptionally well.
Flow state is associated with feelings of rapture, bliss, and joy.
Smart leaders can facilitate flow states in their teams for optimal performance and well-being.
Creating flow involves clear goals, flexibility, immediate feedback, and challenging assignments.
Matching a person's abilities with tasks is crucial to avoid disengagement and to promote flow.
The social brain discovery highlights the importance of brain-to-brain interaction and the influence of mirror neurons.
Mirror neurons allow us to sense and match the emotions and intentions of others, affecting how we interact.
Emotions are contagious due to the mirror neuron system, impacting group dynamics and leadership.
Leaders have a significant impact on the emotional state of their followers, which in turn affects the company's perception.
The emotional state of customer-facing employees is critical to the customer's perception of the company.
Managing the emotional state of employees is essential for positive customer interactions and company image.
Leaders must use their 'secret weapon' of social brain skills to enhance performance and emotional well-being.
Understanding and applying the principles of flow and the social brain can transform leadership and organizational success.
Transcripts
if you ask people honestly about how
they feel about their job a very large
proportion are disengaged it's just a
job I just do enough to keep it that's
that statement is a rough index of a
person having too little cortisol
they're in the wrong brain state at work
as you get such people more motivated
more interested more engaged they rise
up this arc toward the optimal zone
however if you give them too much
pressure too little support too little
time too little staff too much to do
they start to feel overwhelmed and they
keep going to the right and performance
suffers so the art of leadership is to
help people get and stay in the optimal
state for performance that is how you
get your best return on investment from
a salary and from a neurological point
of view this means helping people get
and stay in the best internal state the
best state of their brain this optimal
state is called flow flow was discovered
by researchers who asked one simple
question of a huge variety of people the
question was tell me about a time when
you outdid yourself even you were
surprised too how well you did and they
asked ballerinas and basketball players
and chess champions and Surgeons
business people all kinds of people and
what they discovered was that it didn't
matter what domain of skill they were
involved in everyone who was outstanding
at that moment was in the eye
internal state and that state is
characterized by several things one is
unperturbed well attention their focus
is 200 percent another element is that
you're completely flexible and adaptable
whatever comes up you can handle it
another is that your skills are
challenged to their highest level
sometimes a little beyond another a very
important element is it feels great you
get a kind of a rapture or bliss there's
a joy in being in a flow state so the
state where people are performing at
their best is also a state where they
feel at their best and a smart leader an
effective leader an emotionally
intelligent leader can help people get
and stay in that state here's some tips
how to create flow one is clear goals
clarity about what to do what the goal
is
but flexibility and how to do it the
second is immediate feedback it helps to
know how you're doing helps to know if
you're getting closer to the goal the
third is to challenge and grow that
person's skill set give them an
assignment that stretches them and more
fundamentally to match people's
abilities with the tasks you give them
you don't want someone highly talented
to be doing something that's boring for
them then they're disengaged you don't
want someone to be in the wrong domain
of skill so the leaders task from this
point of view is to help people get and
stay in flow and how are you going to do
that well those were some ways but you
also have kind of a secret weapon
and that has to do with a new discovery
it's called the social brain this
discovery came in last five or ten years
when brain scientists stopped studying
one brain in one body and one person and
started studying two brains in two
bodies and two people while they
interacted and it turned out that there
were entire circuits of the brain that
hadn't been discovered before because
they'd never looked this way and these
circuits are designed to like a neural
radar to sense what's going on in the
other person's brain and to lock in to
that and to have a silent brain to brain
conversation no matter what else is
going on these were discovered in a very
intriguing way the big discovery is
called mirror neurons now that's what
that's the radar mirror neurons were
discovered when some scientists in Italy
were studying the brain of a monkey and
they were looking at the part of the
brain that moves the body and they're
studying just one cell at a time one day
or they were looking at a brain cell but
only fired it was only active when the
monkey raised its arm it's the only time
then one day the cells started firing
and the monkey wasn't moving they're
completely puzzled what's going on then
they realized it was a hot day a lab
assistant had gone out for a gelato he
was standing in front of the monkey and
every time the lab assistant raised the
gelato the monkey's brain cell for the
same activity fired that was the
discovery of something that happens in
us all the time whenever were with
another person it turns out we have
cells in our brain that are matching
precisely what's going on in the other
person this is essential
it gives us an immediate unconscious
sense of what's going on what are we
doing
it keeps the interaction running
smoothly so the mirror neuron creates a
brain to brain bridge that senses
movement emotion intention it's why
emotions are contagious it had been
known for several years in psychology
decades actually that if you take two
strangers have them come into a lab fill
out a little checklist how are you
feeling right now and then sit looking
at each other in silence for two minutes
and then fill out that same checklist
the person in that pair whose most
expressive transfers their emotional
state to the other person in two silent
minutes we never knew how we never knew
why but now we understand the emotions
are contagious we're constantly sending
and receiving them but there's a special
condition a special caveat for leaders
because it's human nature that people
pay most attention to and put most
importance on what the most powerful
person in that group says and does the
leader is the sender for better or for
worse so when I say you have a secret
weapon to help people get into that
better state for performance I'm talking
about using the social brain skillfully
what does that look like the key point
for any company is that whoever in your
company is at the interface of your
customers or clients
makes them feel better or worse and how
they feel at that moment is not how they
feel about that guy or that woman
it's how they feel about your company so
managing the emotional state of people
is extremely important from the highest
level to the outer fringe where your
company contacts your customers
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