Article

Leaders have a huge impact on our employees’ state of mind. Virtually everything we do and say elicits a psychological reaction. We can make them feel positive, engaged, and empowered, or we can strike fear in their hearts, shut them down, and send them into self-protection mode. Michael E. Frisina, PhD, calls these two states of mind “upper brain” and “lower brain”—and he says they have everything to do with performance.

“When people are in their upper brain, they’re more likely to do what they need to do,” says Frisina, who, along with Robert Frisina, wrote Leading With Your Upper Brain: How to Create the Behaviors That Unlock Performance Excellence. “They’re more creative. They’re happier and more fulfilled. Their relationships are better. They trust leaders more. They do their best work.

“In lower brain, they might blindly follow orders in the moment, but even if this does lead to higher performance, it won’t be sustainable,” he adds. “They’ll be stressed, frustrated, and anxious—and too focused on keeping themselves safe to do much else.”

Let’s be real: Good leaders don’t want that kind of power. Unfortunately, we can’t change how the human brain is wired. What we can do is learn the triggers that provoke fear, anxiety, and worry—Frisina calls these the “unholy trinity of the lower brain”—so we can avoid them.

It goes without saying that yelling at, threatening, or belittling people puts them into lower brain. But there are things even the most well-intentioned leaders do that have the same effect—like overloading them with work, giving vague instructions, or missing opportunities to celebrate.

The good news is there are practical, doable actions we implement that keep employees in upper-brain mode and—if we happen to trigger them—lead them back there. For example:

Start and end every meeting with what’s going well. Getting everyone into their upper brain right away (“Thanks to all your hard work, the client presentation yesterday was a huge success!”) leads to a more joyful and collaborative meeting. Ending on a positive note (“I’m so grateful to be part of such a smart, creative team!”) sends people off to do the work feeling good about themselves and excited for the next step.

Reframe a stressful project. First ask employees, “What is it about this project that feels hard or stressful?” Then ask them, “Is what you are thinking about in your control or out of your control?” This shifts them away from skeptical, confusing, fear-provoking “what if” thinking and into productive, energized thinking. Rather than focusing on the negative outcome they want to avoid, they focus on the positive outcome they will create.

Set clear expectations and reasonable deadlines. Clarity inspires people and makes them feel good about working on a project. Vagueness and open-endedness are anxiety-producing. So are unrealistic time frames, which only set people up to fail and instill a sense of dread. When people know exactly what they’re supposed to do and have time to do it, they’ll excel.

When people ask questions, lead them to the answers. Don’t say, “This is why we pay you the big bucks. You figure it out.” Statements like this trigger the lower brain. Instead, describe the outcome you want and ask questions to guide them in a discovery exercise. Reinforce the belief that by working together, the collective intelligence of the team can achieve amazing outcomes.

Keep them thankful during provoking events. When we are fixated on, What’s going to happen to me? we tend to get overwhelmed. When we’re in a state of gratitude, it gets the focus off ourselves. Help people refresh and refocus by asking them to make a list of three things they’re grateful for. This is a good way to start and end meetings.

Help them attend to what’s important by spelling out priorities… An out-of-control to-do list plunges people into their lower brain and confuses activity with progress. Limit the number of assigned projects to groups of three and prioritize them from “most important” to “least important.” You’ll get far better results and give people the satisfaction of completing goals that really matter.

…and declutter their to-do list. Stop overworking people with non-essential objectives and crisis management events. Once you’ve magnified what’s important (previous tip), remove what’s not. Act as a shield to keep low-value objectives out of their way. The less distracting “noise” they must field, the more likely they are to be focused, engaged, and productive.

Celebrate to create a working memory of success and achievement. Get into a flow of recognizing wins and success stories: in conversations, at every meeting, as a part of every process improvement initiative, etc. The more we emphasize what’s going well, the more likely people are to stay in their upper brain—and the more likely success is to be repeated.

“Even the best leader will trigger employees’ lower brains at times,” says Frisina. “But when we consistently and proactively take steps to keep them feeling engaged, appreciated, and energized, we keep the neurological bank balance in the black. The team’s frame of mind is good most of the time—and on the rare occasions that it isn’t, it’s easier for them to recover and move on.”

About the Authors:

Michael E. Frisina, PhD, has authored more than 50 papers and published articles on leadership and organizational effectiveness. He is a contributing author to the Borden Institute’s highly acclaimed textbook series on military medicine. He is a visiting scholar at the Hastings Center in New York, a visiting fellow in medical humanities at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, and a John C. Maxwell Top 100 Transformational Leader.

Robert W. Frisina, MA, is a principal in the Frisina Group and executive director at the Center for Influential Leadership, with primary responsibility for program development and research in leadership effectiveness and organizational development. He is a member of the U.S. Army Reserve and served as a civil affair spe¬cialist with the Second Brigade Combat Team in the 101st Airborne Division in southern Afghanistan.