Is your amygdala hijacking your success at work?
Ever happened to you that you got into a heated argument with a co-worker or your boss, got into angry finger-pointing situations, or worst; quit your job in the spur-of-the-moment? Or, you lose a closely-contested tennis game that you badly wanted to win, and then slam the racket on the ground in anger? You are operating in a high-stress environment, you want the team to raise the bar and ‘in your minds’ when that doesn’t happen, you let it out on your co-workers? If this has happened to you, do not worry — It’s not a ‘YOU’ problem. It’s ‘Amygdala Hijack.’
Amygdala hijack occurs when strong emotions such as anger, fear, rage, or extreme excitement ‘take over’ the thinking part of your brain which makes it impossible to be rational and think straight. This can cause you to act in ways that you might regret later and say to yourself ‘what was I thinking?’ The truth is, you may not be thinking at all when your amygdala hijacked you. In other words, your logical brain gets impaired due to emotional outbursts caused by the amygdala.
This happens to the best of us. Do you recall Will Smith walking up on the stage to smack Chris Rock in the face at the 2022 Oscars? He wasn’t in any immediate danger, but he obviously felt threatened that he was compelled to do something about it after hearing Chris joke on his wife’s appearance which didn’t land well with Will. It was evident a little later during Will Smith’s acceptance speech that he was taken aback and still trying to come to terms with what had transpired. But in that one moment, he caused a phenomenal damage to his image and reputation that he had built for the last 40 years.
What is the amygdala?
The cortex in your brain is involved in complex processes such as memory, thinking, learning, reasoning, problem-solving, emotions, consciousness and functions related to your senses. The temporal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cortex. It is primarily responsible for interpreting sounds from the ears and plays a significant role in recognizing and using language. The temporal lobe also helps with object recognition and interacts with other structures to create new and long term memories. The amygdala is a collection of nuclei located in the temporal lobe of the brain. The word ‘amygdala’ is derived from the Greek word ‘amygdale’ meaning, almond; referring to the almond-like shape of it’s most prominent section. While we usually refer to it as a singular amygdala, the human brain has two amygdalae — one in each cerebral hemisphere.
The amygdala plays a key role with several functions of our body:
1. Trigger a body response -You put your hand in a hot water, and immediately pull your hand away. Or, someone tries to punch you and your hands move forward in self defense.
2. Detect threats -If you are afraid of a dog and you are around one, ever realized how conscious do you get? Or, you are walking alone on the street late at night and are super watchful of the surroundings around you constantly scanning for threats.
3. Fear conditioning -I know from personal experience, when I was involved in a car accident where a trailer hit my car and dragged it down the freeway before coming to a halt. I was fortunate enough to escape alive without any injuries, but the accident scarred me for almost an year where I was afraid to drive.
4. Processing positive emotions -That college admit or the job offer that you were so badly waiting for, and you almost can’t believe it when that happens. Or, when you are watching that closely-contested India-Pakistan cricket game or a USC-UCLA football game where the team that you are supporting wins it.
5. Encoding certain emotional memories in the brain -I recall the birth of my first child and how madly emotional I was to call a little one my own, my toy, my everything! I remember the minutest of detail from that night about my daughter but it is a blur on who did I speak with that night, what did I talk about etc.
Can you exercise control over the amygdala hijack to compose you better?
It is difficult to do so, but you can certain stop it or exercise much better control over it; if you make a conscious effort about what’s happening in the brain. It helps you prepare in advance what you would do in certain situations and think about the potential consequences of losing control. The next time you find yourself in such a situation, try talking to yourself first instead of letting your emotions out on someone else. Don’t reply to that email that made you antsy — the response can wait. Regaining your composure first is more important. It always helps to disconnect for a little, remove yourself from the situation and then think rationally once you feel a bit calmer from within. However, if you anger is triggered by Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED), seeking professional assistance for treatment is strongly recommended.
Remember to always manage your energy, not your time. There are 5 things that I recommend you do:
1. Focus on your recovery -It could be as simple as spending time with your loved one for 5–10 minutes between those two meetings on your calendar.
2. Leverage your natural energy cycle -Understand the natural rhythm of your body’s energy surges and dips. Harness those peaks of energy when they occur.
3. Leverage the slumps -These breaks don’t necessarily have to be long in duration. Instead, it could be taking a 20-minute nap, going for a walk, stretching or meditating.
4. Reduce decision fatigue -Streamline your choices, avoid random decision-making and reduce the number of decisions that you make in a day. Having shopping-lists with you when you go grocery shopping makes it so easy for you, this is no different.
How can people managers help their directs?
Leaders should help the employees focus on their self-development instead of comparing themselves with others. That also doesn’t bring toxicity in the team where you are competing with your peers. Always compete with yourself and look to become a better person than what you were in the past, and then keep raising the bar to the next level. Back your directs, give them the autonomy that they need to thrive in the work environment and become their sounding board.
I had a leader in my former life when I was working in a highly stressful environment who would just let me vent in our 1:1s and absolutely have my back all the time. It was much later after I grew in experience that I realized that he used to know a lot of things that I would share with him but he never cut me off. He understood that by acting as my sounding board was helping me de-stress and let me deliver impactful projects in record time. My current leader at AWS is another excellent example of a fearless and compassionate leader who will always find time for you, no matter what. She is always someone that I confidently lean on to to confide, learn from her life experiences and challenge the status quo, if need be to make us a better organization. Navigating through the re-orgs, head count allocations, the brand that you aspire your team should be recognized by and building up to it while ensuring that the business is handled in parallel is no small task. But knowing your people, trusting in the process vs focusing on the outcome and having a leader you believe in creates a healthy work environment.
Here at Amazon, we follow a data-driven approach to provide feedback to our peers and directs. Starting with Forte, Amazon’s annual performance review process; we focus on the employee’s super powers and work with them to grow around it. We invest time in talking to the team about emotional intelligence (EQ), amygdala hijack so that people become more self-aware and are able to grow and excel even more in what they want to accomplish.
Always remember:
If you don’t celebrate yourself first, why would others do that?
