Get Out of Your Animal Brain

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to give advice? When your sales reps talk to you about problems they are experiencing or challenges they are facing, why is it that the solution is usually clear to you? It’s not simply that as the sales manager you generally have more experience; it’s that you’re an observer of the situation, not an absorber. It’s an important distinction if you want to handle difficult people and situations with professionalism and a clear head every time, say Jeff Gee and Val Gee, president and vice president, respectively, of corporate training firm McNeil & Johnson, and authors of The Winner’s Attitude: Change How You Deal with Difficult People and Get the Best Out of Any Situation (McGraw-Hill, 2006).

When you observe a situation, you are aware of it through careful and directed attention. You notice and understand what is happening, but you aren’t emotionally caught up in it. By contrast, when you absorb a situation, you allow the emotional state of the irate customer or the flustered rep to affect your own emotional state. You thus become emotional, take it personally, and wind up reacting out of fear or anger. Obviously, the goal is always to be an observer of uncomfortable situations, not an absorber of them. But how do you get there?

Gee and Gee say you start by understanding that each of us has a primitive animal brain and an evolved human brain. The animal brain is about one thing: survival. It lives in fear because its job is to keep us alive and out of danger. Thus when we operate from our animal brain, we classify everything as a potential threat. Even if someone gives us a compliment, the animal brain thinks: Why did that person just say something nice? They must want something. “The animal brain is always on the lookout to make sure it is not being taken advantage of, and it will document things people say just to ‘get them’ later,” say Gee and Gee.

Our human brain, on the other hand, operates from love, acceptance, peace, and understanding. It’s the brain that allows us to share, help a coworker, volunteer, and respect others. And the key to being an observer (human brain) instead of an absorber (animal brain) is to use a technique the Gees call Switch. It’s a two-step process:

1. Recognize that you are operating from the animal brain.
2. Switch to your human brain.

Sound easy? It is, once you learn to recognize the emotions associated with the animal brain. Gee and Gee say there are about 30 thoughts, feelings, and actions that indicate we are operating from an animal brain. Some of these include: critical, judgmental, angry, suspicious, prideful, jealous, frustrated, superior, guilty, and boastful. If you are feeling any of these things, stop whatever you are doing, make the decision to Switch, then move into your human brain by replacing your negative thoughts and emotions with feelings of acceptance, honesty, concern, optimism, helpfulness, humor, joy, energy, generosity, modesty, patience, or any other positive feeling.

“When you operate from your human brain, you respond to all types of customers in the same way,” say the Gees. “Whether or not they are angry, you are not absorbing their anger, their frustration, or their fear. You are not allowing them to affect your day. And you do this by observing instead of absorbing.” Most importantly, you become a far more effective manager when you consistently operate from your human brain. It’s the only way to create a positive, upbeat, caring workplace environment, which will in turn boost retention and performance.