Have you ever felt in your own workplace as,
“Why is it so difficult to instill new processes among some team members?
Or
How do I really influence my team to take up new responsibilities?
This is not uncommon. Influencing team members to take up new things is not easy. But as a leader, the ability to influence for positive change is a necessary competence, not just among your team but also among colleagues and even to your management.
It is said,
Getting 2 people to agree to do on work is the biggest skill any human can possess, By Nepolian Hill
But why is this so difficult? Can recent brain research throw some light on how we can develop the competence to influence?
Human brains wired to resist change
As humans, we resist change and research has shown our brain is wired to resist change. The mental framework of change can help us to understand more about how to influence and what really triggers resistance to change.
But, a caution, there is no guarantee that we will be able to influence everyone by understanding this but knowing the mental framework for change, it will at least help to avoid some common mistakes!
Early in our evolution, the human brain wasn’t different from many other animals. All we had was only a reptilian brain its job was to keep us alive in the jungle, which by itself was by far the most important thing!.
By the very nature, we were very always on survival mode. As things evolved, our brain also evolved. Now to live in this complex world, to handle different kinds of situations, different parts of the brain evolved.
There is a mammalian or limbic brain which is responsible for emotions and memory. The mammalian brain has a highly evolved emotional capacity for love, compassion, respect, etc.
Then recent discovery has revealed the largest part of the human brain which neo-cortex is responsible for the logical and thinking part.
Now, whenever there is a change, what it means is we stop doing things we are familiar and start doing things where our familiarity is less. What this also means, from a zone where our success rate is high, we are exposed to a zone where the failure rate is high at least initially!
Now, due to these 2 things of non-familiarity, as well as the chance of failure, the change is perceived as a threat.
Whenever the human brain perceives a threat, it is the reptilian brain that takes control. The only response the reptilian brain has, is to get us to survival, I,e fight or flight approach.
This is one of the primary reason if someone is resisting change, it is because he is perceiving the change as a threat, in the form of fear of failure or giving up what he knows.
To avoid this fight or flight response and influence positive change what is required is not to trigger the reptilian brain but address the mammalian part of the brain which manages emotions.
The amygdala is an almond-shape set of neurons located deep in the brain’s medial temporal lobe. This is part of the brain shown to play a key role in the processing of emotions, the amygdala forms part of the limbic system.
To influence, learn to connect to emotions than reasons
What does the word being emotional or emotion mean to you?
Frankly, we are all taught to believe that to succeed in the professional world, what is required is technical competence, skills, reasoning. Even I had thought the same during my initial part of my career.
To my luck, I happened to attend a training on “Emotional Intelligence” and 2 days of the workshop helped me realize the importance of emotional competence in the workplace.
It was an eye-opener for me. I could understand how our brain works why emotions are the driving factors for any change.
Mayer describes EI (also called Emotional Competence) as follows:
“Emotional intelligence, as we described it, is the capacity to reason about emotions and emotional information, and of emotions to enhance thought. People with high EI, we believed, could solve a variety of emotion-related problems accurately and quickly.”
If the team is not listening to you, or your manager is not getting your point, or customer’s not responding, means you are not connecting to their emotional side.
Even if logic, reasons are accepted, if not moved emotionally, people will continue to resist change. The only fact is some people may express openly and some silently resist!
How to connect to emotions?
Emotional competence or connecting to human emotions means we need to learn to activate the mammalian part of the brain instead of the reptilian part of the brain which drives only fight or flight response.
Now in the workplace, it is not that people don’t connect to emotions. But it is mostly done in the wrong way with the emotion of fear or anger.
The concept of carrot and stick policy to drive actions is nothing but connecting to emotions, but the mental framework of positive influencing goes beyond fear & anger emotions.
The fear and anger trigger the reptilian brain of survival instinct, not the evolved mammalian brain emotions.
Studies have shown when it comes to creative, knowledge work, the policy of rewarding or punishing doesn’t create positive influence in the individuals.
Dan Pink, Puzzle of Motivation
Instead, the need is the emotional competence to connect to an individual’s beliefs, values, and behavior level is required to develop a sense of ownership for the change!
Use of emotions as a set of skills achieved which lead to the development of emotional competence. Attainment of the skills of emotional competence is crucial to self-efficacy.
To do this, some of the important skills which help,
- Being open-minded
- Ability to ask questions,
- Active listening,
- Using stories, Metaphors
- Recognizing that everyone is unique in their own abilities.
Ones a person at the emotional level has accepted the need for changes, acquiring the necessary knowledge & skill part becomes easier.
Most people will themselves enroll for new developments, and start doing things that are necessary.
Conclusion
Influencing is one of the key skills for a leadership position. The mental framework to influence positive change requires addressing the emotional aspects. As a leader to do this emotional competence is as much required as technical competence.
Hope this article helped you understand the framework of influencing people around us and given the slightest perspective to see things differently.
