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I am so pleased and thrilled to be back with another episode of Lead to Excel podcast. You can tell that I'm smiling so much today because I am actually going to be talking about a really important, interesting, exciting, oh everything topic today. So my name is Maureen Ciana and I am the founder of the Mindsight Academy, a neurocoach to executives, leaders, entrepreneurs, and a neuroleadership trainer. I use Insights from Neuroscience to help you drive behavior change, create new habits using emotional intelligence. Remember to subscribe and share this podcast so that other people can also find it. So grab your drink, whatever that might be, and let's get started. Have you ever frozen under pressure or found yourself underperforming when it mattered most despite your deep expertise or your usual boldness? Many of us can relate to this. Neuroscience now shows that remaining calm under pressure is not an inborn trait, but a skill that anyone can learn. Someone just told me how her security camera's alarm went off. And when she looked out of the window, this was about 10 p.m. at night, she saw Robers taking something from under her car, and she literally froze in fear and could not do anything. It took her a good few minutes after they had literally taken what they wanted and left for her to recover and call the police. Maybe you have experienced not being able to speak or think straight when being criticized by your manager or when presenting in a meeting. Our brain's threat response is activated by our external environment, causing our body to respond in the fight, flight, or freeze response. The reaction starts when the amygdala in the emotional center of the brain interprets a situation as a threat. This perception causes our brain to secrete hormones that tell our nervous system to prepare our body to take drastic action. Your breath gets faster, your body floods your muscles with blood, your peripheral vision goes away, and a lot of other responses. I hear people talk about the fight or flight response, but not the freeze response, which is equally important to know. For leaders, these external triggers could arise by having a difficult conversation, a negotiation, the pressure of meeting targets and deadlines, expectations of a boss, constant criticism from your manager, or even when you're about to do public speaking or present in a meeting. Our body freezes when it releases a cocktail of stress-related hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, causing elevated breathing and heart rates, and just like the things I've described, including dilation of hyperpills and increased sweating as well. When our brain goes into threats, our prefrontal cortex, we are working memory and consciousness lies, becomes deactivated, preventing us from making conscious choices, thereby making us to become more prone to recalling and relieving negative emotional experiences. This ultimately makes your performance as a leader in that moment or situation decline and can even trigger a vicious circle of self-doubt, self-blame, shame, guilt, even fear, making it all the more likely that you freeze again in a similar situation. You might find that you feel anxious or begin to question your abilities, causing you to potentially even become risk-averse. I ran a leadership training workshop recently on emotional intelligence. And one of the leaders in that meeting asked a question about a situation she was having at work. And what she described was a case where she had a member of her team who she was getting really frustrated with because she was having to correct him from doing the same thing repeatedly. And she couldn't understand why each time he repeated the same thing, she was correcting him, but within a few weeks, he would do it all over again. And she couldn't understand why that was happening. And she was really getting frustrated with him. And I went on to explain that a lot of things could be causing that. One could be the way she was correcting him, that the way she was correcting him might actually be a threat to his brain, which then puts him into this flight, flight of freeze mechanism and specifically freeze mechanism whereby he then gets risk-averse, gets really agitated and anxious, but then gets into this vicious loop where he then repeats the same behavior pattern over and over. The frustrating part for many people is that these demands of work, work pressure, or expectations cause an imbalance completely unconsciously. So while you think you're ready for that meeting, for example, or your employees feel that they've understood your constant corrections, just like this leader that I just talked about, the unconscious brain has other ideas. How you respond when you're under pressure or push to your limits makes an indelible impression on the people around you. A research done by Harvard Business Review showed that your temperament when under pressure has a tremendous impact on yours and your team's performance. When things get hot, are you calm, curious, direct, and willing to listen? How would your direct reports describe you? Would they describe you as being angry, close-minded, or even manipulative? Or would they describe you as being calm, supportive, and empowering? An online survey, also done by Harvard Business Review, asked about 1,300 people to describe their leader style when under pressure and the impact of that behavior on their work. And they found that a large majority of managers and leaders crumble under pressure. They reported that when under pressure, 53% of leaders are more closed-minded and controlling than open and curious. They found also that 37% avoid or sidestep rather than be direct and unambiguous. 30% are more devious and deceitful than candid and honest. Interesting research, isn't it? The research found that when leaders struggle under pressure, it impacts on their influence and on their people, lowering the morale of their team members and also impacting on the quality standards. It makes their people more likely to miss deadlines and repeat the mistakes. So you can see what might be happening to that manager that is having that problem. Too many leaders can't talk or engage in dialogue when the stakes grow high, making their team members consider leaving their job because they shut down, disengage, and become less likely to go above and beyond in their responsibilities. This is where you begin to see employees complaining of being frustrated and angry. Remember the saying that people don't leave the organizations, they leave their managers. So the question now is: how do you stay calm and effective when you're under pressure? The same part of the brain that is activated when we visualize an action, for example, when you practice or visualize yourself giving a speech or talking in an important meeting, and when we actually perform the action. Many athletes, such as Serena Williams, practice this for skills and abilities and also for pressure. Scientific evidence shows how visualization enhances accuracy, reduces anxiety, and increases a sense of control when under pressure. So when next you have a big moment at work, visualize the situation, rehearse it over in your mind with as much clarity and detail as you can. What will it look like and feel like to walk into your manager's office and ask for that raise? What will be the first words you say? What will it feel like to walk into that meeting and start giving your speech? Or even on the Zoom call, what will it feel like to start talking in front of all the people that would be on that call? It's also helpful to practice for pressure. Practicing for pressure is very important. I remember when my sons were young, and my husband would take them into the garden to practice their football skills. And I watched as he got them kicking the ball with their left leg, which was not natural for them. But this really helped them to be great football players, and I can say that because I'm their mom. Another important thing to remember is don't overthink. Paralysis by analysis is a common problem, and leaders are not exempt from it. It can make you doubt yourself by ruminating on what you said, what you should have said, or what someone said to you, what you should have done. And we could go on and on with this, but you know what I mean. Writing down your fears can actually help alleviate them for better performance. Mindfulness trainings are becoming increasingly popular now and have been shown to be effective in reducing performance anxiety as long as you actually stick to the practice. Another great tool is to develop a stress mindset. Tennis legend Billy Jean King has said pressure is a privilege. Shifting your perception of stress from stress is overwhelming to stress is enhancing, actually changes the way your body responds to it. A situation becomes a threat when you perceive the external situations, such as danger or uncertainty, outweighs your resources, which are your knowledge or your skills or your ability to cope. So next time you're nervous and you feel your heart starting to race, don't tell yourself to calm down. Because your subconscious brain and your body won't buy that. Instead, reframe the narrative and tell yourself you're expectant, excited, and gearing up for optimal performance. Self-talk, for example, saying things like, I'm excited, saying it out loud, or inner dialogue, telling yourself that you're excited can actually help you harness and channel the stress to focus and perform, and thereby averting a freeze response. I always talk about emotional intelligence, and this is where it really becomes important to learn how to relabel your emotions. It's important to identify and name the emotion you're feeling. Relabel it to a positive emotion so that you're changing the negative to the positive. For example, you can relabel fear to anticipation. So instead of it being something you're afraid of, it could be something you're looking forward to. Change frustration to desire or dread to caution, being flustered to being excited. And I've told this story how someone once umone told me how she was starting a new job that she really wanted, but she was so nervous about starting the job, and it was almost paralyzing her. And I said, But why are you nervous? Why not excited when it's something you really want? And she went, Yeah, but everyone gets nervous before a job. And I went, No, not everyone. Everyone doesn't get nervous. A lot of people do, but you don't have to be nervous, especially since it's a job you like. Nerves are fine to an extent, but when they begin to cripple you, then they're actually limiting. Nerves are great because they help you to be focused, they help you to, you know, they bring up your best game. But when it begins to cripple you, then it's a problem. When you relabel your emotions, you're actually taking control of your brain by convincing your amygdala that this is not a threat situation, but instead a stay aware and watchful situation or even a sit back and enjoy situation. Finally, learn to rationalize the event. Don't allow your anticipated results overwhelm your ability to be a high-performing leader or business owner. Your results are not your identity. Disconnect your identity, that is, who you are as a person, from your results. This means that a failure does not make you a failure. In a previous podcast, I've talked about how when I had to close a business, I literally identified as a failure. But it was when I got to realize the power of taking control of my brain that I went, no, I'm not a failure. The business failed. I learned lessons from it. And I sat back to praise myself and really acknowledge what I had done by stepping out to set up the business and the lessons I learned from it. And the truth is that it was those things I learned from that business that helped me to set up and start this new business that I'm doing now that is just absolutely amazing and successful. A loss doesn't mean that you're a loser, nor does a win make you a winner. For example, after winning gold at the Alpine Ski World Cup in 2020, Lara got Barami said, it's just a victory. In the face of a crisis, remember to see the big picture to help you minimize the negative effects. Nobody is immune from the brain stress response when under pressure. However, you can adopt new behaviors and mindsets by rewiring your brain to help you prevent a freeze response and enable you better navigate it when it arrives. I really hope you found this extremely useful. Okay, three things before we finish today. Have you subscribed to this podcast? If you haven't, make sure you click that subscribe button wherever you listen to this podcast. Because once you subscribe, you will not miss an episode. And as usual, if you have a topic you would love me to speak about or bring a guest on, do let me know by leaving a review. Finally, do have a fantastic week and remember that you are limitless. So I look forward to seeing you in our next episode. Bye for now.