When things get tough in leadership, or in life, I have observed that we all have a typical, default emotion which rears its head. This may be anger, anxiety, guilt, resentment etc. It is often the Achille’s heel to some of our greatest strengths. For example, a strong, courageous leader may struggle to contain their anger; or an empathetic, caring leader may experience guilt or resentment; a highly organised multi-tasker may end up experiencing exhaustion.
I sometimes visualise this default emotion as a Chimp raging out of control. This is as a result of reading the excellent book, The Chimp Paradox by Prof Steve Peters. The book has also been rewritten as a version to use with children.
In his book, Prof. Peters describes how the brain can be seen as being working in three ways:
1. The human who works with facts and evidence and makes deductions using logical thinking.
2. The chimp, who works with feelings and impressions and is not under your control.
3. The computer which acts as a reference library and can also create automatic thinking and acting.
For a quick summary of the book, this YouTube clip is really helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTmLMfQW5WQ
As leaders we need to learn to recognise when our chimp is trying to come out to play and learn strategies to keep the chimp in check. We need to ensure that our emotions and associated behaviours don’t have a negative impact on others in our organisations and affect the carefully developed culture. If you want to get to know your chimp and its associated behaviours, please get in contact.
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