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Episode 5 Show Notes: How Brain Science Can Change Your Life &

Make You A Better Leader

Dr Srini Pillay – Unlocking Your Leadership Potential Through Brain Science

In this episode, Dr Srini Pillay introduces his work in the area of brain science, offering powerful concepts

and techniques that are not only life-changing, but can also strengthen our leadership skills. Dr. Srini Pillay

is CEO of NeuroBusiness Group (NBG), voted one of the "Top 20 Movers and Shakers" in leadership

development in the world by Training Industry in 2013. Srini is also Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry

at Harvard Medical School and award-winning author of "Life Unlocked: 7 Revolutionary Lessons to

Overcome Fear" as well as "Your Brain and Business: The Neuroscience of Great Leaders" and "The Science

Behind The Law of Attraction".

Key Learnings From This

Episode

What is Neuroscience? A broad construct

that refers to the science of the nervous

system. Srini specifically teaches how to

change blood flow to improve personal and

business outcomes. Understanding our

own brains and how we impact the brains

of other people is critical today for the field

of leadership development.

Brain science can be taught on its own, but

it can also be used to explain other

concepts like soft skills and making an

abstract idea more concrete. It can also

expand on, and extend prior findings.

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Brain science basic constructs:

o We have a feeling (emotional) brain and thinking brain. When we understand the

interactions between the two, it can help to advance leadership development. When you

have anxiety that impacts the emotional brain, the metaphorical earthquakes can result in

“aftershocks” in the thinking brain. Leaders can benefit by understanding the thinking and

emotional brain connections, learning how to redirect blood flow back from the anxiety

center to the thinking brain.

o Conscious and unconscious phenomena – if you recognize it, talk about and feel it, you

know it’s conscious. However, more than 90% of the work done by the brain is occurring

outside of consciousness – in the unconscious. Brain science can help leaders understand

the unconscious things that stand in the way of them being their greatest selves. By

integrating what we know about psychology with human science, we can develop targeted

methods that can help us improve/reach our goals.

On leadership: Srini’s favorite definition of leadership comes from Warren Bennis who studied

leaders for many decades. “Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself.” No matter

what you are doing, no matter what you are changing in the brain, if you are authentic and can fully

express yourself, you will be more likely to recover from errors, to stick with a program and not get

distracted. The big challenge in self-expression is that you have to juggle your own needs as a

leader with those of the organization. Brain science can tell us a lot about how to do this to align

the two.

Technique of self-talk (speaking out loud to yourself). Your brain can change (it’s called

neuroplasticity). It allows you to do things to change the neuro connections that are underlying

your feeling and thinking. Self-talk is a method that involves talking out loud to yourself so you can

send a different or clearer message to your brain at strategic moments. Leaders can encourage

themselves and their teams by using self-talk to change the brain.

Ironic process theory. Under stress, your brain does not hear the word “not” and will do the

opposite of what you want. Studies show that people act in the opposing way when behavior is

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expressed in terms of what they don’t want to do versus what they want to do.

o Roger Federer or Serena Williams talking to themselves “Come on, you can do this!” It is

effective. It can lower stress and it is better when you do it in the second person. “Serena,

come on, you can do this.”

o Use the pronoun “you” and tell yourself positive things – what you want to do versus what

you don’t want to happen.

Managing stress and anxiety using CIRCA to protect your anxious brain. "You often can't change

what life is offering you, but you can change the way in which you are receiving it." Anxiety can

disrupt your thinking brain and your ability to work (make decisions, innovate, assess risks). Srini

recommends the pneumonic CIRCA to

calm the brain down – to shift blood

from anxiety center to the thinking

brain:

o C – Chunking tasks through self-

talk to calm an

overloaded/overwhelmed brain.

o I – Ignoring mental chatter by

practicing mindfulness

techniques daily. Takes the

attention off racing thoughts

and narratives.

o R – Reality check (is short for

this too will soon pass). How

long will this last? How will I

manage?

o C - Control check is like the

serenity prayer. Identify what things you can and cannot control and let go of those you

cannot.

o A - Attention shift. Taking your brain’s flashlight away from the problem and shifting it to

solution. How can I get to the solution? Who else can help me?

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Amygdala and unconscious anxiety. Stress can be helpful in getting things done, but after a while,

you get diminishing returns. Anxiety can activate the amygdala (the guard dog of the human brain),

causing it to overreact and generate narratives (chatter). Rather than engaging it, use CIRCA to

quieten those narratives. Unconscious anxiety – anxiety can attack you under the radar, even when

you are not aware of it. Demonstrated this principle through the cortical blindness study, which

revealed that the unconscious brain can pick up fear and anxiety, activating the amygdala of people

who cannot see. If you find yourself slowing down, hitting a wall, easily fatigued, even though you

can’t feel anxiety you may be experiencing unconscious anxiety and it can be addressed using

CIRCA.

Leadership development & leadership synchrony: Srini has applied concepts of emotional

intelligence and empathy with diverse business groups including engineers who grasped these

concepts because they aren’t ‘fuffy’ but instead, are based on brain science. He has worked in a

variety of functions, organization levels and industries, including consulting, defense, insurance,

non-profits. Can be used to identify future leaders and to identify psychological biases.

Leadership synchrony. You can identify who a leader is by looking at their brainwaves, because

they can synchronize their brains with their followers. Has offered techniques to achieve synchrony.

"You often can't change what life is offering you, but you can change the way in

which you are receiving it."

“Brain science can tell us a lot about how we can juggle our own needs with the

needs of the organization, so we come into synchrony or alignment with that

organization."

– Dr Srini Pillay

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Recommended Reading and References From this Episode

Your Brain and Business: The Neuroscience of Great Leaders

Life Unlocked: 7 Revolutionary Lessons to Overcome Fear

To Follow Dr Srini Pillay

Drsrinipillay.com

Nbgcorporate.com

Twitter @srinipillay

Facebook: NeuroBusiness Group & Srini Pillay MD

Srini’s LinkedIn Profile

Dr Pillay’s Question to HR Studio Podcast Group Members

If you had to hypothesis about self-sabotage on your goals, what might that be and how can you learn more

about it?

Aired: Monday, May 16, 2016 - 8:00am

Industry: Consulting

Host: Kyle O’Connor

Guest: Dr Srini Pillay

Type: HR Studio Podcast Click the icon to listen to

Episode 5