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 * 05-29-22
 * leadership now


THIS IS THE REASON YOU’RE LOSING YOUR BEST PEOPLE, ACCORDING TO BRAIN SCIENCE


THE BURNOUT PROBLEM CAUSED BY PERFORMANCE PUNISHMENT CAN’T BE SOLVED BY
OVERACHIEVERS.

[Photo: Nataliya Vaitkevich/Pexels]
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

More Like This
How to make better and faster decisions when you are struggling to keep up
This leadership style is powerful and effective
Recruiters are passing over college degrees for this essential soft skill
By Joy VerPlanck and Emma Sarro—Neuroleadership Institute 4 minute Read

Humans innately want to be great. Our drive for status—a need to be seen by
others as capable, worthy, or impactful—is so fundamental to human survival that
the brain releases feel-good chemicals like dopamine and serotonin when we get a
status boost, so that we keep coming back for more. In fact, those brain candy
rewards are so sweet, we work harder to get them again, and again. And there
could be an evolutionary design to make us want to take care of our tribe:
status seekers are good for society because when humans achieve great things,
the entire species wins.




In the workplace, being given the toughest assignments or problems to solve that
seemingly no one else can are ways to get the feel-goods. For those especially
driven by status rewards at work, hearing things like “I know you’re swamped,
but there’s no one else I can trust to get it done fast and right” is enough for
you to ignore the red flags or competing demands on your time. Not only do you
feel a rush of reward signals for being chosen over others for your abilities,
you also get to complete a task which provides a second rush of reward
signals for the achievement of a job well done. Status at work can deliver a
double-dose of feel-good emotions, so it’s no surprise status junkies end up
being overachievers.


THE DOWNSIDE OF OVERACHIEVEMENT

But for all the feel-good endorphins you may get from continually bailing out
your manager or your team, you can’t stave off reality. That after-hours call
for help from your supervisor that comes in, while you’re making dinner, feels
good, for a minute. Then reality sets in: A slacker on your team is having an
uninterrupted dinner, as if being rewarded for their low level of achievement
with a gift of respect for their time. That sweet brain candy turns into a fiery
response and the brain signals trigger a much stronger fight or flight response
than the feel-good emotions. This happens because fairness, like status, is
another domain of social experience that activates strong threat and reward
signals and drives behavior. Before you know it, what started out as
overachievement turns high performance into performance punishment–where unequal
taskings turn into unfair burdens.

While status reward signals make us feel good, fairness threat triggers are even
stronger. That’s because the brain has evolved for our survival, identifying and
responding faster to threatening or negative situations than pleasurable ones.
For example, if you miss an invitation for a free meal, you might miss lunch,
but if you miss a snake, you might become lunch. To put this in the context of
performance punishment, if we aren’t in the spotlight, we risk missing a
compliment. But if we aren’t tasked equally, we risk burnout.



Over time, repeatedly being put in an unequal situation becomes a chronic,
persistent state. So much so that it can condition you to anticipate this, so
that every time you see a Skype chat from your supervisor that says “got a sec?”
your brain responds by signaling a threat state, before you even read the whole
message. This chronic condition, and resulting avoidance, can quickly lead to
burnout. 


THE BURNOUT-BIAS CONNECTION

The burnout problem caused by performance punishment can’t be solved by
overachievers. The punished employee could attempt to disrupt the behavior by
reducing their value, either by pushing back or by underperforming. But pushing
back is hard when teams support each other, and underperformance isn’t likely
going to happen in the case of an overachiever. It’s incumbent upon the leader,
then, to mitigate their biases to fix this.

Imbalance in assignments often happens when well-meaning supervisors make quick
decisions based on unconscious biases. These biases are similarity, expedience,
experience, distance, and safety—known as the SEEDS ModelⓇ. In work assignments,
they can look like this:



Similarity: “I’ll give it to the person who shares my view on the subject.”

Expedience: “I’m assuming this person has the most capacity for this task.”

Experience: “I think this person did a task like this before.”



Distance: “This person is already on the phone with me, I’ll just ask them.”

Safety: “I don’t feel I can trust anyone else for this task.”

Continuing to rely upon mental shortcuts creates a compound negative effect on
the decision-maker, too. By perpetuating the inaccurate perception of a team’s
true capabilities, leaders are reinforcing their own behaviors and viewing their
team through their biases. This may result in not seeing the growth you expect
from an under-performer, because you never give them opportunities: or thinking
your team has more capacity than it really does, because you keep depleting your
only capable people.



Active bias mitigation in managing people is a regenerative talent practice, but
only when we really lean into it. Awareness of our biases isn’t enough to
prevent poor leadership decisions and unfairness in handing out assignments. To
create long-term behavior change, habits need to be prioritized and systems need
to be in place that encourage—not inhibit—their ability to be practiced. To
proactively address bias, these three habits must be practiced daily:

Label: To identify what type of cognitive bias you’re having

Mitigate: To apply in-the-moment strategies and preventative measures



Engage: To encourage others to help mitigate the influence of bias in teams

When brain-friendly habits become the norm, leaders, direct reports, and
teammates have a shared language and mutual support that allows open and honest
communication. Teams that are able to openly recognize when biases creep in, can
help each other course-correct and prevent the impact of burnout from unfair
assignments. And with more time and capacity, status junkies can explore better
ways to get their brain candy fix.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This article originally appeared on Neuroleadership Institute’s blog and is
reprinted with permission.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------





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    * Genpact
    * IBM


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Help Center
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 * DELOITTE


 * DEPT


 * ELEVATE PRIZE


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 * KLARNA


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 * FASTCO WORKS
   
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   brand stories through Fast Company's distinctive lens

FC Executive Board
collections


 * FAST GOVERNMENT
   
   The future of innovation and technology in government for the greater good


 * MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES
   
   Fast Company's annual ranking of businesses that are making an outsize impact


 * MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE
   
   Leaders who are shaping the future of business in creative ways


 * WORLD CHANGING IDEAS
   
   New workplaces, new food sources, new medicine--even an entirely new economic
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advertisement

 * 05-29-22
 * leadership now


THIS IS THE REASON YOU’RE LOSING YOUR BEST PEOPLE, ACCORDING TO BRAIN SCIENCE


THE BURNOUT PROBLEM CAUSED BY PERFORMANCE PUNISHMENT CAN’T BE SOLVED BY
OVERACHIEVERS.

[Photo: Nataliya Vaitkevich/Pexels]
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

By Joy VerPlanck and Emma Sarro—Neuroleadership Institute 4 minute Read

Humans innately want to be great. Our drive for status—a need to be seen by
others as capable, worthy, or impactful—is so fundamental to human survival that
the brain releases feel-good chemicals like dopamine and serotonin when we get a
status boost, so that we keep coming back for more. In fact, those brain candy
rewards are so sweet, we work harder to get them again, and again. And there
could be an evolutionary design to make us want to take care of our tribe:
status seekers are good for society because when humans achieve great things,
the entire species wins.

advertisement

advertisement



In the workplace, being given the toughest assignments or problems to solve that
seemingly no one else can are ways to get the feel-goods. For those especially
driven by status rewards at work, hearing things like “I know you’re swamped,
but there’s no one else I can trust to get it done fast and right” is enough for
you to ignore the red flags or competing demands on your time. Not only do you
feel a rush of reward signals for being chosen over others for your abilities,
you also get to complete a task which provides a second rush of reward
signals for the achievement of a job well done. Status at work can deliver a
double-dose of feel-good emotions, so it’s no surprise status junkies end up
being overachievers.


THE DOWNSIDE OF OVERACHIEVEMENT

But for all the feel-good endorphins you may get from continually bailing out
your manager or your team, you can’t stave off reality. That after-hours call
for help from your supervisor that comes in, while you’re making dinner, feels
good, for a minute. Then reality sets in: A slacker on your team is having an
uninterrupted dinner, as if being rewarded for their low level of achievement
with a gift of respect for their time. That sweet brain candy turns into a fiery
response and the brain signals trigger a much stronger fight or flight response
than the feel-good emotions. This happens because fairness, like status, is
another domain of social experience that activates strong threat and reward
signals and drives behavior. Before you know it, what started out as
overachievement turns high performance into performance punishment–where unequal
taskings turn into unfair burdens.

While status reward signals make us feel good, fairness threat triggers are even
stronger. That’s because the brain has evolved for our survival, identifying and
responding faster to threatening or negative situations than pleasurable ones.
For example, if you miss an invitation for a free meal, you might miss lunch,
but if you miss a snake, you might become lunch. To put this in the context of
performance punishment, if we aren’t in the spotlight, we risk missing a
compliment. But if we aren’t tasked equally, we risk burnout.

advertisement


Over time, repeatedly being put in an unequal situation becomes a chronic,
persistent state. So much so that it can condition you to anticipate this, so
that every time you see a Skype chat from your supervisor that says “got a sec?”
your brain responds by signaling a threat state, before you even read the whole
message. This chronic condition, and resulting avoidance, can quickly lead to
burnout. 


THE BURNOUT-BIAS CONNECTION

The burnout problem caused by performance punishment can’t be solved by
overachievers. The punished employee could attempt to disrupt the behavior by
reducing their value, either by pushing back or by underperforming. But pushing
back is hard when teams support each other, and underperformance isn’t likely
going to happen in the case of an overachiever. It’s incumbent upon the leader,
then, to mitigate their biases to fix this.

Imbalance in assignments often happens when well-meaning supervisors make quick
decisions based on unconscious biases. These biases are similarity, expedience,
experience, distance, and safety—known as the SEEDS ModelⓇ. In work assignments,
they can look like this:

advertisement


Similarity: “I’ll give it to the person who shares my view on the subject.”

Expedience: “I’m assuming this person has the most capacity for this task.”

Experience: “I think this person did a task like this before.”

advertisement


Distance: “This person is already on the phone with me, I’ll just ask them.”

Safety: “I don’t feel I can trust anyone else for this task.”

Continuing to rely upon mental shortcuts creates a compound negative effect on
the decision-maker, too. By perpetuating the inaccurate perception of a team’s
true capabilities, leaders are reinforcing their own behaviors and viewing their
team through their biases. This may result in not seeing the growth you expect
from an under-performer, because you never give them opportunities: or thinking
your team has more capacity than it really does, because you keep depleting your
only capable people.

advertisement


Active bias mitigation in managing people is a regenerative talent practice, but
only when we really lean into it. Awareness of our biases isn’t enough to
prevent poor leadership decisions and unfairness in handing out assignments. To
create long-term behavior change, habits need to be prioritized and systems need
to be in place that encourage—not inhibit—their ability to be practiced. To
proactively address bias, these three habits must be practiced daily:

Label: To identify what type of cognitive bias you’re having

Mitigate: To apply in-the-moment strategies and preventative measures

advertisement


Engage: To encourage others to help mitigate the influence of bias in teams

When brain-friendly habits become the norm, leaders, direct reports, and
teammates have a shared language and mutual support that allows open and honest
communication. Teams that are able to openly recognize when biases creep in, can
help each other course-correct and prevent the impact of burnout from unfair
assignments. And with more time and capacity, status junkies can explore better
ways to get their brain candy fix.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This article originally appeared on Neuroleadership Institute’s blog and is
reprinted with permission.

advertisement


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


advertisement

advertisement

advertisement

advertisement






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IMPACT

Impact


SOME STATES WANT TO RAISE THE AGE FOR ASSAULT RIFLE PURCHASES. WOULD THAT CURB
MASS SHOOTINGS?

Impact


IN THE DESERT, THESE SPRAWLING GREENHOUSES HELP DECARBONIZE HEAVY INDUSTRY

Impact


TO HELP DISPLACED UKRAINIANS, A NEW CAMPAIGN WILL SEND THOUSANDS OF BIKES TO
LVIV


NEWS

News


WHY ARE SO MANY HIGH-INCOME AMERICANS LIVING PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK?

News


REPORT: TESLA NEEDS TO CUT 10% OF ITS WORKFORCE, SAYS ELON MUSK AS RECESSION
FEARS LOOM

News


COULD HARSH PARENTING MAKE CHILDREN HYPERACTIVE? HERE’S WHAT BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH
SAYS


CO.DESIGN

Co.Design


THE SURPRISING PSYCHOLOGY OF FONTS

Co.Design


SEE HOW THE ICONIC AIRSTREAM HAS EVOLVED OVER THE PAST 90 YEARS

Co.Design


WITH GLASS BURIED UNDER ICE, MICROSOFT PLANS TO PRESERVE MUSIC FOR 10,000 YEARS


WORK LIFE

Work Life


YOUR REMOTE EMPLOYEES AREN’T DISLOYAL. THEY JUST NEED MORE OF THIS

Work Life


HOW THE PANDEMIC IMPACTED INTROVERTS AND EXTROVERTS DIFFERENTLY

Work Life


SHOWRUNNER KATORI HALL IS EXPLORING THE PANDEMIC THROUGH THE STRIP CLUB

 * Advertise
 * Privacy Policy
 * Terms
 * Notice of Collection
 * Do Not Sell My Data
 * Permissions
 * Help Center
 * About Us
 * Site Map
 * Fast Company & Inc © 2022 Mansueto Ventures, LLC
 * 





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