Better Communication by Using All Your Brains

Written by Susan Dunn, MA, Emotional Intelligence Coach


If you use your brain, you can communicate better, but what “brain” are you going to use? Why not use them all?

Standard understanding ofrepparttar brain right now is that it is “triune,” with three parts –repparttar 101596 reptilian, or primitive brain;repparttar 101597 limbic brain; andrepparttar 101598 neocortex. Further,repparttar 101599 neocortex is divided into two hemispheres,repparttar 101600 right andrepparttar 101601 left.

REPTILIAN

Briefly,repparttar 101602 reptilian brain is responsible for keeping us alive and evolved millions of years ago. We share it with reptiles. This brain operates territorial defense and aggression, sex drive, and rudimentary life-maintaining systems such as breathing and heartbeat. It’s automatic. We have no control over it.

EXAMPLE

When someone pushes you out of line inrepparttar 101603 movie theater, although it isn’t really life-threatening, our reptilian brain acts as if it were. It is always lurking there, ready to flare up and “protect” us. It’s responsible for a lot of fear we feel duringrepparttar 101604 day.

LIMBIC

The limbic brain evolved next and we share it with mammals. It’s responsible forrepparttar 101605 look we see inrepparttar 101606 dog’s eyes, andrepparttar 101607 way horses attune to us. It gives usrepparttar 101608 parenting urge (reptilians abandon their young at birth), bonding, compassion, family-ties, and things like that.

EXAMPLE

Whenrepparttar 101609 baby cries at night and you’d rather be sleeping, you get up. Why? Because those parental emotions are tugging at you.

NEOCORTEX

The neocortex, or thinking brain wasrepparttar 101610 last to evolve, and belongs exclusively to humans. It is divided into two halves,repparttar 101611 left hemisphere (left-brain) andrepparttar 101612 right hemisphere (right-brain). They aren’t isolated or separate. They are divided by something calledrepparttar 101613 corpus callosum, which allows us to switch from one torepparttar 101614 other.

The corpus callosum is typically better developed in women. This is why women can generally move from talking about feelings to talking about thoughts more easily than men can, though of course there are exceptions.

You will either be left-brain dominant, or right-brain dominant, but you can develop both sides andrepparttar 101615 communication between them by developing your emotional intelligence. I have worked with many people who have developed both sides of their brain so they are very balanced betweenrepparttar 101616 two. However, under stress, you will always revert to your dominant mode.

Here is a website where you can take a free assessment to see which you are: http://www.susandunn.cc/assessments.htm .

Left-brain

The left-brain is verbal, sequential, linear, and logical. People who are left-brain dominant respond to word meanings (more than how it’s said), plan ahead and go by steps, recall people’s names, and speak with fewer gestures and less expression.

Right Brain

The right brain is visual, holistic, and random. People who are right-brain dominant process in varied order, respond to emotion and tone of voice (more thanrepparttar 101617 actual meaning ofrepparttar 101618 words spoken), are more impulsive, remember people’s faces (more than their names), and use more gestures and expressions.

COMMUNICATION

This is how this helps with communication. The hemisphere that’s dominant affects howrepparttar 101619 person hears, learns, relates and problem-solves, as you can see.

EXAMPLE

If you want to explain a project to a left-brained person, give them a step-by-step outline, with a timeline and accountability. Right-brained people prefer to be told what to do, but not how to do it. They’re adept at figuring out how. Right-brained people, being visual, prefer to see something like a mind-map – it gives themrepparttar 101620 points to be covered, but does not dictaterepparttar 101621 order.

10 Things to Consider if You Have an Impossible Manager

Written by Susan Dunn, MA, Emotional Intelligence Coach


When you have an impossible manager, quit? Sometimes that’s impossible. If you find yourself And a solution that simple is hardly a solution. There are several things to consider we’re going to take a look at:

1.Get a coach.

In order to problem-solve effectively, it’s crucial to viewrepparttar situation objectively, which you aren’t in a position to do. No one is. Working with a coach can help you clarify what’s going on, and come up with strategies for dealing with it. You’ll learn more about yourself, and how to deal with others. That’s a win-win. Don’t leaverepparttar 101595 situation without learning from it.

2.The company culture.

This isn’t what’s inrepparttar 101596 P&P manual (which is about legal) it’s about howrepparttar 101597 place really runs. Ifrepparttar 101598 norm is hostility and competence, you won’t be changing it, and you can count on it getting worse. Should your particular manager leave, another one similar will be hired.

3.Everything else is excellent.

This I usually hear from people new to a job, because you can count on things getting worse with time, not better. If there’s something important or meaningful you’re getting out ofrepparttar 101599 job, stay, but don’t get lulled in to staying forever. It will negatively impact your ability to function at top-form eventually.

4.Your outlook

Your attitude can always improve a situation. Just don’t think you can changerepparttar 101600 personality or skills ofrepparttar 101601 manager, orrepparttar 101602 culture ofrepparttar 101603 company that allows this. Work with your coach, and surround yourself with positive people. Jobs and managers come and go. The only disastrous outcome would be for you to become cynical and pessimistic about yourself, life, or people in general.

5.Are you inrepparttar 101604 loop?

Sometimes your colleagues can make up for a bad manager. After all, there’s power in numbers. If you have a core group that can work aroundrepparttar 101605 situation, you’ll have support. However, expectrepparttar 101606 behavior ofrepparttar 101607 manager to get worse as he or she tries to compensate for perceived loss of power.

6.Age and career potential ofrepparttar 101608 manager.

Use your gut instincts to evaluate every new situation you move into. Quick and accurate reality-testing is an EQ competency.

Common sense dictates if they’re new and young, they may not make it. Actually these days anyone “new” may not make it. If they have some experience under their belt and seem interested in promoting themselves, they’ll probably be moving on and up. If they are middle-aged, have been there a while, and are dug in like a tick, consider they’ll endure and you will not.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use