This is a condensed slide deck from my Fall 2019 section of The Art of Self-Coaching at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Course materials are archived at https://www.edbatista.com/the-art-of-self-coaching-course.html

1. The art of
Photo by Jill M [link]
self-coaching
Ed Batista
CLASS 4: EMOTION
Fall 2019

2. What happened?
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3. Role of emotions 15 mins
An exercise 30 mins
Emotion management 20 mins
A conversation 25 mins
For next time… 5 mins
Agenda
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4. Emotion
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5. Emotion
Antonio Damasio, USC
What purpose do emotions serve?
What role do they play in reasoning?

6. Emotion
Emotions evolved to support survival
Unregulated emotion can lead us astray

7. Emotion

8. Emotion
Emotion is integral to reasoning
Essential for efficient decision-making

9. Emotion
Victor Johnston, New Mexico St.
“Discriminant hedonic amplifiers”
Boost signals in our mental landscape

10. Emotion
10,000 perceptions & proprioceptions / second
63,000,000 combined in today’s class alone
This is why…

11. Emotions are
attention magnets
Photo by Garrett Mace [link]

12. Remember?
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13. Emotion
Joseph LeDoux, New York University
“Quick & dirty signal”
Neural pathways 2x
Speed has a price…

14. Photo by Ed Yourdon [link]
Emotion

15. Daniel Siegel, UCLA
What is the brain doing when we lose our mind?
Emotion

16. Rapid triggering
Reflexive responses
Sensing ≠ Comprehension
Emotion

17. Photo by State Farm [link]
Threat response
Fight, flight or freeze

18. Photo by State Farm [link]
Threat response
Physiological
Adrenaline & cortisol
Optimized for strength & speed

19. Photo by State Farm [link]
Threat response
Emotional
Fear & anger
Primed for snap judgments

20. Photo by State Farm [link]
Threat response
Cognitive
Negativity bias
Impairment & diminished capacity

21. Photo by Ed Yourdon [link]
Social threat
Some social situations ≈ Physical threats
Same responses
Physiological
Emotional
Cognitive

22. What can we do?
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23. Photo courtesy University of Wisconsin [link]
Emotional style

24. Emotional style
Richard Davidson, Univ. of Wisconsin
What is the neurological basis for emotion?

25. Emotional style
Prefrontal cortex involved in emotion
Emotions associated with specific neural activity
But note: “All brain regions play a role in emotion”

26. Emotional style
6 dimensions of emotional style
Rooted in measurable neurological activity

27. A caveat
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28. A caveat
A map is not the territory it represents.
~Alford Korzybski

29. And a question:
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What’s optimal?

30. It depends…
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31. Photo by Philip Bird [link]
Attention

32. Attention
Sharpness & clarity of focus
Ability to avoid distraction
Photo by Philip Bird [link]

33. Attention
Prefrontal cortex boosts & dampens signals
Also attunes to external data
Photo by Philip Bird [link]

34. Attention
•---------------------------------------------------------•
Unfocused, may be Hyper-focused,
easily distracted or may lose awareness
impulsive or lack spontaneity

35. Photo by Vincent Lock [link]
Context-
sensitivity

36. Context-
Discern differences in social environments
Regulate responses accordingly
sensitivity
Photo by Vincent Lock [link]

37. Context-
Hippocampus activity
Connections between PFC & hippocampus
sensitivity
Photo by Vincent Lock [link]

38. Context-
•---------------------------------------------------------•
Difficulty discerning Highly sensitive to
social differences & minute differences in
acting accordingly social environment
sensitivity

39. Photo by Ivan Walsh [link]
Outlook

40. Outlook
Ability to sustain positive emotion
Photo by Ivan Walsh [link]

41. Outlook
Reward circuit = PFC & nucleus accumbens
Photo by Ivan Walsh [link]

42. Outlook
•---------------------------------------------------------•
Highly pessimistic, Highly optimistic,
difficulty sustaining may be resistant to
positive feelings negative data

43. Photo by Eric Richardson [link]
Recovery time

44. Recovery time
Speed of recovery from adverse experiences
Photo by Eric Richardson [link]

45. Recovery time
Prefrontal cortex activity
Connections between PFC & amygdala
Photo by Eric Richardson [link]

46. Recovery time
•---------------------------------------------------------•
Fast to recover, may Slow to recover,
fail to register or may feel defeated
learn from setbacks by minor setbacks

47. Photo by Seattle Yoga News [link]
Self-awareness

48. Self-awareness
Ability to perceive physical aspects of emotion
Photo by Seattle Yoga News [link]

49. Self-awareness
Insula activity
Photo by Seattle Yoga News [link]

50. Self-awareness
•---------------------------------------------------------•
Out of touch with Hyper-aware, may be
physical cues that distracted by physical
accompany emotion cues & emotions

51. Photo by Ed Yourdon [link]
Social intuition

52. Social intuition
Sense others’ emotional responses
Photo by Ed Yourdon [link]

53. Social intuition
Fusiform gyrus activity
Amygdala activity
Photo by Ed Yourdon [link]

54. Social intuition
•---------------------------------------------------------•
Puzzled by others’ Highly intuitive, may
responses, socially be overly sensitive to
obtuse or insensitive others’ responses

55. A premise
Photo by Garry Knight [link]
Emotion management
An ESSENTIAL leadership skill

56. Leadership
Effectiveness
Likeability

57. Top Quartile
Jack Zenger & Joseph Folkman, HBR, 2013 [link]
Second Quartile
Third Quartile
Bottom Quartile
Top Quartile
Second Quartile
Third Quartile
Bottom Quartile

58. Top Quartile in
Leadership
Effectiveness…
…and Bottom Quartile in
Likeability
1 in 2000
Jack Zenger & Joseph Folkman, HBR, 2013 [link]

59. Emotion
Photo by Tania Cataldo [link]
regulation

60. Emotion
Regulation ≠ Suppression or control
regulation

61. Emotion
regulation
Wegner (White Bears) on emotion
Limits on willful control are necessary
Essential to interrupt thought at key moments
This is why…

62. Emotions are
attention magnets
Photo by Garrett Mace [link]

63. Emotions are
Usually helpful inputs
And not always (“Dirty signal”)
But we can’t (& don’t want to) control them
attention magnets

64. What can we do?
Photo by Lydia [link]

65. What can we do?
Lower the waterline
Act in the moment
Build capacity

66. Photo by Andrew Smith [link]
Lower the
waterline

67. Lower the
waterline
Continually expand our self-awareness…
Emotional tendencies (Davidson)
Physiological responses (Siegel)
Cognitive biases (Kahneman)
Mindset (Dweck)

68. Act in the
moment
Photo by Harald Groven [link]

69. Act in the
Reframing
Self-soothing
Talking about feelings
moment

70. Reframing
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71. Reframing
Cognitive reappraisal
Kevin Ochsner, Columbia
James Gross & Rebecca Ray, Stanford
How do our thoughts influence our experience?

72. Reframing
The meanings we assign  Emotional response
Re-interpret a situation  Shift our emotions
Our mental models shape our experiences

73. Self-soothing
Photo by Amanda Patsopoulou [link]

74. Self-soothing
Physiological modification
Response modification

75. Self-soothing
Active steps to influence our emotional state
Active choice in how we express emotion

76. Self-soothing
Deeper, slower breaths
Speak more slowly & monitor tone
Sense our non-verbals & body language
Shift focus of our attention

77. Talking about
Photo by Garry Knight [link]
feelings

78. Talking about
feelings
Affect labeling
Disrupts negative emotion
Talking about emotion > Thinking about emotion

79. Talking about
feelings
This takes practice
& a supportive culture
Relationships are key (social, not solitary)

80. Build capacity
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81. Remember me?
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82. Get MESSy
Photo by Paul Colley [link]

83. Get MESSy
Mindfulness
Exercise
Sleep hygiene
Stress reduction

84. Mindfulness
Non-judgmental
awareness
& acceptance
of experience

85. Mindfulness
Daniel Siegel & mindsight
Openness: Aware & unattached
Observation: Ability to perceive ourselves
Objectivity: Having a feeling ≠ Being a feeling

86. Mindfulness
Meditation

87. Mindfulness
Meditation & alternatives…
Journaling, certain forms of exercise
Any consistent practice that promotes reflection

88. Mindfulness
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1 hour a week in nature

89. Exercise
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90. Exercise
Mind/body integration ≠ Hippie bullshit
Emotions are physiological experiences
Physical activity  Self-awareness (Davidson)

91. Sleep hygiene
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92. Sleep hygiene
Deprivation  Lower regulation, higher anxiety
Less effective at emotion management
Less inspiring (Christopher Barnes)

93. Stress reduction
Photo by Sara V. [link]

94. Stress reduction
Chronic > Acute
Changes in neural structures
Reduced ability to down-regulate threat response

95. Stress reduction
Commuting
Work environment
How we use our phones
First 30 minutes at home

96. To sum up
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Consider your current emotional style
What’s working for you? What’s not?
What changes might be useful?

97. To sum up
Lower the waterline  Self-awareness
Practice acting in the moment
Get MESSy to build capacity

98. For next time…
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99. Happiness
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100. Beware!
This chart is OFTEN misinterpreted
Be sure you understand it
The text can be misleading
Thus my post

101. Photo by dotmatchbox [link]
Two exercises…

102. Photo by dotmatchbox [link]
Activity-Fit
Diagnostic

103. Activity-Fit
Same as in Lyubomirsky (but easier to score)
Complete after reading Lyubomirsky
Diagnostic

104. Photo by Basti Hirsch [link]
VIA Survey

105. VIA Survey
Read my introduction
120 questions, 20 mins
Be honest with yourself

106. & another survey!

107. Work in progress
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108. Feedback helps
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109. Photo by Aaron Matthews [link]
What’s going
well?

110. Photo by Mikel Ortega [link]
What’s not?

111. Other items…
Slides posted on my site
Weekly assignment due Tuesday 9pm
Today’s 1:1s in B308 (not the usual spot)
Feedback survey link via Canvas announcement