Minimise Threats and Double Down on Workplace Incentives

Being a supportive manager gets more results and productivity from colleagues than a stressful, pressuring or micro-managing boss.

The Smart Approach

Business Agility leader Jonathan Smart points out that the human physiological response to threatening, disruptive or ‘nasty’ behaviour is twice as strong and lasts twice as long as the human response to incentive and reward.

Your bodily response to an unpleasant email or sense of burdening pressure from your boss will be twice as much as your response to an equivalent positive experience like good feedback or a reward.

Your body is basically better at producing cortisol (the stress hormone) than dopamine (the reward hormone) because that’s what kept us alive as a species for millennia.

The stress lasts longer and takes more of a toll on your body. It reduces your flow of work and it can ultimately lead to very costly burnout – which is no use to anyone, and especially not your boss.

Deep down we’re still prehistoric

Evolutionary pressure means that survival was more important than wellbeing when we were living in caves and trying to avoid the wooly mammoths. The stress hormone kept us alive.

But it doesn’t serve us as well in the modern workplace.

It inhibits the prefrontal cortex. That’s the part of the brain used for high level thinking, strategy and long-term planning. These things are vital in a business environment so if you have a stressful workplace, these skills are going to be impacted.

Furthermore, if you have PTSD the effects can be even worse, because our bodies usually regulate cortisol in a different way.

I joke that cortisol is my superpower, but it can be a tough burden.

The Cortisolution

As such, if you’re a leader or a manager or you have influence over the culture of your organisation, you need to focus on creating a system of good behaviour that seeks to incentivise and reward colleagues, at least twice as much as stressing them out.

Healthy, happy people deliver more

You will get more out of your people by optimising the working conditions that enable them to thrive.

And if you’re a manager, don’t use cortisol as a tool to control your reports.

It’s not just unpleasant, it’s counterproductive. Motivate your people to achieve the right outcomes and make dopamine your weapon.

Here’s a clip of Jonathan explaining the physiological situation:

And if you want to get better at this, what’s one thing you could try out to be a more dopamine-led leader?

Maybe it’s supportive feedback. Maybe it’s giving smaller rewards more frequently rather than one big reward at the end of the year.

Defining clear goals can also help – it’s harder to generate dopamine when you don’t know what a ‘win’ looks like.

And break those goals into smaller chunks as well. It’s much easier to generate dopamine for shorter, regular wins. Setting out to deliver work incrementally, in short iterations can build dopamine into your cadence of delivery so adopting an Agile way of working can really help.

Otherwise, why not try some ideas out, and please share any wins or safe failures in the comments below. I’ll give you kudos and dopamine in return!