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Management By Agreement
The Physiology of Peak Performance
May 2006
This article first appeared on www.heartmath.com ©2003. Used with permission.
What some researchers are calling a “binge-purge” approach to stress management is not only ineffective it's out and out unhealthy. And, while you wait for the 'cure' – the week vacation, a long weekend at the spa, or even the massage your family gave you for your birthday -- your performance suffers. To understand why, and what IS the right approach to sustain peak performance during stressful times, you need a few quick lessons in human physiology.
Lesson #1: The human body doesn't care if it's a BIG stress or a little one.
Whether a new boss or a long line at the copier, if you're feeling stressed, the body responds the same way. That's the bad news. The even worse news is that most people ignore or become resigned to the little irritations and annoyances of daily life; they let stress accumulate and don't notice how it impairs performance until it's too late. After all, that's life. Wrong again.
The cascade of biochemical events triggered by our reaction to a stressful event is the body's way of coping with and handling danger. These events are not subtle. Recent research has confirmed that at least 1,400 biochemical changes begin to occur as soon as our mind/body system perceives stress, whether or not the danger is real. Back in the days when our ancestors roamed the prairies, danger really meant life threatening. The first thing the body had to do in the face of danger was get out of the way or confront it. You've heard this process described before as the “fight/flight response.” Here's how it works, along with some new information you probably haven't heard.
Lesson #2: Understanding the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) response brings new awareness.
Autonomic is a scientist's way of saying automatic. Most of what the ANS does is to manage a vast array of bodily processes you don't have to think about or consciously control, such as breathing, heart rate, digestive processes, etc. One essential task the ANS performs is to signal the body to either speed up or slow down to accommodate the physical demand: It's time to run, or it's time to sleep.
The speeding up action is led by increased activity in the Sympathetic branch of the ANS. To understand what happens, think about the last time you were cut off on the freeway. What happened to your body? Your breathing? Your heart rate? Your muscles? Systems sped up to get ready to 'get out of the way,' fast.
To aid our ancestral bothers to run away from the lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) this response also affected their ability to focus: Nothing was more important than running away from or fighting the tiger. If our ancestor – let's call him Arg -- took time to carefully analyze what kind of tiger it was, how old it was, or how fast it could run, Arg could end up as the main course. Likewise, while you're busy getting out of the other car's way, it's difficult, if not impossible, to be creative about that new employee initiative or how you're going to handle the workforce reduction just mandated by the Board. Higher brain processes literally shut down. It's a survival thing, and one of the ways our emotional reactions to stress impair performance.
Lesson #3:The human system works best when there is harmony or synchronization between and within all systems.
Consequently for every action there's counteraction to bring about that harmony. In the ANS, when the Sympathetic branch is speeding everything up, activity in the Parasympathetic branch of the ANS works harder to slow everything down to protect the system from overdriving and burning out. Think of it this way: The Sympathetic Branch is the accelerator; the Parasympathetic Branch is the brake.
It's important to know that the ANS is designed for quick response to a threat, whether that threat is real or imagined. So, when you show up at the office and tell everyone about that crazy guy who cut you off on the freeway, there goes your blood pressure and heart rate shooting up again. The only trouble is you're just standing there while your body is preparing to fight or run away. And there's nowhere to run. The same is true of everyday occurrences like checking email – a task you may be tempted to do while reading this piece. We've all reacted stressfully just seeing the name of someone – a boss, an irate customer, an annoying colleague – appearing in our In Box. Before even opening the email, our body has embarked on an energy-draining biochemical journey based on our assumption that the unopened email contains information detrimental to our well-being, job security, or peace of mind. And the email still hasn't been opened!
Lesson #4: Just relaxing isn't enough; shifting our emotional state is the key.
You probably have a few good stress reduction techniques and more than likely they involve some form of relaxation. By definition, relaxation is a parasympathetic response (the brake). While relaxation is a good thing, it's a quick fix to the stress, and short-lived at best. In addition, relaxation is not always appropriate. When you have 3 deadlines to meet, do you really have time to relax? And is “relaxed” even the right mode to be in to get a job done quickly and efficiently. And, while an hour at the gym or a day at the beach may relax you for a short time, how long does this benefit carry over and really improve your performance – mentally, emotionally, and physically -- the next day at the office? This is one reason most traditional stress reduction approaches happen outside of the workplace. It's impossible to soak in the hot tub in the middle of a performance evaluation! If we're feeling anxious, impatient, frustrated, or angry, relaxation turns down the volume on this emotional noise, but doesn't change our underlying perception. Shifting emotional state is where the perceptual changes occur, and our body is designed with a key system to handle just that.
Lesson #5: Managing your emotions saves energy and improves your health.
The real performance booster is managing what happens to the other major system involved in our response to stress.
While there are literally hundreds of hormones manufactured in the body, we'll focus on two important ones: Cortisol and DHEA. Cortisol has a nickname: The stress hormone. While cortisol is a necessary hormone (if cortisol didn't naturally spike about 4 AM you might not wake up on time!) when we produce more than we need, (no where to run!) there can be some problems. One reason is because of its relationship to another key hormone: DHEA.
DHEA is often called the 'the anti-aging' or 'vitality hormone' because it's plentiful when we're young and when we're producing larger quantities of it we feel energized. Both DHEA and cortisol have the same precursor meaning they both are made from the same building block hormone. Consequently, if your perceptions are telling your body you need more cortisol (e.g. stress) more is produced at the expense of DHEA. That's okay in the short term. However, chronic high cortisol:low DHEA is prevalent in a variety of clinical conditions such as obesity, diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome, migraines, fibromyalgia, osteoporosis, high cholesterol and other chronic conditions. It can also cause premature aging. We've all seen photos of US presidents or corporate executives before and after four years on the job. The rate of aging can be extreme. Chronic emotional stress=excess cortisol=accelerated aging. Do we have your attention yet?
An interesting fact about this hormonal response is that while it, too, is fast-acting, it's not as fast as the ANS response. Slower to act means these hormones hang around in your bloodstream for a longer period of time than chemicals triggered as part of the ANS response, like adrenaline. This is a good thing when it's DHEA, which is why we're energized when we're doing things we enjoy, but not when it's excessive amounts of cortisol, which tends to depress our moods and sense of hope.
An essential aspect of this is which emotions fuel the Cortisol:DHEA response. Negative emotions (stress) fuel cortisol; positive emotions (well being) fuel DHEA. This means that every time you angrily recall that near accident on the freeway, the ANS signals everything to accelerate and get ready to run, and more cortisol is pumped into the system. A deep breath may briefly slow down the nervous system but cortisol hangs around for several hours. This means you can be relatively relaxed and still feel rotten at the same time. How many times did you rehash the freeway story?
Back on the prairie when our ancestors defeated the tiger and brought the bounty back to the tribe, everyone celebrated. Celebration=positive emotion. This helped counter-balance the cortisol elevations naturally. Today, when you survive the freeway, however, who's celebrating? Instead, you show up at the office only to face more tigers disguised as tough customers, deadlines, irritating people. The build-up of cortisol explains why it's hard to shift gears after a tough day at work or even on the beach in Maui. Some of the most balanced people – those least affected by the same stressors that have their peers on edge – are the ones who regularly appreciate the good things in their life. This positive feeling changes the underlying physiology, which in turn helps their perceptions remain more positive.
The Test: Emotion as content.
The same emotions that balance the hormonal system and support good health are also the ingredients of peak performance, for both the individual and the organization. Consider yesterday's events. Make a list of activities, situations, etc. and describe your moods or emotions during each activity. Now place those emotions on the four quadrant grid below. We've listed a few examples. High energy emotion? Place it in one of the upper quadrants. Low energy emotion? Place it in one of the lower quadrants. What emerges is a snap shot of the emotional landscape of your day. The left side is the peak performance zone. The right, your stress zone.
Don't be victim of your physiology. Rather, master it. Create the physiology that you want for peak performance and low stress.
- Be aware of your emotions.
- Shift your mood and boost your system. Find something to appreciate.
Kim Allen is the director of licensing and training at HeartMath® LLC, a global provider of performance solutions to corporations, government agencies, and health care systems.
Bruce Cryer is President and CEO of HeartMath® and co-author of From Chaos to Coherence: The Power to Change Performance, a book and multi-media CD-rom.