Managing With the Brain in Mind, David Rock

     "Studies now show that the brain equates social needs with survival; for example, being hungry and being ostracized activate similar neural responses" (3). Perhaps, since society has changed from a purely survival environment to a socially focused environment, the brain has evolved along side: realizing, now, that the most important part of survival in the current culture is social interaction. "Because human brains evolved in response to stressors over thousands of years, they are constantly attuned, usually at a subconscious level, to the ways in which social encounters threaten or support the capacity for choice" (5). The idea that the human brain has evolved in order to set social interaction and social standing as a main survival factor is interesting. It certainly supports those who seemingly overreact and over-analyze social encounters.
     One of the passages in Rock's article that struck me the most reads as follows:

"If you are an executive leader, the more practiced you are at reading yourself, the more effective you will be. For example, if you understand that micromanaging threatens status and autonomy, you will resist your own impulse to gain certainty by dictating every detail. Instead, you’ll seek to disarm people by giving them latitude to make their own mistakes. If you have felt the hairs on the back of your own neck rise when someone says, “Can I offer you some feedback?” you will know it’s best to create opportunities for people to do the hard work of self-assessment rather than insisting they depend on performance reviews" (8).

This first struck me because it described me and situations I have been in and reacted to so acutely. Then I reread it once again as an Earth personality and it resonated even further: uncomfortable with criticism or disagreements, desire for detailed order, tendency to micromanage. In fact, so much of this article seemed to nod to Earth personalities - "When perceived uncertainty gets out of hand, people panic and make bad decisions" (5) - and it made me further realize that every person has a tendency toward each personality, especially situationally. The article made me understand the Earth personality better, simply because it got me thinking about it; and because I am now striving to better understand not only the Earth personality, but all personalities, I am learning to better understand myself. According to Rock, "the more practiced you are at reading yourself, the more effective you will be."
Sabrina