The Today programme on BBC Radio 4 hosted an interesting debate on banker’s bonuses the other morning, although its fascination for me turned out to be different from my expectations.
The debate was between singer, songwriter, campaigner and all round “good bloke” Billy Bragg, and private equity investor, FT columnist and nasty “unrepentant capitalist” Luke Johnson, which means I immediately have to declare my interests. Luke is a friend and business associate, as well as the foreword writer for What’s Stopping You? Meanwhile, the Sage of Barking (or more recently Burton Bradstock) is a songsmith that made a deep impression on me as an angry young man in the 1980s – with many of his lyrics still captured in the dustier recesses of my mind. And I can’t even claim neutrality in the subject of the debate, having spent my entire post-university career sniffing around the City in one guise or another (journo/banker/PR) although my encounters with those legendary bonuses have been all-too brief.
All this gave me an acute interest in the debate. Yet it became of even deeper interest towards the end. Billy Bragg lost the debate, not because he was wrong – he pretty much has the entire population on his side when it comes to lambasting City-excesses including those “obscene” bonuses paid to bailed-out bankers. He lost because he lost his cool. Angered by one of Luke’s comments he unthinkingly and instinctively jumped in with a riposte that was patently nonsense, opening him up for the demolition that was duly delivered.
Billy had become emotional, and it rendered him – and therefore his argument – weak. In fact, he later accepted this as he opened a live debate on the same subject that evening at the British Library (the promotion of which explains the earlier radio interviews). He blamed the early hour of the radio programme and too much caffeine. Certainly, the Today programme suits City workers more than rockstars, and this may have been what did for Billy. Yet my interest was tweaked because it is not everyday you get to listen to someone having a “neural hijacking” on live national radio.
As I state in What’s Stopping You? such neural hijackings are a central cause-and-effect of poor results for those with high fear of failure (High-FFs as I call them). Arriving in the form of a neural surge through the body and triggering a flood of hormones they are the very moments that instantly throw High-FFs and others that may have confidence issues off course. Our primeval instincts of fight-or-flight have been triggered and our base reactions have taken over, with usually negative consequences. We may react with anger or fear but we do not react rationally. We react emotionally. Our uber-rational opponent, meanwhile, spots his or her chance and goes in for the kill. It is the neural equivalent of a boxer hitting the canvas – a game-changing moment where ascendency or otherwise is established. And the bloody-annoying thing for the hijacked is that these moments are entirely self-induced. We deliver our knock-out blow to ourselves, simply because we could not keep our emotions in check.
An important book explaining the causes, and impact, of neural hijackings is Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. Here’s him describing the hijacking process:
“It is in moments such as these – when impulsive feeling overrides the rational – that the newly discovered role for the amygdale [a part of the brain dealing with emotions] is pivotal. Incoming signals from the senses let the amygdale scan every experience for trouble. This puts the amygdale in a powerful post in mental life, something like the psychological sentinel, challenging every situation, every perception, with but one kind of question in mind, the most punitive: ‘Is this something I hate? That hurts me? Something I fear’. If so – if the moment at hand somehow draws a ‘yes’ – the amygdale reacts instantaneously, like neural tripwire, telegraphing a message of crisis to all parts of the brain.”
Goleman also describes the instant impact these hijackings have on the body. For instance, if our hijacking induces an anger response blood rushes to the hands ready for action. Meanwhile, the heart rate increases and there is a surge of adrenalin and other hormones (such as cortisol). With fear, blood rushes to the skeletal muscles such as the legs, the face blanches and the body momentarily freezes as it decides whether hiding may be a better option than running or fighting. The body is put on general alert, making the hijacked person edgy and unfocused on anything other than the threat or object of anger. Basically, the hijacked person’s rationality and reasoning is, at that moment, shot.
An important aspect here – that Billy will need to be aware of as much as most High-FFs – is that these hijackings are inevitable. Those that react emotionally when triggered are likely to do so for the rest of their lives. There is no instant cure or quick fix that can remove the neural hijacking as a feature for people more emotionally sensitised than others, meaning that we will always have to be on guard for Goleman’s tripwire – catching us when we least expect it and sending us careering down an intensely frustrating alleyway with respect to our dealings with others. What we have to develop – and what What’s Stopping You? devotes considerable effort in attempting to achieve – is a better second response that can, in time and with effort, suppress the external expression of the neural hijacking. And this can, hopefully, reduce in number the occasions we are defeated by our own overly-emotional responses to a hijack-inducing situation.
A final point here concerns the fact I have used someone else – in this case Billy Bragg – to demonstrate a neural hijacking. Given my earlier blog apologising for preaching (Forgive me sinner for I have preached) this may seem like another example where I have strayed into assumption regarding someone else’s thoughts and potential insecurities. I have, but my inspiration here is the fact Billy Bragg admitted to “becoming a little emotional” on the radio when I heard him speak at the British Library later that day. He was clearly embarrassed and seemingly determined not to repeat the error during the live debate with Luke sitting next to him. He didn’t, but I thought I could detect intense concentration in order to avoid being triggered (just my guess – I have no proof of this and I apologise now to Billy Bragg if any of this is wide of the mark).
Certainly, I am not suggesting Billy has high fear of failure, although – as I have written on many occasions – it is rather typical of a High-FF to desire a life of pop-stardom. What I am saying is that, by his own admission, he became emotional during an important debate on something he feels passionately about. And I am almost certain he regrets doing so not least because it destroyed his reasoning. But he had no choice, he was triggered. And if what followed was not the consequence of a neural hijacking, you can call me Shirley.
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