Sometimes My Brain Doesn’t Work At Work
As I write these words, I’m keenly aware of neurology. Not as a (formal) student of neurology or brain physiology but as a patient. One Sunday a few years ago, I awoke to strange sensations and cognitive fog that progressed to the point that a day later, I was unable to walk under my own power. We would discover that my immune and nervous systems were at odds with each other in a battle called Guillain-Barré.[1] Whether I would again be able to walk unaided or think clearly were open questions, but not as concerning as whether my brain would keep telling my lungs to breathe or not. Gratefully, I have made a relatively full recovery, though I live in constant awareness of the tension of a brain and body that don’t quite work the way they used to, with some days still requiring an effort to move and think that saps me of energy. It’s strange to think that our neurology and biology could work against us in deadly fashion, but it’s true.
I wish I had been exposed to David Rock’s Your Brain at Work early in my illness and recovery journey—understanding how the stresses my body was enduring, and the additional cognitive load required to perform even simple tasks required a number of resources I needed to cultivate would have at least given me categories for some of what I was enduring and how to change my brain.[2] As Rock would point out, being able to name is one of the first steps to regulating and directing how we emotionally and physiologically respond to stressors.[3] Moreover, most neurological patients will tell you distraction, fractured focus, and lack of sustained energy are pronounced challenges when dealing with this kind of disease. A treatise on these very challenges would have been a God-send in my early recovery, but it certainly has incredible value for me now.
Guillain-Barré is one kind of fracturing I’ve had to navigate. Amid a challenging transition following a long-tenured lead pastor, I’ve had to intersect with other types of fracturing: relational, cultural, and organizational. Only now, instead of my own neurology and biology at odds with each other, these tensions are present in multilayered complexity. There is so much that applies in Your Brain at Work to my current context that I can’t unpack it all here; instead, I’ll focus on one element I’m already applying with some exciting results.
Rock uses the acronym SCARF to move toward healthy and effective social interactions.[4] Here’s how I’m trying to interact with this model among our staff and governance teams:
Status
Status is our relative importance to others[5]. By holding space for collaborative conversations, even in addressing the crisis du jour, celebrating the contributions of others, and inviting constructive feedback for me in each of these settings, I’m seeing team members have a growing and healthy esteem for themselves and others on the team. While Rock argues that constructive feedback can actually cause more fracturing, I believe he is referencing this in a top-down/supervisor-to-subordinate approach; inviting candor from the team to me first seems to invite and sustain healthier engagement.[6] [7] We’ve also employed a coaching approach—what Rock calls “quiet leadership” and Camacho calls “mining for gold”—which has brought connection and status to others.[8] [9]
Certainty
The predictability of the future allows people to function better individually and corporately.[10] In today’s world and, as I mentioned above, the seeming cycle of daily crises coming our way, predicting the future seems impossible. To help, we’ve committed to communicating with our teams as much as we can as quickly as we can about our plans. In team meetings, inviting others to shape those plans helps with status; when plans need to change, it allows us to make those adjustments while still elevating the agency of others.
Autonomy
That sense of agency—that there is some level of control—is autonomy[11]. By my delegating as much as possible (with support!) to those better positioned to both understand and activate decisions, team members have more sense of control. They have also expressed joy, even in uncertainty, in ways that weren’t present early on in my tenure. They’ve been able to bring stability and optimism into their ministry areas in a renewed way.
Relatedness
The need for status can impede our ability for us to experience relatedness.[12] We work on relatedness by interacting around calibrating resources, playing games at the beginning of meetings, and sharing in fun together. The simple act of inviting staff or council members as a group into my home to share a meal and play some games has worked wonders for increasing relatedness.
Fairness
We all have a sense of justice and whether or not we’re being treated fairly. I cannot give everyone the same experiences or investments all the time, but I can show that we are “trying to do the right thing by everyone.”[13] We have worked hard to function with integrity organizationally and with increased accountability for me as the senior leader. In a season of organizational financial constraints, using my own resources to help provide for a need or opportunity for our staff team members has bolstered a sense of fairness and care.
We have a long way to go in our pursuit of health and integration as teams and as a body. But investments like these are bearing fruit and giving us momentum toward some of the deeper work that needs to be done. Not only is this serving our organization well, but it is also positioning us to serve as agents of reconciliation in our community. And it’s allowing me to pursue sustainability and thriving, even on days where my neurology and biology don’t get along.
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[1] Shahrizaila, Nortina, Helmar C. Lehmann, and Satoshi Kuwabara. “Guillain-Barré Syndrome.” The Lancet 397, no. 10280 (Mar 27, 2021): 1214-1228. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00517-1
[2] Rock, David. Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long. (New York: Harper Business, 2020), ix.
[3] Rock, Your Brain at Work, 119.
[4] Rock, Your Brain at Work, 198.
[5] Rock, Your Brain at Work, 280.
[6] Rock, Your Brain at Work, 208.
[7] Scott, Kim. Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity. New York City: Saint Martin’s Press, 2019.
[8] Rock, Your Brain at Work, 215.
[9] Camacho, Tom. Mining for Gold: Developing Kingdom Leaders through Coaching. Kindle. London: Inter-Varsity Press, 2019.
[10] Rock, Your Brain at Work, 121.
[11] Rock, Your Brain at Work, 280.
[12] Rock, Your Brain at Work, 201.
[13] Rock, Your Brain at Work, 180.
About the Author
Jeremiah Gómez
I get to be Sarah's husband and Jubilee's and Zechariah's dad. I also get to serve as lead pastor at Trinity Church, a dynamic church in the Midwest where we're diligently seeking to Love God, love others, live sent, and be transformed together in community. I love the privilege of working across differences, championing healing and reconciliation in many forms.One response to “Sometimes My Brain Doesn’t Work At Work”
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My heart goes out to you, my brother. I can only begin to grasp the challenges from years past and the ones that you face now. Thank you for sharing about your journey.
You asked in my post about how we make it “safe” to move from one context to the next. I appreciate Rock’s SCARF framework as we consider this. Especially Relatedness. There is a back burner theme in much of our reading, the theme of Play. In the Technopoly articles, the childlikeness is evident in “Leading Out of Who You Are” (as well as in Friedman and Poole). Even your example here, with board games in your home. Each week brings a new level of emotional and relational connection to leadership. I am beginning to realize that Relatedness and allowing others to see your non-threatening motives are foundational.
Thanks for helping me put those pieces together.