{"id":41000,"date":"2025-03-06T09:24:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T17:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=41000"},"modified":"2025-03-06T09:25:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T17:25:15","slug":"the-power-of-mirror-neurons-in-a-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-power-of-mirror-neurons-in-a-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Mirror Neurons in A Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

What does it take to be a RARE leader? What sort of teams and processes need to be cultivated in order to experience the joy and grace of leading together with others, rather than giving in to the distress and dis-ease of our leadership-deficient world? In RARE Leadership,<\/em> Dr. Wilder and Dr. Warner provide a helpful template, and acronym, for charting a way forward in a sea of chaos and confusion.<\/p>\n

This book is structured around four main concepts highlighted by the acronym RARE:<\/p>\n

Remain Relational<\/strong> is the reminder than we are hardwired for relationships and that healthy leadership is much more about people and our interactions than it is about accomplishing tasks.<\/p>\n

Act Like Yourself<\/strong>-Awareness, identity and emotional maturity and EQ<\/em> are invaluable traits of healthy and effective leaders. In todays leadership settings, the currency of leaders is their ability to be an authentic and growing person with those they lead.<\/p>\n

Return to Joy-<\/strong>Wilder and Warner remind us that teams succeed when they are experiencing joy. A leaders\u2019 ability to pivot to joy even in challenging moments can is integral in their toolbox as a leader<\/p>\n

Endure Hardship<\/strong>– We are called to learn how to suffer well, just as Jesus did.<\/p>\n

These \u201cuncommon habits\u201d can help leaders transform themselves, the teams and the organizations that they are a part of.<\/p>\n

For the purpose of this post, I\u2019d like to focus on the the idea of remaining relational and the power of mirror neurons in healthy leadership. When faced with hardship or challenge, I can often become more of a task-oriented leader than a relational leader. For me, I think it has something to do with the need to control my environment, a dark side of my creative leadership. When stress or uncertainty arises, my coping mechanism is to disengage relationally and begin focusing on tasks that I can control (usually by myself). I found the chapter, \u201cdon\u2019t take you eye off the fast track\u201d helpful in this book. One of the main premises of this text is that our \u201cslow responses\u201d will often take over and focus more on management and fear-based motivations. In order to respond in the \u201cfast track\u201d we need to practice and employ relational practices and a reminder of our identity and purpose as a group.<\/p>\n

One of the best ways this shift can take place is what they call the \u201cmutual mind state\u201d. In the authors\u2019 words: \u201cMutual mind<\/em> states work by using mirror neurons. These neurons are activated when they \u2018see\u2019 something that resembles their activity in another mind\u2026Through mutual mind<\/em> we use that mirror potential to grow a joyful and highly motivated identity in our group.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

I experienced an example of this yesterday, when we got some bad news about some car repairs needed on one of our vehicles. The cost of the repairs was quite shocking, and I found myself retreating into negative thinking patterns and isolation. I even started cleaning my office as a way to cope with what felt like a situation that was out of control. Then, my wife called to check in and I broke the news to her. While she was also shocked, she reminded me that we\u2019ll figure out what to do, that God has always provided in the past and that we have a supportive network around us to navigate this current crisis, just like we\u2019ve navigated unexpected things like this in the past. Her response enabled me, eventually, to remember these things. Last night, then, at the dinner table when we were all talking about our days, we shared the news with the kids and we both were able to mirror and reflect a response that was honest about the challenge, but hopeful and expectant of God\u2019s provision. This created a shared response for both my wife and I, and our kids together, which is a powerful benefit of mirror neurons. In his book, Brain-Based Leadership<\/em>, Dr. Charles Stone reveals that, \u201c\u2026your team will mimic you\u2026A leaders intentional actions, when seen by others, can profoundly affect a team\u2019s effectiveness, both in a good and bad way. Mirror neurons reinforce the power of imitation\u2026They also help us create shared social experiences.\u201d[2]<\/a> Because of my wife\u2019s healthy mirroring and reminders, it gave us an opportunity to mirror that for our kids, and now we are navigating expectantly this situation to see God\u2019s provision together. Regardless of how the actual situation enfolds (the results) God has used this to bring us closer together as a family and hopefully cultivate healthier relational and leadership skills in each of us.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s a situation when someone has mirrored joy and trust for you when you really needed it? How did it help you stay relationally engaged and bring you closer together?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> RARE Leadership. <\/em>101,102.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Brain-Savvy Leaders<\/em>. Dr. Charles Stone. 137.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What does it take to be a RARE leader? What sort of teams and processes need to be cultivated in order to experience the joy and grace of leading together with others, rather than giving in to the distress and dis-ease of our leadership-deficient world? In RARE Leadership, Dr. Wilder and Dr. Warner provide a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3432],"class_list":["post-41000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-warner-wilder-dlgp03","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41000"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41002,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41000\/revisions\/41002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}