This is a slide deck from my Spring 2020 section of The Art of Self-Coaching at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Course materials are archived at https://www.edbatista.com/the-art-of-self-coaching-course.html

1. The art of
Photo by Jill M [link]
self-coaching
Ed Batista
CLASS 4: EMOTION
Spring 2020

2. What happened?
Photo by TostadoPhoto [link]

3. Class #
Photo by Kim Faires [link]

4. Emotion
Photo by Jill M [link]

5. Best practices

6. Best practices
Debriefs & questions:
Mute yourself to minimize background noise
Use chat to indicate you want to speak
Please tell me if I forget the slides 

7. Best practices
Zoom logistics:
Use “Side-by-Side Mode”
More suggestions? Email me

8. Role of emotions 10 mins
Small groups 35 mins
Emotion regulation 20 mins
A conversation 25 mins
For next time… 5 mins
Agenda
Photo by Theresa Thompson [link]

9. Warm-up

10. Warm-up
Class prep:
What are some of the emotions (positive and
negative) you’ve experienced as a result of
life this Quarter? How do these feelings affect
what you pay attention to?

11. Warm-up
In breakouts with Profl. Partners + 4 others
What might you share with this group?
8 minutes total

12. Emotion
Photo by Jill M [link]

13. Emotion
Antonio Damasio, USC
What purpose do emotions serve?
What role do they play in reasoning?

14. Emotion
Emotions evolved to support survival
Unregulated emotion can lead us astray

15. Emotion

16. Emotion
Emotion is integral to reasoning
Essential for efficient decision-making

17. Emotion
Victor Johnston, New Mexico St.
“Discriminant hedonic amplifiers”
Boost signals in our mental landscape

18. Emotion
10,000 perceptions & proprioceptions / second
63,000,000 in today’s class alone
This is why…

19. Emotions are
attention magnets
Photo by Garrett Mace [link]

20. Remember?
Photo by TostadoPhoto [link]

21. Emotion
Joseph LeDoux, New York University
“Quick & dirty signal”
Neural pathways 2x
Speed has a price…

22. Photo by Ed Yourdon [link]
Emotion

23. Daniel Siegel, UCLA
What is the brain doing when we lose our mind?
Emotion

24. Rapid triggering
Reflexive responses
Sensing ≠ Comprehension
Emotion

25. Photo by State Farm [link]
Threat response
Fight, flight or freeze

26. Photo by State Farm [link]
Threat response
Physiological
Adrenaline & cortisol
Optimized for strength & speed

27. Photo by State Farm [link]
Threat response
Emotional
Fear & anger
Primed for snap judgments

28. Photo by State Farm [link]
Threat response
Cognitive
Negativity bias
Impairment & diminished capacity

29. Photo by Ed Yourdon [link]
Social threat
Some social situations ≈ Physical threats
Same responses
Physiological
Emotional
Cognitive

30. What can we do?
Photo by Lydia [link]

31. Photo courtesy University of Wisconsin [link]
Emotional style

32. Emotional style
Richard Davidson, Univ. of Wisconsin
What is the neurological basis for emotion?

33. Emotional style
Prefrontal cortex involved in emotion
Emotions associated with specific neural activity
But note: “All brain regions play a role in emotion”

34. Emotional style
6 dimensions of emotional style
Rooted in measurable neurological activity

35. A caveat
Photo by Sue Clark [link]

36. A caveat
A map is not the territory it represents.
~Alford Korzybski

37. And a question:
Photo by Cydcor [link]
What’s optimal?

38. It depends…
Photo by Sutha Kamal [link]

39. Survey says…

40. 3 dimensions
1st 2nd 3rd
Recovery time 8 10 4
Attention 11 4 3
Self-awareness 4 7 7
Outlook 5 5 4
Social intuition 1 2 11
Context-sensitivity 2 3 3

41. 3 dimensions
Recovery time
Attention
Self-awareness

42. Photo by Eric Richardson [link]
Recovery time

43. Recovery time
Speed of recovery from adverse experiences
Photo by Eric Richardson [link]

44. Recovery time
•---------------------------------------------------------•
Fast to recover, may Slow to recover,
fail to register or may feel defeated
learn from setbacks by minor setbacks

45. Photo by Philip Bird [link]
Attention

46. Attention
Sharpness & clarity of focus
Ability to avoid distraction
Photo by Philip Bird [link]

47. Attention
•---------------------------------------------------------•
Unfocused, may be Hyper-focused,
easily distracted or may lose awareness
impulsive or lack spontaneity

48. Photo by Seattle Yoga News [link]
Self-awareness

49. Self-awareness
Ability to perceive physical aspects of emotion
Photo by Seattle Yoga News [link]

50. Self-awareness
•---------------------------------------------------------•
Out of touch with Hyper-aware, may be
physical cues that distracted by physical
accompany emotion cues & emotions

51. Discuss with
What does this model have to teach me?
What am I making of my results?
What questions do I have?
your group

52. Debrief
What does this model have to teach me?
What am I making of my results?
What questions remain?

53. Thank your group
Photo by Minda Haas Kuhlmann [link]

54. A premise
Photo by Garry Knight [link]
Emotion regulation =
An ESSENTIAL leadership skill

55. Leadership
Effectiveness
Likeability

56. Top Quartile
Jack Zenger & Joseph Folkman, HBR, 2013 [link]
Second Quartile
Third Quartile
Bottom Quartile
Top Quartile
Second Quartile
Third Quartile
Bottom Quartile

57. Top Quartile in
Leadership
Effectiveness…
…and Bottom Quartile in
Likeability
1 in 2000
Jack Zenger & Joseph Folkman, HBR, 2013 [link]

58. Emotion
Photo by Tania Cataldo [link]
regulation

59. Emotion
Regulation ≠ Suppression or control
regulation

60. Emotion
regulation
Wegner (White Bears) on emotion
Limits on willful control are necessary
Essential to interrupt thought at key moments
This is why…

61. Emotions are
attention magnets
Photo by Garrett Mace [link]

62. Emotions are
Usually helpful inputs
And not always (“Dirty signal”)
But we can’t (& don’t want to) control them
attention magnets

63. What can we do?
Photo by Lydia [link]

64. What can we do?
Lower the waterline
Act in the moment
Build capacity

65. Photo by Andrew Smith [link]
Lower the
waterline

66. Lower the
waterline
Continually expand our self-awareness…
Emotional tendencies (Davidson)
Physiological responses (Siegel)
Cognitive biases (Kahneman)
Mindset (Dweck)

67. Act in the
moment
Photo by Harald Groven [link]

68. Act in the
Reframing
Self-soothing
Talking about feelings
moment

69. Reframing
Photo by Rodrigo Baptista [link]

70. Reframing
Cognitive reappraisal
Kevin Ochsner, Columbia
James Gross & Rebecca Ray, Stanford
How do our thoughts influence our experience?

71. Reframing
The meanings we assign  Emotional response
Re-interpret a situation  Shift our emotions
Our mental models shape our experiences

72. Self-soothing
Photo by Amanda Patsopoulou [link]

73. Self-soothing
Physiological modification

74. Self-soothing
Active steps to influence our emotional state
(We can’t control, but we can influence)

75. Self-soothing
Active steps to influence our emotional state
Response modification

76. Self-soothing
Active steps to influence our emotional state
Active choice in how we express emotion
(We can control our behavior)

77. Self-soothing
For example:
Deeper, slower breaths
Speak more slowly & monitor tone
Sense our non-verbals & body language
Note the importance of attention management

78. Talking about
Photo by Garry Knight [link]
feelings

79. Talking about
feelings
Affect labeling
Disrupts negative emotion
Talking about emotion > Thinking about emotion

80. Talking about
feelings
This takes practice
& a supportive culture
Relationships are key (social, not solitary)

81. Build capacity
Photo by Resolute Support Media [link]

82. Remember me?
Photo by Paul Colley [link]

83. Get MESSy
Photo by Paul Colley [link]

84. Get MESSy
Mindfulness
Exercise
Sleep hygiene
Stress reduction

85. Mindfulness
Non-judgmental
awareness
& acceptance
of experience

86. Mindfulness
Daniel Siegel & mindsight
Openness: Aware & unattached
Observation: Ability to perceive ourselves
Objectivity: Having a feeling ≠ Being a feeling

87. Mindfulness
Meditation

88. Mindfulness
Meditation & alternatives…
Journaling, certain forms of exercise
Any consistent practice that promotes reflection

89. Mindfulness
Photo by hjl [link]
1 hour a week in nature

90. Exercise
Photo by Simon Thalmann [link]

91. Exercise
Mind/body integration ≠ Hippie bullshit
Emotions are physiological experiences
Physical activity  Self-awareness (Davidson)

92. Sleep hygiene
Photo by Drriss & Marrionn [link]

93. Sleep hygiene
Deprivation  Lower regulation, higher anxiety
Less effective at emotion management
Less inspiring (Christopher Barnes)

94. Stress reduction
Photo by Sara V. [link]

95. Stress reduction
Chronic > Acute
Changes in neural structures
Reduced ability to down-regulate threat response

96. Stress reduction
Commuting
Work environment
How we use our phones
First 30 minutes at home

97. Photo by Don-Pixel [link]
A conversation

98. A conversation
What helps me regulate my emotions?
What experiments might I try?
Reflect

99. A conversation
As always, two options:
A coaches B, then B coaches A
or
A coaches B now, & B coaches A outside of class

100. A conversation
I’ll announce halfway (switch if you want to)
Watch for the 1-minute countdown

101. Thank your
partner
Photo by Thomson20192 [link]

102. Debrief
What are you learning?
What might you try?

103. To sum up
Photo by Pranav Yaddanapudi [link]
Consider your current emotional style
What’s working for you? What’s not?
What changes might be useful?

104. To sum up
Lower the waterline  Self-awareness
Practice acting in the moment
Get MESSy to build capacity

105. For next time…
Photo by Nicholas Vigier [link]

106. Happiness
Photo by Marina del Castell [link]

107. Beware!
This chart is OFTEN misinterpreted
Be sure you understand it
It can be misleading
Thus my post

108. Photo by dotmatchbox [link]
Two exercises…

109. Photo by dotmatchbox [link]
Activity-Fit
Diagnostic

110. Activity-Fit
Same as in Lyubomirsky (but easier to score)
Diagnostic

111. Photo by Basti Hirsch [link]
VIA Survey

112. VIA Survey
Read my introduction
120 questions, 20 mins
Be honest with yourself

113. & another survey!

114. Work in progress
Photo by Per Gosche [link]

115. Feedback helps
Photo by Per Gosche [link]

116. Photo by Aaron Matthews [link]
What’s going
well?

117. Photo by Mikel Ortega [link]
What’s not?

118. Other items…
Video & slides posted on my site
Weekly assignment due Tuesday 9pm
Feedback survey link via Canvas announcement