Lisa Wimberger explains how our social environment shapes the prefrontal cortex — the "social brain" and executive center — and why interpersonal needs (to be seen, heard, and part of a community) are essential for healthy functioning. She contrasts midbrain survival drives (food, shelter) with prefrontal ‘healthy survival’ needs, warns that unintentional environments and relationships reshape leaders' brains toward defensive (midbrain) states, and highlights limbic resonance: a leader's tense state is mirrored by others, undermining trust and effective leadership.
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You used the word unintentional change, I think, or touched on that. So that therefore suggests to me that we also need to be really mindful, intentional about who we choose to spend time with, the sort of people we surround ourselves with, the environments we place ourselves into. Because like it or not, that's having an impact on, on our brains as well. Like it or not, that is the gift and the curse of the prefrontal cortex. It is considered the social brain. It's considered the executive command center. And while the midbrain and the body has survival needs like warmth, shelter, food, water, the prefrontal cortex has healthy survival needs. And those are not the same as the midbrain. Those are very specifically interpersonal needs. That means we need to be seen, heard, and to feel part of a community. And that this is why in tribal societies, exile will kill you. People have died from exile as their punishment. And that is because the social brain has built in needs of understanding who I am relative to who you are. And this is at the crux of good leadership. If you keep defaulting to a fixed state, which is likely of self protection, you are defaulting to a mid brain type of leadership, which means mechanically you're not able to access the parts of you that can foster true, meaningful, authentic interpersonal change. And leaders cannot lead by theory and by shoulds. Leaders have to lead by state change in their own brain first. Because not only is that observable, that creates an antidote to limbic resonance, which is a very real phenomenon where if you're a leader and you walk into the room and your body has tension and your face has tension, and your subconscious belief systems of they're not good enough, I'm not good enough, this will never work. All of that will absolutely create a limbic resonance in the people in the room. And they might not be able to articulate it or name it, but you are not going to be an effective leader. You haven't even said a word yet. And now the words you say are theoretical and incongruent with the state you brought into the room. You have lost me as a follower of whatever it is you're about to tell me. You have lost me in terms of my trust of you. And I'm not going to buy your ideas of how this team should function because I don't trust you. And this is what happens across the board.
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