Picture this: You’re facing a looming deadline yet find yourself endlessly scrolling through social media. Or perhaps you’ve snapped at a team member over a minor issue, instantly regretting your disproportionate reaction. Sound familiar? These moments of procrastination or emotional outbursts are what Dr Steve Peters might call your inner ‘chimp’ taking control.
In my previous article, we explored how the interplay between our prefrontal cortex and limbic system can lead to such behaviours. Today, we’re diving deeper with Peters’ “Chimp Paradox” model – a concept that builds on this understanding and offers practical insights for leaders.
Ready to meet your inner chimp and learn how to turn it from a potential liability into your greatest leadership asset?
Steve Peters is a renowned psychiatrist who has worked extensively with elite athletes and business leaders. He introduced the model in his 2012 book “The Chimp Paradox:”
The Chimp Paradox model divides the brain into three main functional areas:
a) The Chimp: Represents the limbic system, responsible for emotions, instincts and gut feelings. It’s fast-acting, impulsive and often irrational.
b) The Human: Represents the prefrontal cortex, responsible for logical thinking, analysis and fact-based decision-making. It’s slower but more measured and rational.
c) The Computer: Represents your autopilot system (parietal lobes) – the part of your mind that stores information, habits and beliefs. It’s like your brain’s filing cabinet and automatic response generator.
These systems influence decision-making and behaviour in the following way:
The Chimp Paradox in Action
Imagine you’re a team leader, and your team member, Alex, misses an important deadline.
1. The Chimp Reacts:
Your emotional Chimp immediately flares up with anger and frustration. It wants to yell at Alex or send a harsh email right away. The Chimp thinks, “Alex is lazy and doesn’t care about the team!”
2. The Human Analyses:
Your rational Human part steps in, urging you to pause and consider the situation logically. It reminds you to gather facts before reacting. The Human thinks, “Let’s find out why Alex missed the deadline. There might be a good reason or a misunderstanding.”
3. The Computer Provides Context: Your Computer quickly pulls up relevant information:
- Alex has always been reliable in the past.
- The team has been under unusually high stress lately.You have a company policy of addressing issues privately first.
4. The Interaction:
- The Chimp wants immediate action to address the perceived threat to team performance.
- The Human uses information from the Computer to form a more balanced view.
- The Computer provides automated responses based on past experiences and learned behaviours.
5. The Outcome:
If you let the Chimp dominate, you might lash out at Alex, damaging your relationship and team morale. If you engage your Human, supported by the Computer’s data, you’re more likely to:
- Schedule a private meeting with Alex to discuss the missed deadline.
- Approach the conversation with curiosity rather than accusation.
- Work together to prevent future issues and possibly uncover underlying problems affecting the team.
Here are some practical tools and examples for you to manage your “chimp”:
1. Exercising Your Chimp
Give your emotional side (the Chimp) a chance to express itself in a safe way, which can prevent emotional outbursts when it’s not appropriate.
- Tool: Journaling or venting: Set aside time to write down your emotions or vent to a trusted colleague or mentor.
- Example Scenario: Before a challenging meeting where you know your emotions might get the best of you, spend 10 minutes writing down or talking about your frustrations with a confidant. This exercise lets the Chimp express itself privately, so you can enter the meeting with a calmer, more rational mindset. Over time, your Computer will start to associate this practice with improved meeting outcomes, making it an automatic pre-meeting routine.
2. Controlling Your Chimp
This involves knowing when it’s necessary to step in and stop your Chimp from taking control, especially in high-stakes situations.
- Tool: Pause and Reflect: When you feel your emotions taking over, mentally pause before responding. Use structured breathing exercises (e.g. box breathing) or count to 10 to give your rational mind (the Human) time to catch up.
- Example Scenario: In a meeting where your idea is rejected, your Chimp might want to lash out defensively. Instead, you pause, collect your thoughts and respond by asking for constructive feedback on how to improve the idea. As you repeat this process, your Computer stores this measured response as a new default reaction to criticism.
3. Giving Your Chimp a Banana
Sometimes, the Chimp needs positive reinforcement, especially when it’s acting in ways that benefit you. The “banana” symbolises a reward that satisfies the emotional part of your brain.
- Tool: Reward positive behaviour: After successfully managing your emotions, give yourself a small reward or take a moment to reflect on your success.
- Example Scenario: You’ve successfully navigated a challenging performance review without letting emotions dictate the conversation. Post-review, you reward yourself by acknowledging your success, reinforcing positive Chimp behaviour for future situations. This positive reinforcement also programs your Computer to associate emotional control with rewarding outcomes, strengthening this behaviour pattern.
4. Embracing Your Chimp Response
The chimp, representing our emotional, instinctive responses, isn’t always a hindrance – it can indeed be a valuable friend in certain situations (hence the title “chimp paradox”). The key is to recognise when it’s helpful to lean into your emotional drive, showing authentic leadership, rather than suppressing it.
- Tool: Channel Emotional Energy Positively: Instead of blocking your emotions, channel the energy into purposeful communication. This can mean using your emotions to deliver a passionate speech or assert boundaries when necessary. To refine this skill, identify patterns of situations where your Chimp response has been helpful in the past.
- Example Scenario: You’re the head of a sales team, and a contract has fallen through at the last minute, which could seriously impact quarterly targets. Your team is demoralised and anxious. Instead of suppressing your frustration, you embrace the Chimp’s passionate energy. You gather the team and deliver an impromptu, emotionally charged speech, acknowledging the disappointment and expressing your belief in their ability to recover. Your Computer logs this positive outcome, making it more likely that you’ll harness your Chimp’s energy constructively in future high-pressure situations.
Your Chimp can indeed be your friend when it’s allowed to operate in the right contexts. The Chimp provides passion, gut instinct and the ability to make fast decisions. As a leader, recognising when it’s helpful to channel the Chimp’s energy can be just as important as knowing when to control it.
As you practice managing the interplay between your Chimp and Human, your Computer reinforces positive patterns, gradually turning emotional intelligence into an ingrained part of your leadership style. With time, this mastery over your mind becomes a powerful leadership tool, enabling you to lead with clarity, authenticity, and resilience in the face of both opportunities and challenges.
