Job Crisis: Neuroscience & the Art of Pivot
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Since the COVID-19 pandemic began:
Have you lost your job, had your hours dramatically reduced or taken a pay cut?
Or, do you constantly wonder if such a fate is just around the corner?
With over 38 million people filing for unemployment since March 2020, be assured, you are not alone if you are suffering from employment insecurity.
In these unprecedented times, how can you improve your employment situation and be better prepared for a challenge? As a career and executive coach, with a board-certification in applied neuroscience, I suggest a sports concept for direction and a brain shift to make it happen.
Photo Credit: Andrea Piacquadio at Pexels
The Pivot
Quite simply: A pivot means making a shift to a different direction whether it’s in basketball or your career.
In terms of work, most of us have been taught to look inward to find our calling, to get in touch with our strengths and what we would love to do most. It’s good to know our strengths, but during these difficult times it may be beneficial to also look outside ourselves and to listen. The world may have another calling for us, one we never dreamed of, and we need to be in a frame of mind to hear it.
When the World Calls
Consider Chicago’s Dearborn Denim. This is a company founded in 2016 and is known for its ethically manufactured apparel – mainly blue jeans. With COVID-19, demand instantly diminished when retail stores closed. Instead, people panicked as protective masks were in short supply for everyone, including hospitals and other health care facilities. Dearborn Denim pivoted and became a proud maker of protective masks. Their $10 cotton masks have been available to purchase online too, and they even had a payment plan if that fee was out of reach.
When New York City hospitals became the COVID-19 hotspot with many more patients than they could accommodate, a significant crisis was how to let the ICU doctors focus on their sickest patients. Nationwide, families have not been allowed in hospitals to see COVID-19 patients. Families are often desperate for communications with loved ones who need their support. But overwhelmed and stressed-out ICU doctors didn’t have time to talk with and comfort family members, not with so many critical patients who needed their expertise and care.
Enter New York University professor and pathologist, Dr. Syed Hoda.
Photo: Jiarong Deng at Pexels
Dr. Hoda is part of an innovative program called Family Connect. He manages a team of 30 pathologists who provide a critical interface between doctors, patients and families.
While pathologists are generally situated in labs behind a microscope, in New York, they became part of the treatment teams. They learned patient details, then relayed patient status updates to extremely grateful families.
You can guess how valuable this communication and attention was for both patients and their families. These precious updates free the ICU treatment team to focus on providing much needed medical care.
Dr. Hoda has commented on how being a part of this effort has been life changing. He walks home through New York City with the 7:00 p.m. applause windows alive with appreciative cheers. It has given him a different perspective on the role of specialists and their kinship with other physicians. Now, he’s teaching his medical students about the importance of communicating with family members of life-threatened patients. Dr. Hoda’s pivot to a new role not only helped patients and families, he feels like he was rewarded too. Here’s a video of this courageous project.
He answered the call and allowed himself, his colleagues, and students to undertake and grow from a significant challenge. He is a thought leader now engaged in redesigning the culture of pathology to become more bold, open and expressive.
In the last months, I’ve undertaken my own pivot in my private practice. While our area has been restricted to sheltering in place, some clients opted for remote neurofeedback training or telehealth services. Others did not want to do either for now. I lost corporate clients from companies too unstable to make long-term commitments for executive development.
With more time on my hands, I focused on what I love, things I can do that will help others, and what the world needs.
With the help of my talented assistants, we now collaborate with scientists, clinicians, leaders and healthcare organizations to grow their social media presence and improve their outward facing communication. The world needs to hear from science now more than ever –- doctors, therapists, epidemiologists -– and we help them feel more confident in authentically contributing and educating the public through social media.
My primary love remains coaching and neurofeedback training with leaders and executives. But the pandemic necessitated a pivot; to stretch out of my comfort zone. Doing so has been rewarding beyond what I could have imagined.
Brain Shift to Career Shift
How do we change our own thinking to foster a pivot during these challenging times? Begin by asking yourself these questions:
What am I good at?
How can I use my strengths to help others?
What does the world need from me right now?
If you’re thinking, I don’t have skills I can share, I would almost certainly disagree. Instead, I recommend leveraging neuroscience for a brain shift, to change the way you are looking at yourself and the world.
Photo Credit: Arthur Ogleznev at Pexels
Seven Brain Shift Activities:
Take a walk every day. Moving your body will increase blood supply to the brain as well as increase overall health.
Avoid added sugar. Excessive glucose is unhelpful to the brain and will increase slow waves (alpha, theta) affecting mood, memory and making it hard to think clearly.
Journal. Record your thoughts and feelings. Getting them on paper will allow you to honor yourself, move past the negative voices and better see the outside world. It increases your access to the thinking brain.
Sleep. Deep restorative sleep is so important in the creative process of your life. It helps the brain process events from the past to free you to be present, less stressed and able to be more creative.
Meditation or even 5 minutes of deep breathing. Keep it simple. Calms the mental chatter and increases ability to focus on what’s important.
Ask yourself: what can I learn from this? How can this teach me new things about myself and the world so I can move forward? These questions can help move you out of emotional reactivity to the executive functions –- taking control of the things you can.
Consider neurofeedback. It is a powerful tool for rewiring your brain, getting unstuck from well-etched grooves of negative thinking, and behaving. In a crisis, fear and resentments can easily dominate your thinking, affecting your sleep and relationships. Getting a QEEG brain scan can help determine if you would be a good candidate for this brain hack used for depression, anxiety, peak performance, and more.
You CAN pivot your way into a better situation, but it is a process. A brain science perspective will help a great deal. The current situation may be difficult but also has the potential of being a powerful teacher as you stretch yourself in new ways. You can do this.
❤️
Diane
Mary Nelligan, Gary Wilson, and Lisa Files contributed to this article.
References:
How walking benefits the brain
Researchers show that foot's impact helps control, increase the amount of blood sent to the brain
Diane Wilson is author of Back in Control: How to Stay Sane, Productive and Inspired in Your Career Transition. Finalist for the Nautilus Books Awards.
