? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?——選自 HBR 網(wǎng)站（吉瑪譯）
A primary task of leadership is to direct attention. To do so, leaders must learn to focus their own attention. 領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的首要任務(wù)是直接關(guān)注。要做到這一點，領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者必須學(xué)會集中注意力。
The Argument 論證
People commonly think of “being focused” as filtering out distractions while concentrating on one thing. But a wealth of recent neuroscience research shows that we focus attention in many ways, for different purposes, while drawing on different neural pathways. 人們通常認為“注意力集中”就是在排除干擾的同時把注意力集中在一件事上。但是最近的一項神經(jīng)科學(xué)研究表明，就不同的目的，我們利用不同的神經(jīng)通路，將注意力集中在不同方面。
The Solution 解決方案
Every leader needs to cultivate a triad of awareness—an inward focus, a focus on others, and an outward focus. Focusing inward and focusing on others helps leaders cultivate emotional intelligence. Focusing outward can improve their ability to devise strategy, innovate, and manage organizations.
每個領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者都需要培養(yǎng)三合一的意識——專注內(nèi)在，專注他人，專注外在。專注于內(nèi)心和專注他人有助于領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者培養(yǎng)情商。關(guān)注外在可以提高他們設(shè)計策略、創(chuàng)新和管理組織的能力。
A primary task of leadership is to direct attention. To do so, leaders must learn to focus their own attention. When we speak about being focused, we commonly mean thinking about one thing while filtering out distractions. But a wealth of recent research in neuroscience shows that we focus in many ways, for different purposes, drawing on different neural pathways—some of which work in concert, while others tend to stand in opposition.
領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的首要任務(wù)是直接關(guān)注。要做到這一點，領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者必須學(xué)會集中注意力。當(dāng)我們說到專注的時候，我們通常指的是在排除干擾的同時思考一件事。但是，最近神經(jīng)科學(xué)領(lǐng)域中的大量研究表明，就不同目的，利用不同的神經(jīng)通路，將注意力集中在不同方面，——其中一些是協(xié)同工作，而另一些則傾向于相左。
Grouping these modes of attention into three broad buckets—focusing on yourself,?focusing on others,?and focusing on the wider world—sheds new light on the practice of many essential leadership skills. Focusing inward and focusing constructively on others helps leaders cultivate the primary elements of emotional intelligence. A fuller understanding of how they focus on the wider world can improve their ability to devise strategy, innovate, and manage organizations.
將關(guān)注模式集中到三個主要的領(lǐng)域——專注于自己，關(guān)注他人，關(guān)注更廣泛的世界——以新的視角看待許多重要的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)技能的實踐。關(guān)注內(nèi)在和他人，可以幫助領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者培養(yǎng)情感智力的主要元素。更全面地了解他們?nèi)绾侮P(guān)注更廣泛的世界，可以提高他們設(shè)計策略、創(chuàng)新和管理組織的能力。
Every leader needs to cultivate this triad of awareness, in abundance and in the proper balance, because a failure to focus inward leaves you rudderless, a failure to focus on others renders you clueless, and a failure to focus outward may leave you blindsided.
每一個領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者都需要培養(yǎng)這種三合一的意識，在充足適當(dāng)?shù)钠胶庵?，沒有專注內(nèi)在使你無助，沒有專注他人使你茫然，而專注外在會讓你傻眼。
Focusing on Yourself 專注自己
Emotional intelligence begins with self-awareness—getting in touch with your inner voice. Leaders who heed their inner voices can draw on more resources to make better decisions and connect with their authentic selves. But what does that entail? A look at how people focus inward can make this abstract concept more concrete.
情商始于自我意識——與你內(nèi)心的聲音保持溝通。聽從內(nèi)心聲音的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者可以利用更多的資源來做出更好的決定，并與真實的自我聯(lián)系起來。但這意味著什么呢?看看人們?nèi)绾瓮ㄟ^專注內(nèi)在使這個抽象概念更加具體。
Self-awareness.自我意識
Hearing your inner voice is a matter of paying careful attention to internal physiological signals. These subtle cues are monitored by the insula, which is tucked behind the frontal lobes of the brain. Attention given to any part of the body amps up the insula’s sensitivity to that part. Tune in to your heartbeat, and the insula activates more neurons in that circuitry. How well people can sense their heartbeats has, in fact, become a standard way to measure their self-awareness.
傾聽你內(nèi)心的聲音是專注內(nèi)在的生理信號。這些微妙的線索被隱藏在腦額葉后的腦島所控制。身體的任何部分的注意力都會增強腦島對那部分的敏感度。調(diào)諧到你的心跳，腦島激活更多的神經(jīng)元。事實上，人們感覺他們的心跳的程度已經(jīng)成為衡量他們自我意識的標準方法。
Gut feelings are messages from the insula and the amygdala, which the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, of the University of Southern California, calls somatic markers.?Those messages are sensations that something “feels” right or wrong. Somatic markers simplify decision making by guiding our attention toward better options. They’re hardly foolproof (how often was that feeling that you left the stove on correct?), so the more comprehensively we read them, the better we use our intuition. (See “Are You Skimming This Sidebar?”)
來自美國南加州大學(xué)的神經(jīng)學(xué)家安東尼奧·達馬西奧稱，內(nèi)臟的感覺是來自腦島和扁桃體的信息，即軀體標記。這些信息是一種感知事物是對或錯的“感覺”。軀體標記通過引導(dǎo)我們關(guān)注更好的選擇來簡化決策。他們并不簡單(你是否經(jīng)常覺得你把爐子放在了正確的位置上?)，所以我們解讀得越全面，我們就越更好地運用直覺。(參見“你瀏覽側(cè)欄了嗎?”)
Are You Skimming This Sidebar?你瀏覽側(cè)欄了嗎？
Do you have trouble remembering what someone has just told you in conversation? Did you drive to work this morning on autopilot? Do you focus more on your smartphone than on the person you’re having lunch with?
記住別人在談話中告訴你的事情對于你來說有困難嗎?今天早上你通過自動導(dǎo)航儀開車去上班了嗎?你是否更關(guān)注你的智能手機而不是和你一起吃午餐的人?
Attention is a mental muscle; like any other muscle, it can be strengthened through the right kind of exercise. The fundamental rep for building deliberate attention is simple: When your mind wanders, notice that it has wandered, bring it back to your desired point of focus, and keep it there as long as you can. That basic exercise is at the root of virtually every kind of meditation. Meditation builds concentration and calmness and facilitates recovery from the agitation of stress.
注意力是一種精神肌肉;像其他肌肉一樣，通過正確的運動可以增強肌肉。建立有意識的專注的基本因素很簡單:當(dāng)你的思想游蕩時，意識到它已經(jīng)游蕩，把它帶回到你想要的專注焦點，并盡可能地讓它保持在那里?；镜木毩?xí)幾乎是每一種冥想的根源。冥想能使人集中精神，保持冷靜，并有助于從壓力焦慮中恢復(fù)。
So does a video game called Tenacity, now in development by a design group and neuroscientists at the University of Wisconsin. Slated for release in 2014, the game offers a leisurely journey through any of half a dozen scenes, from a barren desert to a fantasy staircase spiraling heavenward. At the beginner’s level you tap an iPad screen with one finger every time you exhale; the challenge is to tap two fingers with every fifth breath. As you move to higher levels, you’re presented with more distractions—a helicopter flies into view, a plane does a flip, a flock of birds suddenly scud by.
威斯康辛大學(xué)的一個設(shè)計小組和威斯康星大學(xué)神經(jīng)科學(xué)家正在開發(fā)一款名為Tenacity”的視頻游戲。該游戲預(yù)計于2014年上映，它包含6個場景的旅程，從貧瘠的沙漠到夢幻的盤旋上升的樓梯。在初級水平，每次呼氣的時候都用一個手指輕敲iPad屏幕;挑戰(zhàn)是每五次呼吸就用兩個手指輕敲iPad屏幕。當(dāng)你到更高的水平時，你會遇到更多的干擾——直升機飛進視野，飛機做翻轉(zhuǎn)，一群鳥兒突然飛掠而過。
When players are attuned to the rhythm of their breathing, they experience the strengthening of selective attention as a feeling of calm focus, as in meditation. Stanford University is exploring that connection at its Calming Technology Lab, which is developing relaxing devices, such as a belt that detects your breathing rate. Should a chock-full in-box, for instance, trigger what has been called e-mail apnea, an iPhone app can guide you through exercises to calm your breathing and your mind.
當(dāng)玩家適應(yīng)他們呼吸的節(jié)奏時，他們會經(jīng)歷選擇性注意的強化，作為一種平靜專注的感覺，就像冥想一樣。斯坦福大學(xué)正在其寧靜技術(shù)實驗室探索這一聯(lián)系，該實驗室正在開發(fā)放松裝置，比如檢測你呼吸頻率的腰帶。例如，如果一個塞滿了東西的盒子，觸發(fā)了所謂的“電子郵件窒息”，一個iPhone應(yīng)用程序可以引導(dǎo)你通過練習(xí)來平復(fù)你的呼吸和你的大腦。
Consider, for example, the implications of an analysis of interviews conducted by a group of British researchers with 118 professional traders and 10 senior managers at four City of London investment banks. The most successful traders (whose annual income averaged ￡500,000) were neither the ones who relied entirely on analytics nor the ones who just went with their guts. They focused on a full range of emotions, which they used to judge the value of their intuition. When they suffered losses, they acknowledged their anxiety, became more cautious, and took fewer risks. The least successful traders (whose income averaged only ￡100,000) tended to ignore their anxiety and keep going with their guts. Because they failed to heed a wider array of internal signals, they were misled.
舉個例子，在倫敦金融城的4個投資銀行里，一群英國研究人員對118名專業(yè)交易員和10名高級經(jīng)理進行了采訪分析。最成功的交易者(其年收入平均￡500000)既不完全依賴分析學(xué)也不只是靠勇氣。他們把注意力集中在一系列的情感上，用這些情感來判斷他們的直覺的價值。當(dāng)他們遭受損失時，他們承認他們的焦慮，變得更加謹慎，并且承擔(dān)更少的風(fēng)險。最不成功的交易者(其收入平均只有￡100000)傾向于忽視他們的焦慮和繼續(xù)的勇氣。因為他們沒有注意到更廣泛的內(nèi)部信號，他們被誤導(dǎo)了。
Zeroing in on sensory impressions of ourselves in the moment is one major element of self-awareness. But another is critical to leadership: combining our experiences across time into a coherent view of our authentic selves.
關(guān)注自我感官印象的瞬間是自我意識的一個主要因素。但另一種方式對領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力至關(guān)重要:把我們的經(jīng)歷與時間結(jié)合起來，形成對真實自我的一致看法。
To be authentic is to be the same person to others as you are to yourself. In part that entails paying attention to what others think of you, particularly people whose opinions you esteem and who will be candid in their feedback. A variety of focus that is useful here is open awareness,?in which we broadly notice what’s going on around us without getting caught up in or swept away by any particular thing. In this mode we don’t judge, censor, or tune out; we simply perceive.
做一個真實的人意味著，對待別人就像對待自己一樣。在某種程度上，你需要注意別人對你的看法，尤其是那些你尊重的人，以及那些給你真實反饋的人。各種各樣的焦點中有用的是開放的意識，在這種意識中，我們廣泛地注意到我們周圍發(fā)生的事情，而不被任何特定的事物卷入或卷走。在這種模式下，我們不去評判、審查或排斥;我們只是感知。
Leaders who are more accustomed to giving input than to receiving it may find this tricky. Someone who has trouble sustaining open awareness typically gets snagged by irritating details, such as fellow travelers in the airport security line who take forever getting their carry-ons into the scanner. Someone who can keep her attention in open mode will notice the travelers but not worry about them, and will take in more of her surroundings. (See the sidebar “Expand Your Awareness.”)
那些習(xí)慣于給予輸入而不是接受信息的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者可能會發(fā)現(xiàn)這很棘手。那些無法保持開放意識的人通常會被惱人的細節(jié)所困擾，比如機場安檢線上總是拿著隨身攜帶的行李進入掃描儀同行乘客。一個能在開放模式下保持注意力的人會注意到旅行者，但不會擔(dān)心他們，而且會更多地接受她周圍的環(huán)境。(請參閱側(cè)欄“擴展意識”)。
Expand Your Awareness?擴展意識
Just as a camera lens can be set narrowly on a single point or more widely to take in a panoramic view, you can focus tightly or expansively.
就像相機鏡頭可以在單點或更廣的范圍內(nèi)設(shè)置并完成一個全景圖，你可以集中或者擴張焦點。
One measure of open awareness presents people with a stream of letters and numbers, such as S, K, O, E, 4, R, T, 2, H, P. In scanning the stream, many people will notice the first number, 4, but after that their attention blinks. Those firmly in open awareness mode will register the second number as well.
開放意識的其中一種衡量方式是用字母和數(shù)字來呈現(xiàn)，比如S、K、O、E、4、R、T、2、H、P.在掃描信息流時，許多人會注意到第一個數(shù)字，4，但只是瞬間的注意力。那些堅定的開放意識模式將會跳到第二個數(shù)字。
Strengthening the ability to maintain open awareness requires leaders to do something that verges on the unnatural: cultivate at least sometimes a willingness to not be in control, not offer up their own views, not judge others. That’s less a matter of deliberate action than of attitude adjustment.
加強保持開放意識的能力要求領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者做一些違背自然的事情:至少有時培養(yǎng)一些意愿：不受控制，不發(fā)表的觀點，不評判別人。這與其說是深思熟慮的行動，不如說是態(tài)度調(diào)整。
一種方法是通過經(jīng)典的積極思考力量來調(diào)整，因為悲觀會縮減我們的注意力，而積極的情緒則會增強我們的注意力以及對新的和意想不到事物的接受能力。轉(zhuǎn)換成積極模式的一種簡單方法就是問問自己:“如果我的生活中一切都完美，那么10年后我將會做什么?”為什么有效?威斯康星大學(xué)的神經(jīng)學(xué)家理查德·戴維森發(fā)現(xiàn)，當(dāng)你心情愉悅時，大腦的左前額葉區(qū)域就會亮起來。這個區(qū)域包隱藏著“線路”，當(dāng)?shù)竭_一個長期追求的目標時，它會讓我們感知有多么的偉大。
“Talking about positive goals and dreams activates brain centers that open you up to new possibilities,” says Richard Boyatzis, a psychologist at Case Western Reserve. “But if you change the conversation to what you should do to fix yourself, it closes you down….You need the negative to survive, but the positive to thrive.”“談?wù)摲e極的目標和夢想會激活大腦中心，讓你接受新的可能性，”凱斯西儲大學(xué)的心理學(xué)家理查德·博伊茨說?！暗绻銓⒄勗掁D(zhuǎn)移到你應(yīng)該做些什么來提升自己,那么它會封閉你…。你的生存需要消極，但你的成長需要積極。
Of course, being open to input doesn’t guarantee that someone will provide it. Sadly, life affords us few chances to learn how others really see us, and even fewer for executives as they rise through the ranks. That may be why one of the most popular and overenrolled courses at Harvard Business School is Bill George’s Authentic Leadership Development, in which George has created what he calls True North groups to heighten this aspect of self-awareness.
當(dāng)然，輸入的可能性并不保證有人會提供?？杀氖牵罱o我們提供了很少的機會去了解別人是如何看待我們的，而當(dāng)高管們通過排名上升時，他們的機會就更少了。這可能就是為什么在哈佛商學(xué)院最受歡迎課程之一是比爾?喬治所教授的誠信領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力的培養(yǎng)，在這個過程中，喬治創(chuàng)造了他所稱的真正的北方群體，以提高這方面的自我意識。
These groups (which anyone can form) are based on the precept that self-knowledge begins with self-revelation. Accordingly, they are open and intimate, “a safe place,” George explains, “where members can discuss personal issues they do not feel they can raise elsewhere—often not even with their closest family members.” What good does that do? “We don’t know who we are until we hear ourselves speaking the story of our lives to those we trust,” George says. It’s a structured way to match our view of our true selves with the views our most trusted colleagues have—an external check on our authenticity.
這些團體(任何人都可以組成)是基于“自我認識始于自我表露”的戒律。因此，他們是開放的，親密的，“一個安全的地方，”喬治解釋說，“除了在那里，沒有其他的地方，成員可以討論個人問題，即使是他們最親密的家庭成員?！蹦沁@么做有什么好處?喬治說:“我們不知道自己是誰，直到我們聽到自己對那些信任的人講我們的生活故事的時候。”這是一種結(jié)構(gòu)化的方式，可以將我們對真實自我的看法與最信任的同事的觀點相一致——外部檢查我們的真實性。
Self-control 自我控制
“Cognitive control” is the scientific term for putting one’s attention where one wants it and keeping it there in the face of temptation to wander. This focus is one aspect of the brain’s executive function, which is located in the prefrontal cortex. A colloquial term for it is “willpower.”
“認知控制”是一種科學(xué)術(shù)語，指的是在人們面對面對誘惑徘徊時，人們把注意力轉(zhuǎn)移到自己想要的東西上，并把注意力放在那里。這種注意力是大腦執(zhí)行功能的一個方面，它位于前額皮質(zhì)。通俗的說法是“意志力”。
Emotional Intelligence Feature情商特征
The best managers rely on six leadership styles.
最好的管理者依賴于六種領(lǐng)導(dǎo)風(fēng)格。
Cognitive control enables executives to pursue a goal despite distractions and setbacks. The same neural circuitry that allows such a single-minded pursuit of goals also manages unruly emotions. Good cognitive control can be seen in people who stay calm in a crisis, tame their own agitation, and recover from a debacle or defeat.
認知控制使管理者能夠在分心和遇到挫折的情況下追求目標。同樣的神經(jīng)回路，可讓你一心一意的追求目標也能管理難以控制的情緒。在危機中保持冷靜、馴服自己的焦慮、從奔潰或失敗中恢復(fù)的人，擁有良好的認知控制。
Decades’ worth of research demonstrates the singular importance of willpower to leadership success. Particularly compelling is a longitudinal study tracking the fates of all 1,037 children born during a single year in the 1970s in the New Zealand city of Dunedin. For several years during childhood the children were given a battery of tests of willpower, including the psychologist Walter Mischel’s legendary “marshmallow test”—a choice between eating one marshmallow right away and getting two by waiting 15 minutes. In Mischel’s experiments, roughly a third of children grab the marshmallow on the spot, another third hold out for a while longer, and a third manage to make it through the entire quarter hour.
數(shù)十年的研究證明了意志力對于領(lǐng)導(dǎo)能力的成功有著非凡重要性。特別引人注目的是一項縱向研究，追蹤了20世紀70年代在新西蘭達尼丁市一年中出生的1037名兒童的命運。在兒童時期，孩子們接受了一系列意志力測試，其中包括心理學(xué)家沃爾特·米歇爾的傳奇“棉花糖測試”——一選擇馬上吃一顆棉花糖，或者等待15分鐘后吃兩顆棉花糖。在米歇爾的實驗中，大約有三分之一的孩子會當(dāng)場抓住棉花糖，另外三分之一的孩子會堅持一段時間，還有三分之一孩子則會堅持15分鐘。
Executives who can effectively focus on others emerge as natural leaders regardless of organizational or social rank.
能夠有效地關(guān)注他人的高管，無論組織或社會地位如何，都能成為天生的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者。
Years later, when the children in the Dunedin study were in their 30s and all but 4% of them had been tracked down again, the researchers found that those who’d had the cognitive control to resist the marshmallow longest were significantly healthier, more successful financially, and more law-abiding than the ones who’d been unable to hold out at all. In fact, statistical analysis showed that a child’s level of self-control was a more powerful predictor of financial success than IQ, social class, or family circumstance.
數(shù)年后,但尼丁的研究中的孩子們都已經(jīng)30多歲,繼續(xù)追蹤其中4%的人,研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn),那些曾具有認知控制的堅持不吃棉花糖的人明顯更健康、具有更好地經(jīng)濟實力,并且比那些曾經(jīng)無法堅持的人更守法。事實上，統(tǒng)計分析顯示，孩子的自我控制能力比智商、社會階層或家庭環(huán)境更加能預(yù)示經(jīng)濟回報。
How we focus holds the key to exercising willpower, Mischel says. Three subvarieties of cognitive control are at play when you pit self-restraint against self-gratification: the ability to voluntarily disengage your focus from an object of desire; the ability to resist distraction so that you don’t gravitate back to that object; and the ability to concentrate on the future goal and imagine how good you will feel when you achieve it. As adults the children of Dunedin may have been held hostage to their younger selves, but they need not have been, because the power to focus can be developed. (See the sidebar “Learning Self-Restraint.”)
米歇爾說，如何專注是鍛煉意志力的關(guān)鍵。當(dāng)你對自我滿足與自我克制相違背的時候，認知控制的三個亞變正在發(fā)揮作用:你可以自動地將你的注意力從欲望的對象中解脫出來;通過抵抗干擾的能力使自己不被吸引回那個物體;并且能夠?qū)Ｗ⒂谖磥淼哪繕?，想象?dāng)你達到目標時你會有多好。作為成年人，但尼丁的孩子們可能被年輕的自己所束縛了，但他們不需要這樣做，因為他們的力量可以被開發(fā)出來。(參見側(cè)欄“學(xué)習(xí)自我約束”)
Learning Self-Restraint學(xué)習(xí)自我約束
Quick, now. Here’s a test of cognitive control. In what direction is the middle arrow in each row pointing?
快,趁現(xiàn)在。下面是對認知控制的測試。每行中箭頭指向哪個方向?
The test, called the Eriksen Flanker Task, gauges your susceptibility to distraction. When it’s taken under laboratory conditions, differences of a thousandth of a second can be detected in the speed with which subjects perceive which direction the middle arrows are pointing. The stronger their cognitive control, the less susceptible they are to distraction.
這項名為側(cè)抑制任務(wù)的測試，測估了你對注意力分散的敏感程度。如果在實驗室條件下進行測試時，可以檢測實驗對象感知到中間箭頭所指的方向的速度（精確到千分之一秒）。他們的認知控制越強，他們就越不容易分散注意力。
Interventions to strengthen cognitive control can be as unsophisticated as a game of Simon Says or Red Light—any exercise in which you are asked to stop on cue. Research suggests that the better a child gets at playing Musical Chairs, the stronger his or her prefrontal wiring for cognitive control will become.
干預(yù)認知控制加強的措施可以像西蒙所說的像一場游戲，或者像紅燈一樣簡單——任何訓(xùn)練都可以在你特定的時間內(nèi)停下來。研究表明，玩音樂椅玩的越好的孩子，他或她連接認知控制的前額就會越強。
Operating on a similarly simple principle is a social and emotional learning (SEL) method that’s used to strengthen cognitive control in schoolchildren across the United States. When confronted by an upsetting problem, the children are told to think of a traffic signal. The red light means stop, calm down, and think before you act. The yellow light means slow down and think of several possible solutions. The green light means try out a plan and see how it works. Thinking in these terms allows the children to shift away from amygdala-driven impulses to prefrontal-driven deliberate behavior.
有一種以同樣簡單的原則運作的社會和情感學(xué)習(xí)方法，用于加強美國學(xué)生的認知控制。當(dāng)遇到令人沮喪的問題時，孩子們被告知要考慮交通信號。紅燈意味著停下來，冷靜下來，三思而后行。黃燈意味著慢下來，想出幾個可能的解決方案。綠燈意味著嘗試一個計劃，看看它是如何運作的。考慮到這些，孩子們可以擺脫沖動行為，行動時更深思熟慮。
It’s never too late for adults to strengthen these circuits as well. Daily sessions of mindfulness practice work in a way similar to Musical Chairs and SEL. In these sessions you focus your attention on your breathing and practice tracking your thoughts and feelings without getting swept away by them. Whenever you notice that your mind has wandered, you simply return it to your breath. It sounds easy—but try it for 10 minutes, and you’ll find there’s a learning curve.
對于成年人來說，加強循環(huán)練習(xí)也不晚。在某種程度上每天的冥想練習(xí)類似于音樂椅和SEL。在這些練習(xí)中，你把注意力集中在你的呼吸和練習(xí)追蹤你的思想和感知，而不是被它們卷走。每當(dāng)你注意到你的思想在游蕩，你只要將它帶回到你呼吸中。這聽起來很容易，但是嘗試10分鐘，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)有一個學(xué)習(xí)曲線。
Focusing on Others專注他人
The word “attention” comes from the Latin attendere,?meaning “to reach toward.” This is a perfect definition of focus on others, which is the foundation of empathy and of an ability to build social relationships—the second and third pillars of emotional intelligence.
“注意”這個詞來自拉丁語“attendere”，意思是“伸向”。這是對專注他人的一個完美定義，這是共鳴的基礎(chǔ)，也是建立社會關(guān)系能力的基礎(chǔ)——情商的第二和第三大支柱。
Executives who can effectively focus on others are easy to recognize. They are the ones who find common ground, whose opinions carry the most weight, and with whom other people want to work. They emerge as natural leaders regardless of organizational or social rank.
能夠有效地專注于他人的管理人員很容易得到賞識。他們尋求共同的立場，他們的觀點最具影響力，而其他人也想與之共事。不管組織或社會地位如何，他們都是天生的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者。
We talk about empathy most commonly as a single attribute. But a close look at where leaders are focusing when they exhibit it reveals three distinct kinds, each important for leadership effectiveness:
我們通常把共鳴作為一個單獨的屬性來討論。但仔細觀察一下領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者們展現(xiàn)的關(guān)注點，就會發(fā)現(xiàn)三種截然不同的類型，每一種對領(lǐng)導(dǎo)效力都很重要:
· cognitive empathy—the ability to understand another person’s perspective;
?認知共鳴——理解他人觀點的能力;
· emotional empathy—the ability to feel what someone else feels;
?情感共鳴——感受別人的感覺的能力;
· empathic concern—the ability to sense what another person needs from you.
共情關(guān)注——感知別人需要你的能力。
Cognitive empathy?enables leaders to explain themselves in meaningful ways—a skill essential to getting the best performance from their direct reports. Contrary to what you might expect, exercising cognitive empathy requires leaders to think about feelings rather than to feel them directly.
認知同理心使領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者能夠以有意義的方式來解釋自己——如果你想從直接報告中獲得最佳表現(xiàn)，這種技巧是必不可少的。與你所期望的相反，鍛煉認知共鳴需要領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者思考情感，而不是直接感受。
An inquisitive nature feeds cognitive empathy. As one successful executive with this trait puts it, “I’ve always just wanted to learn everything, to understand anybody that I was around—why they thought what they did, why they did what they did, what worked for them, and what didn’t work.” But cognitive empathy is also an outgrowth of self-awareness. The executive circuits that allow us to think about our own thoughts and to monitor the feelings that flow from them let us apply the same reasoning to other people’s minds when we choose to direct our attention that way.
好問的天性會產(chǎn)生認知同理心。正如一位成功的管理人員所說，“我一直想要學(xué)習(xí)一切，了解身邊所有人——為什么他們會思考他們做了什么，為什么他們做了他們所做的，為他們做了什么，以及什么沒有發(fā)揮作用?！钡J知同理心也是自我意識的延伸。執(zhí)行電路讓我們思考自己的想法，并監(jiān)控對他人電流的感受，使得我們用選擇直接關(guān)注的方法，將同樣的道理運用到別人的思想中。
Overloaded Circuits?回路過載
Managing Yourself Feature管理自己的特性
The origins of attention deficit trait, and how to control it in today’s busy organizations.
注意力缺陷特征的起源，以及如何在當(dāng)今繁忙的組織中控制它。
Emotional empathy?is important for effective mentoring, managing clients, and reading group dynamics. It springs from ancient parts of the brain beneath the cortex—the amygdala, the hypothalamus, the hippocampus, and the orbitofrontal cortex—that allow us to feel fast without thinking deeply. They tune us in by arousing in our bodies the emotional states of others: I literally feel your pain. My brain patterns match up with yours when I listen to you tell a gripping story. As Tania Singer, the director of the social neuroscience department at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, in Leipzig, says, “You need to understand your own feelings to understand the feelings of others.” Accessing your capacity for emotional empathy depends on combining two kinds of attention: a deliberate focus on your own echoes of someone else’s feelings and an open awareness of that person’s face, voice, and other external signs of emotion. (See the sidebar “When Empathy Needs to Be Learned.”)
情感共鳴對于有效的指導(dǎo)、管理客戶和閱讀團隊動態(tài)非常重要。它起源于大腦皮層下的原始部分——扁桃腺、下丘腦、海馬體和眼窩前額皮質(zhì)——讓我們在不深入思考的情況下快速感覺。通過喚醒我們的身體來感受他人的情緒:我真的感覺到你的痛苦。當(dāng)我聽你所講扣人心弦的故事時，我的大腦模式與你的模式相吻合。正如塔尼亞·辛格（位于萊比齊格的馬克斯·普朗克人類認知與腦科學(xué)研究所社會神經(jīng)科學(xué)系主任）所說，“你需要了解自己的感受，才能理解他人的感受?！鲍@得情感共鳴的能力取決于兩種注意力的結(jié)合:一種是有意識的專注于你對他人感受的共鳴，一種是開放意識的專注對方的面部、聲音和其他外部情緒等。”(參見側(cè)欄“當(dāng)需要學(xué)習(xí)共鳴時”)。
When Empathy Needs to Be Learned 當(dāng)需要學(xué)習(xí)共鳴時
Emotional empathy can be developed. That’s the conclusion suggested by research conducted with physicians by Helen Riess, the director of the Empathy and Relational Science Program at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital. To help the physicians monitor themselves, she set up a program in which they learned to focus using deep, diaphragmatic breathing and to cultivate a certain detachment—to watch an interaction from the ceiling, as it were, rather than being lost in their own thoughts and feelings. “Suspending your own involvement to observe what’s going on gives you a mindful awareness of the interaction without being completely reactive,” says Riess. “You can see if your own physiology is charged up or balanced. You can notice what’s transpiring in the situation.” If a doctor realizes that she’s feeling irritated, for instance, that may be a signal that the patient is bothered too.
情感共鳴是可以發(fā)展的。這是由波士頓麻省總醫(yī)院移情與關(guān)系科學(xué)項目主任海倫·里斯所做的研究得出的結(jié)論。為了幫助醫(yī)生們監(jiān)控自己，她建立了一個項目，讓他們學(xué)會專注于使用深的、橫隔膜式的呼吸，并培養(yǎng)一種特定超脫——從天花板上觀察互動，而不是沉浸在自己的想法和感覺中?！皶和Ｗ陨韰⑴c，觀察正在發(fā)生的事情會讓你對互動產(chǎn)生一種警覺的意識，而不會完全反應(yīng)，”里斯說?！澳憧梢钥纯茨阕约旱纳頇C能是否被充電或得以平衡。你可以注意到在這種情況下發(fā)生了什么。”例如，如果醫(yī)生意識到她感到很煩躁，這可能是病人也感到煩惱的信號。
Those who are utterly at a loss may be able to prime emotional empathy essentially by faking it until they make it, Riess adds. If you act in a caring way—looking people in the eye and paying attention to their expressions, even when you don’t particularly want to—you may start to feel more engaged.
里斯補充說，那些完全處于茫然不知狀態(tài)的人可能會通過偽裝，從而產(chǎn)生情感共鳴。如果你以一種關(guān)心他人的方式行事，看著別人的眼睛，注意他們的表情，即使你并不是特別想要這樣做，你也會開始更加投入。
Empathic concern,?which is closely related to emotional empathy, enables you to sense not just how people feel but what they need from you. It’s what you want in your doctor, your spouse—and your boss. Empathic concern has its roots in the circuitry that compels parents’ attention to their children. Watch where people’s eyes go when someone brings an adorable baby into a room, and you’ll see this mammalian brain center leaping into action.
移情關(guān)懷，與情感共鳴密切相關(guān)，使你不僅能感覺到人們的感受，還能感受到他們對你的需求。這是你想要從你的醫(yī)生，你的伴侶和你的老板中所獲得的。移情關(guān)懷的根源在于使父母關(guān)注孩子。當(dāng)有人把一個可愛的嬰兒帶到一個房間里，人們的雙眼會盯著看，你會看到這個哺乳動物的大腦中心開始有所反應(yīng)。
Research suggests that as people rise through the ranks, their ability to maintain personal connections suffers.
研究表明，隨著人們的地位晉升，他們保持人際關(guān)系的能力也會受到影響。
One neural theory holds that the response is triggered in the amygdala by the brain’s radar for sensing danger and in the prefrontal cortex by the release of oxytocin, the chemical for caring. This implies that empathic concern is a double-edged feeling. We intuitively experience the distress of another as our own. But in deciding whether we will meet that person’s needs, we deliberately weigh how much we value his or her well-being.
一種神經(jīng)理論認為，大腦的雷達通過釋放催產(chǎn)素(一種用于關(guān)愛的化學(xué)物質(zhì))來感知危險和前額葉皮層，從而觸發(fā)了大腦扁桃腺的反應(yīng)。這意味著移情關(guān)注是一把雙刃劍。我們憑直覺感受到另一個人的痛苦。但是在決定我們是否滿足這個人的需求時，我們有意識的衡量我們對他或她的幸福的重視程度。
Getting this intuition-deliberation mix right has great implications. Those whose sympathetic feelings become too strong may themselves suffer. In the helping professions, this can lead to compassion fatigue; in executives, it can create distracting feelings of anxiety about people and circumstances that are beyond anyone’s control. But those who protect themselves by deadening their feelings may lose touch with empathy. Empathic concern requires us to manage our personal distress without numbing ourselves to the pain of others. (See the sidebar “When Empathy Needs to Be Controlled.”)
將直覺與熟思正確的混合具有重大的意義。那些共鳴變得太強烈的人可能會受到傷害。在輔助性專業(yè)中，這可能導(dǎo)致同情疲勞;在管理人員中，會對任何人都無法控制的人和環(huán)境產(chǎn)生令人分心的的焦慮感。但是那些通過抑制自己的感情來保護自己的人可能會失去同情心。移情關(guān)懷要求我們在不讓別人感到痛苦的情況下管理自己的痛苦。(請參閱側(cè)欄“當(dāng)共鳴需要被控制時”)。
When Empathy Needs to Be Controlled ?當(dāng)共鳴需要被控制時
Getting a grip on our impulse to empathize with other people’s feelings can help us make better decisions when someone’s emotional flood threatens to overwhelm us.
當(dāng)一個人的情緒威脅到我們的時候，控制我們對他人情緒的共鳴可以幫助我們做出更好的決定。
Ordinarily, when we see someone pricked with a pin, our brains emit a signal indicating that our own pain centers are echoing that distress. But physicians learn in medical school to block even such automatic responses. Their attentional anesthetic seems to be deployed by the temporal-parietal junction and regions of the prefrontal cortex, a circuit that boosts concentration by tuning out emotions. That’s what is happening in your brain when you distance yourself from others in order to stay calm and help them. The same neural network kicks in when we see a problem in an emotionally overheated environment and need to focus on looking for a solution. If you’re talking with someone who is upset, this system helps you understand the person’s perspective intellectually by shifting from the heart-to-heart of emotional empathy to the head-to-heart of cognitive empathy.
通常情況下，當(dāng)我們看到有人被大頭針刺痛的時候，我們的大腦會發(fā)出一個信號，表明我們的疼痛中心也在呼應(yīng)這種痛苦。但醫(yī)生們在醫(yī)學(xué)院學(xué)習(xí)，甚至阻止這種自動反應(yīng)。他們的注意力麻醉劑似乎是由顳頂葉交界處和前額皮質(zhì)區(qū)域所調(diào)動，這是一種通過調(diào)節(jié)情緒來提高注意力的電路。當(dāng)你與他人保持距離時，你的大腦就會發(fā)生這種反應(yīng)，以保持冷靜并幫助他們。當(dāng)我們在情感過熱的環(huán)境中遇到一個問題，需要集中精力尋找解決方案時，同樣的神經(jīng)網(wǎng)絡(luò)就會啟動。如果你正在和一個不高興的人交談，這個系統(tǒng)會從心與心的情感共鳴轉(zhuǎn)換到心與心的認知共鳴中，從而幫助你理解這個人的觀點。
What’s more, some lab research suggests that the appropriate application of empathic concern is critical to making moral judgments. Brain scans have revealed that when volunteers listened to tales of people subjected to physical pain, their own brain centers for experiencing such pain lit up instantly. But if the story was about psychological suffering, the higher brain centers involved in empathic concern and compassion took longer to activate. Some time is needed to grasp the psychological and moral dimensions of a situation. The more distracted we are, the less we can cultivate the subtler forms of empathy and compassion.
更重要的是，一些實驗室研究表明，適當(dāng)?shù)囊魄殛P(guān)懷對于做出道德判斷是至關(guān)重要的。腦部掃描顯示，當(dāng)志愿者聽到人們遭受身體疼痛的故事時，他們自己的大腦中心就會立即感受到這種疼痛。但是，如果這個故事是關(guān)于心理上的痛苦，那么大腦中涉及移情關(guān)懷和同情的大腦中心就需要更長的時間來激活。需要一些時間來掌握一種處境的心理和道德層面。我們越分散注意力，我們就越不可能培養(yǎng)出更敏感的同理心和同情心。
Building relationships 建立關(guān)系
People who lack social sensitivity are easy to spot—at least for other people. They are the clueless among us. The CFO who is technically competent but bullies some people, freezes out others, and plays favorites—but when you point out what he has just done, shifts the blame, gets angry, or thinks that you’re the problem—is not trying to be a jerk; he’s utterly unaware of his shortcomings.
缺乏社會敏感性的人容易上當(dāng)，至少對其他人來說是這樣。他們是一無所知的。首席財務(wù)官在技術(shù)上是有能力的，但是會欺負一些人，逼走其他人，并且會演得很好——但是當(dāng)你指出他剛剛，轉(zhuǎn)移責(zé)任，生氣，或者認為你是問題的時候，并不是因為他想做一個無知者;而是因為他完全不知道他的缺點。
Social sensitivity appears to be related to cognitive empathy. Cognitively empathic executives do better at overseas assignments, for instance, presumably because they quickly pick up implicit norms and learn the unique mental models of a new culture. Attention to social context lets us act with skill no matter what the situation, instinctively follow the universal algorithm for etiquette, and behave in ways that put others at ease. (In another age this might have been called good manners.)
社會敏感性似乎與認知共鳴有關(guān)。例如，認知移情的高管在海外工作中做得更好，大概是因為他們很快就學(xué)會了隱式規(guī)范，學(xué)習(xí)了一種新文化的獨特的思維模式。對社會背景的關(guān)注讓我們無論在什么情況下都能運用技巧，本能地遵循通用的禮儀法則，并以使他人放松的方式行事。(在另一個時代，這可能被稱為禮貌。)
Circuitry that converges on the anterior hippocampus reads social context and leads us intuitively to act differently with, say, our college buddies than with our families or our colleagues. In concert with the deliberative prefrontal cortex, it squelches the impulse to do something inappropriate. Accordingly, one brain test for sensitivity to context assesses the function of the hippocampus. The University of Wisconsin neuroscientist Richard Davidson hypothesizes that people who are most alert to social situations exhibit stronger activity and more connections between the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex than those who just can’t seem to get it right.
在海馬體的前部聚集的電路讀取了社會背景，并引導(dǎo)我們與大學(xué)伙伴有不同的行為方式，而不是我們的家人或同事。在與審重前額葉皮層的協(xié)調(diào)中，它抑制了做一些不合適的事情的沖動。因此，一種對環(huán)境敏感的大腦測試評估海馬體的功能。威斯康星大學(xué)的神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)科學(xué)家理查德·戴維森假設(shè)，相比于那些看起來對社交環(huán)境不太敏感的人，對社交環(huán)境最敏感的人表現(xiàn)更活躍，海馬體和前額葉皮層之間的聯(lián)系更強。
·?What Makes a Leader?什么鑄就了領(lǐng)導(dǎo)？
Emotional Intelligence Feature 情商特征
The truly effective ones have a high degree of emotional intelligence.真正高效的人具有高情商。
The same circuits may be at play when we map social networks in a group—a skill that lets us navigate the relationships in those networks well. People who excel at organizational influence can not only sense the flow of personal connections but also name the people whose opinions hold most sway, and so focus on persuading those who will persuade others.
當(dāng)我們將社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)映射到一個群體中時，同樣的電路可能會發(fā)揮作用——這一技能讓我們能夠很好地駕馭這些網(wǎng)絡(luò)中的關(guān)系。擅長組織影響力的人不僅能感覺到人際關(guān)系的流動，還能說出那些觀點最具影響力的人的名字，因此專注于說服那些能說服別人的人。
Alarmingly, research suggests that as people rise through the ranks and gain power, their ability to perceive and maintain personal connections tends to suffer a sort of psychic attrition. In studying encounters between people of varying status, Dacher Keltner, a psychologist at Berkeley, has found that higher-ranking individuals consistently focus their gaze less on lower-ranking people and are more likely to interrupt or to monopolize the conversation.
令人擔(dān)憂的是，研究表明，當(dāng)人們等級和權(quán)力獲得提升時，他們感知和維持人際關(guān)系的能力往往會受到某種精神消耗的折磨。在研究不同身份的人之間的遭遇時，伯克利的心理學(xué)家達徹·凱爾特納發(fā)現(xiàn)，地位較高的人很少把目光集中在低級的人身上，傾向于打斷或控制談話。
In fact, mapping attention to power in an organization gives a clear indication of hierarchy: The longer it takes Person A to respond to Person B, the more relative power Person A has. Map response times across an entire organization, and you’ll get a remarkably accurate chart of social standing. The boss leaves e-mails unanswered for hours; those lower down respond within minutes. This is so predictable that an algorithm for it—called automated social hierarchy detection—has been developed at Columbia University. Intelligence agencies reportedly are applying the algorithm to suspected terrorist gangs to piece together chains of influence and identify central figures.
事實上，把注意力集中到一個組織中權(quán)力上，就能清楚地顯示出等級制度:A對B的反應(yīng)時間越長，A的相對權(quán)力就越大。映射整個組織中反應(yīng)時間，你會得到一個非常準確的社會地位結(jié)構(gòu)圖。老板的郵件數(shù)小時都沒有回復(fù);而那些地位較低的人會在幾分鐘內(nèi)回應(yīng)。這是可以預(yù)見的，一種叫做自動社會等級檢測的算法已經(jīng)在哥倫比亞大學(xué)開發(fā)出來了。據(jù)報道，情報局正在將該算法應(yīng)用于可疑的恐怖主義團伙，以拼湊系列影響和識別中心人物。
But the real point is this: Where we see ourselves on the social ladder sets the default for how much attention we pay. This should be a warning to top executives, who need to respond to fast-moving competitive situations by tapping the full range of ideas and talents within an organization. Without a deliberate shift in attention, their natural inclination may be to ignore smart ideas from the lower ranks.
但真正的問題是:我們以社會階級的角度來默認了我們付出了多少關(guān)注。這應(yīng)該是對高層管理者的一個警告，他們需要在一個組織中充分發(fā)揮自己的想法和才能，以應(yīng)對快速變化的競爭局面。如果沒有刻意地轉(zhuǎn)移注意力，他們自然而然的自然傾向于忽視來自低層的聰明想法。
Focusing on the Wider World 專注更廣闊的世界
Leaders with a strong outward focus are not only good listeners but also good questioners. They are visionaries who can sense the far-flung consequences of local decisions and imagine how the choices they make today will play out in the future. They are open to the surprising ways in which seemingly unrelated data can inform their central interests. Melinda Gates offered up a cogent example when she remarked on 60 Minutes that her husband was the kind of person who would read an entire book about fertilizer. Charlie Rose asked, Why fertilizer? The connection was obvious to Bill Gates, who is constantly looking for technological advances that can save lives on a massive scale. “A few billion people would have to die if we hadn’t come up with fertilizer,” he replied.
具有強烈專注外部的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者不僅是好的傾聽者，而且是好的提問者。他們是遠見卓識的人，能感覺到地方?jīng)Q策的深遠影響，并想象他們今天所做的選擇在未來產(chǎn)生怎樣的結(jié)果。他們對看似不相關(guān)的數(shù)據(jù)可以帶來核心利益的驚人方式持開放態(tài)度。梅琳達·蓋茨在60分鐘的演講中提出了一個令人信服的例子:她的丈夫是那種會讀一整本關(guān)于肥料的書的人。查理·羅斯問，為什么要施肥?聯(lián)想到比爾?蓋茨是毋庸置疑的，他一直在尋找能夠大規(guī)模拯救生命的技術(shù)進步。他回答說:“如果我們沒有找到肥料的話，幾十億人就得死?！?/p>
Focusing on strategy 專注策略
Any business school course on strategy will give you the two main elements: exploitation of your current advantage and exploration for new ones. Brain scans that were performed on 63 seasoned business decision makers as they pursued or switched between exploitative and exploratory strategies revealed the specific circuits involved. Not surprisingly, exploitation requires concentration on the job at hand, whereas exploration demands open awareness to recognize new possibilities. But exploitation is accompanied by activity in the brain’s circuitry for anticipation and reward. In other words, it feels good to coast along in a familiar routine. When we switch to exploration, we have to make a deliberate cognitive effort to disengage from that routine in order to roam widely and pursue fresh paths.
任何商學(xué)院的戰(zhàn)略課程都會教授兩大要素:利用你目前的優(yōu)勢，探索新的優(yōu)勢。對63名經(jīng)驗豐富的商業(yè)決策者進行的腦部掃描，他們進行開發(fā)和探索策略之間的轉(zhuǎn)換，揭示了涉及的具體電路。不足為奇的是，開發(fā)需要專注于手頭的工作，而探索需要開放的意識來認識新的可能性。但是，開發(fā)伴隨著在大腦的回路中一種對預(yù)期和獎勵的活動。換句話說，沿著熟悉的路線走下去感覺很好。當(dāng)我們轉(zhuǎn)向探索的時候，我們需要有意識認知的努力去擺脫這種常規(guī)，以便廣泛地漫游，追求新的路徑。
“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention,” wrote the economist Herbert Simon in 1971.
1971年，經(jīng)濟學(xué)家赫伯特?西蒙寫道:“大量信息造成了注意力的匱乏?！?/p>
What keeps us from making that effort? Sleep deprivation, drinking, stress, and mental overload all interfere with the executive circuitry used to make the cognitive switch. To sustain the outward focus that leads to innovation, we need some uninterrupted time in which to reflect and refresh our focus.
什么阻止我們做出這樣的努力?睡眠不足、酗酒、壓力和精神負擔(dān)都會影響到認知轉(zhuǎn)換的執(zhí)行回路。為了保持引領(lǐng)創(chuàng)新的外在關(guān)注，我們需要一些不受干擾的時間來反思和刷新我們的關(guān)注點。
The wellsprings of innovation 創(chuàng)新的源泉
In an era when almost everyone has access to the same information, new value arises from putting ideas together in novel ways and asking smart questions that open up untapped potential. Moments before we have a creative insight, the brain shows a third-of-a-second spike in gamma waves, indicating the synchrony of far-flung brain cells. The more neurons firing in sync, the bigger the spike. Its timing suggests that what’s happening is the formation of a new neural network—presumably creating a fresh association.
在這個幾乎每個人都能獲得相同信息的時代，新的價值產(chǎn)生于以新穎的方式將想法融合在一起，并提出聰明的問題，開創(chuàng)未開發(fā)的潛力。在我們有創(chuàng)造性的見解之前，大腦顯示出伽瑪波的三分之一秒的峰值，顯示出大部分腦細胞的同步性。同步放電神經(jīng)元越多，峰值就越大。它的時機表明，一個新的神經(jīng)網(wǎng)的形成的發(fā)生——可能是建立一個新的聯(lián)系。
But it would be making too much of this to see gamma waves as a secret to creativity. A classic model of creativity suggests how the various modes of attention play key roles. First we prepare our minds by gathering a wide variety of pertinent information, and then we alternate between concentrating intently on the problem and letting our minds wander freely. Those activities translate roughly into vigilance, when while immersing ourselves in all kinds of input, we remain alert for anything relevant to the problem at hand; selective attention to the specific creative challenge; and open awareness, in which we allow our minds to associate freely and the solution to emerge spontaneously. (That’s why so many fresh ideas come to people in the shower or out for a walk or a run.)
但是，如果把伽瑪波看作是創(chuàng)造力的一個秘密，那就太過了。經(jīng)典的創(chuàng)造力模型顯示了不同的專注模式是如何發(fā)揮關(guān)鍵作用的。首先，我們通過收集各種各樣的相關(guān)信息來做思想準備，然后我們在專注問題和自由思想游蕩之間交替。當(dāng)我們沉浸在各種輸入時，這些活動可轉(zhuǎn)化為警惕，對于與手頭問題相關(guān)的任何事情保持警惕;選擇性專注于特定的創(chuàng)造性挑戰(zhàn);開放的意識允許我們的思想自由地聯(lián)系，并自發(fā)地產(chǎn)生解決方案。(這就是為什么人們在淋浴或外出散步或跑步時會有那么多新鮮的想法出現(xiàn)。)
The dubious gift of systems awareness 系統(tǒng)意識的可疑天賦。
If people are given a quick view of a photo of lots of dots and asked to guess how many there are, the strong systems thinkers in the group tend to make the best estimates. This skill shows up in those who are good at designing software, assembly lines, matrix organizations, or interventions to save failing ecosystems—it’s a very powerful gift indeed. After all, we live within extremely complex systems. But, suggests the Cambridge University psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen (a cousin of Sacha’s), in a small but significant number of people, a strong systems awareness is coupled with an empathy deficit—a blind spot for what other people are thinking and feeling and for reading social situations. For that reason, although people with a superior systems understanding are organizational assets, they are not necessarily effective leaders.
如果讓人們快速瀏覽一幅有很多點的照片，并讓他們猜出有多少個點，那么群體中強大系統(tǒng)思考者往往會做出最好的估計。這種技能體現(xiàn)在那些擅長設(shè)計軟件、組裝線、矩陣組織或拯救失敗生態(tài)系統(tǒng)的干預(yù)措施的人身上——這確實是一個非常強大的天賦。畢竟，我們生活在極其復(fù)雜的系統(tǒng)中。但是，劍橋大學(xué)的心理學(xué)家(薩夏的表兄)認為，在為數(shù)不多但重要的人中，，強大的系統(tǒng)意識與同理心的缺失永相隨——是其他人在思考、感受和閱讀社會狀況的一個盲點。由于這個原因，盡管具有較好的系統(tǒng)理解能力的人是寶貴人才，但他們不一定是有效的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者。
An executive at one bank explained to me that it has created a separate career ladder for systems analysts so that they can progress in status and salary on the basis of their systems smarts alone. That way, the bank can consult them as needed while recruiting leaders from a different pool—one containing people with emotional intelligence.
一家銀行的高管向我解釋說，該銀行為系統(tǒng)分析師們創(chuàng)建了一個獨立的職業(yè)規(guī)劃，這樣他們就可以基于系統(tǒng)智能基礎(chǔ)上取得地位和薪水的進步。這樣，銀行就可以在需要的時候咨詢他們，同時從不同領(lǐng)域招募領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者，其中包括高情商者。
Putting It All Together 結(jié)合
For those who don’t want to end up similarly compartmentalized, the message is clear. A focused leader is not the person concentrating on the three most important priorities of the year, or the most brilliant systems thinker, or the one most in tune with the corporate culture. Focused leaders can command the full range of their own attention: They are in touch with their inner feelings, they can control their impulses, they are aware of how others see them, they understand what others need from them, they can weed out distractions and also allow their minds to roam widely, free of preconceptions.
對于那些不想結(jié)束類似劃分的人來說，信息是明確的。一個專注的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者并不是專注于一年中最重要的三個優(yōu)先事項的人，或者是最杰出的系統(tǒng)思考者，或者是與企業(yè)文化最合拍的人。專注的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人可以讓自己全身心專注:他們與內(nèi)心的感受交流,他們可以控制自己的沖動,他們知道別人如何看待他們,他們理解別人的需要,他們可以剔除干擾,也讓他們的思想四處漫游,沒有偏見。
Primal Leadership?先決領(lǐng)導(dǎo)
Emotional Intelligence Feature 情商特征
Your mood can drive (or inhibit) your company’s bottom line.
你的情緒可以推動(或抑制)公司的底線。
This is challenging. But if great leadership were a paint-by-numbers exercise, great leaders would be more common. Practically every form of focus can be strengthened. What it takes is not talent so much as diligence—a willingness to exercise the attention circuits of the brain just as we exercise our analytic skills and other systems of the body.
這是具有挑戰(zhàn)性的。但是，如果偉大的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)能力是一種數(shù)字繪畫訓(xùn)練，偉大的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者就會更加普遍。幾乎每一種關(guān)注形式都可以得到加強。它所需要的不是天賦，而是勤奮——只要我們鍛煉我們的分析技巧和其他身體系統(tǒng)，就能自發(fā)鍛煉大腦的注意力回路。
The link between attention and excellence remains hidden most of the time. Yet attention is the basis of the most essential of leadership skills—emotional, organizational, and strategic intelligence. And never has it been under greater assault. The constant onslaught of incoming data leads to sloppy shortcuts—triaging our e-mail by reading only the subject lines, skipping many of our voice mails, skimming memos and reports. Not only do our habits of attention make us less effective, but the sheer volume of all those messages leaves us too little time to reflect on what they really mean. This was foreseen more than 40 years ago by the Nobel Prize–winning economist Herbert Simon. Information “consumes the attention of its recipients,” he wrote in 1971. “Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”
在大多數(shù)情況下，注意力和卓越表現(xiàn)之間的聯(lián)系是隱蔽的。然而，注意力是領(lǐng)導(dǎo)技能最重要的基礎(chǔ)——情感、組織和戰(zhàn)略情報。從來沒有遭受過更大的攻擊。不斷涌入的數(shù)據(jù)會導(dǎo)致草率抄捷徑——通過只閱讀主題，跳過語音郵件，略讀備忘錄和報告，來分類郵件。我們的注意力習(xí)慣不僅降低了我們的效率，而且大量的信息讓我們沒有時間去思考它們真正的含義。這是40多年前諾貝爾經(jīng)濟學(xué)獎獲得者赫伯特·西蒙所預(yù)見的。信息“消耗了接受者的注意力”。他在1971年寫道?！耙虼耍罅啃畔⒃斐闪俗⒁饬Φ膮T乏。”
My goal here is to place attention center stage so that you can direct it where you need it when you need it. Learn to master your attention, and you will be in command of where you, and your organization, focus.
我的目標是把注意力集中在舞臺中心，這樣在需要的時候你就可以把注意力放在你需要的地方。學(xué)會掌控你的注意力，這樣你就能掌控你和你所在的組織的焦點。
Link:?The Focused Leader
