The idea underlying cognitive distortions is that these thought patterns twist or misinterpret reality and it results in emotional distress. By recognizing the specific type of distortion, you can then work to objectively change your thinking patterns.
Emotional distress does not lend itself to making sound decisions based on facts, whole context, consideration for all parties involved, and consideration for outcomes. Emotional distress does not lend itself to making sound decisions anywhere, but especially not in leadership or business. If we run organizations, corporations, and businesses based on emotions and/or responses to emotional distress then we aren’t looping in other cognitive processes like moral reasoning, executive functioning which includes language and communication, evaluation of pros and cons, or even tapping into the facts and figures we already know. Why? Because when we are in response to emotional distress we are in the more primitive part of our brain, the limbic system to be exact, the amygdala to be even more exact, and specifically in the 4-F model of automatic safety response: Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn. When our brains are responding to emotional distress it’s impossible to have sound judgment and accurate reasoning. Why? Because that part of our brain (the prefrontal cortex that controls those higher-level human cognitive processes) is literally turned off, not firing information, not collecting information, not processing information. We are not capable of processing information or communicating already known information when our F/F/F/F system is turned on. And emotional distress, even the distress caused by perpetuating cognitive distortions of which we may be unaware we are perpetuating, turns on the F/F/F/F system, whether you want it to or not, whether you recognize it or not, whether you admit it or not. Science is science. And this is something we KNOW in neuroscience, brain science, brain function and physiology science.
SO, what can we do? Well, for one, we can become aware of cognitive distortions, one avenue that leads to emotional distress, which can then lead to faulty or poor decision-making. Once we understand those distortions in general, then we can become aware of OUR cognitive distortions, the ones that affect us the most often or the most intensely. To become aware of the cognitive distortions that plague us specifically, requires self-reflection, self-awareness, self-acceptance…yes, self-work. Then there’s even more self-work as we engage in efforts to pay attention to the distortions WHEN THEY ARISE in the present moment, and move to redirect those faulty thoughts to neutral, reasonable and realistic thoughts.
Essentially, it is catching ourselves up in the negative clouds of our thoughts and bringing ourselves back down to the reality of the present moment, present context, and more well-rounded way of viewing things and the world. This is not natural or automatic. What is natural and automatic are the distortions. They become patterned and easy, hard to recognize as faulty, and hard to change/redirect BECAUSE they come so naturally and easily. That does not make them true, or accurate. It just makes them the loudest and the most accessible in terms of our brain. Operating out of patterns takes ‘less work’ for the brain…think of patterns to brush teeth, put on pants, eat foods at certain times, we often do these things ‘without thinking’ about them anymore, they just happen. Well, they just happen because they are on pattern, habit, ritual. It takes less brain energy to do something we’ve done a million times before in the same way, than it does to do something DIFFERENT from the usual course of action. And thinking is an action. Redirecting automatic thinking? Yea, definitely active, definitely an action. An action that requires effort. Disrupting cognitive distortions requires effort, it takes effort to redirect an automatic thought, or action, it takes effort to redirect an automatic pattern. An automatic pattern we’ve likely been living with most of our lives. Distortions are often born early, therefore, getting really cemented into our psyche and physiological brain networks and pathways long before we realize we’ve learned these and perpetuated these.
What are some of these cognitive distortions? And how exactly are they bad for good leadership, besides the obvious of operating out of a faulty old pattern and failing to stop to deal with the emotional distress SO THAT we can operate outside of that faulty old pattern?
Here is a list of the most common, maybe all, of the cognitive distortions of which I am familiar. (find definitions, examples and quotes in the FULL article on Medium).
All-or-nothing-thinking
“Should” statements
Fortune telling
Jumping to conclusions
Mental filtering
Discounting the positive
Labeling
Comparing
Minimization
Emotional reasoning
Blaming and personalization
Catastrophizing
Pessimism
READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE ON MEDIUM HERE:
https://medium.com/@thriveandshineCCC/cognitive-distortions-are-bad-for-good-leadership-23f46c73bd7b
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