Impacts of Positive Emotional Attractor (PEA) and Negative Emotional Attractor (NEA)

Md. Abdullah Al Mamoon, PMP

Recently I completed a course on “Inspiring Leadership Through Emotional Intelligence” conducted by Professor Richard E. Boyatzis, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University, USA. It was an amazing experience and enormous learning endeavor for me. I really enjoyed all the lectures of Professor Boyatzis and learnt many aspects of Emotional Intelligence (EI). Thanks to Coursera (www.coursera.org) for partnering and organizing this course. I would like to share some of my learning of Emotional Intelligence through reflecting and sharing my real life experiences.

I was an instructor in the military training school and academy for almost 7 years. Coaching and mentoring were integral part in the training programs especially during two years training of military cadets for grooming and qualifying them for the grant of commission in the Army. There were many physiological and psychological techniques and events in the process of discharging training including in the evaluation and assessment process.

Recalling my previous experiences as a trainer, coach and mentor during the training sessions, I now understand that when I used to sit for counseling the cadets due to chronic poor performance and used to motivate them highlighting positive aspects of their character and performance and how they could work on offsetting those negative aspects, I eventually invoked Positive Emotional Attractor (PEA) in them. As I recall, many of them showed definite improvements in their performance and also granted commission in the Army. My cadets who were weak in physical training and used to fail in the Physical Efficiency Test (PET) tests (which was a mandatory requirement to be promoted in the next term), I used to personally work with them during off training hour, even during weekend, taking them to the physical training ground and they used to practice with me. By seeing me participating with them in all the physical training events, they were very spontaneous and hardworking in their practice. And they improved and qualified in the tests. I think during those times, my cadets and me worked for a shared vision of ensuring the grant of commission in the Army, which helped in the activation of Parasympathetic Nervous System (PSNS) due to the creation of hopes and aspirations. I could invoke PEA in them, which made them more open to change - made them willing to dedicate for improvements, and they did at the end.

In some of the instances, there were rigorous punishments (well, a typical and traditional ritual in all military academies across the world!) for being incapable of delivering the expected results. During the motivation and counseling sessions, I used to highlight comparative performance mentioning that if X cadet could do, why couldn’t you do. And many a times, I observed some improvements but this temporarily displayed performance was not at all consistent or there were hardly any sustainable improvements. Now I understand that with the punishment as the ramification of failure and comparative performance as a benchmark to achieve, I used to invoke Negative Emotional Attractor (NEA) causing the arousal of Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS), which indeed inhibited the openness of mind and suppressed the process of Neurogenesis (the natural process of the growth of brain cell). Instead of instilling a natural learning process and development, I inadvertently created the stumbling blocks in the mind to capture new learning.

Here is an amazing video clip where Professor Boyatzis speaks about the importance of establishing resonant relationship and how PEA and NEA impacts in coaching...

Email: abdullah.mamoon@hotmail.com