What are Your Brain Drivers?

There are four distinctive 'brain drivers,' or ways of thinking and behaving. These drivers are based on brain chemicals such as dopamine, serotonin, testosterone and estrogen. Although these chemicals are present in everyone's brain, people tend to express them to varying degrees.

Once you understand which brain driver someone uses, you can begin to reach them in the world they live in. I have spent a better part of my coaching career conducting extensive research into how biology, environment, axiology, neuroscience, and quantum physics combine to shape the way people think about and respond to others.

People whose brain driver is heavily influenced by dopamine (D) tend to be risk-taking, novelty seeking, curious, spontaneous and somewhat irreverent.

Those influenced by serotonin (S) tend to be calm, self-controlled, frugal, managerial and steady.

Those influenced more by testosterone (C) tend to be analytical, logical, competitive, rank-oriented but defiant.

And, those influenced by estrogen (I) tend to be imaginative, compassionate, verbal and intuitive.

Deloitte, one of the BIG 5 consulting firms, has begun recently to incorporate this philosophy, with its senior partners and executive leaders to determine their own brain drivers and learn how to communicate more effectively with people who have different brain drivers.

If your brain driver is predominantly S and you are meeting with a client whose brain driver is an I, then you need to focus on things like listening actively, finding points of agreement and smiling more. We can act out of character. It is tiring; but, we do it.

Do you know what your brain driver is? Contact me if I can be of help to make you a much more effective communicator and be successful in your business or life, in general.

If you are in a business or job to help others solve a problem and if you are able to listen to your clients actively and understand the context of their problem, you will be in a much better position to help them – it will give you an edge in helping to solve the problem.