[Neurons] 2021 Neurons #50 ACTUALIZING THE EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2021 Neurons #50

August 9, 2021

Be the Executive #2

 

ACTUALIZING

THE EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS

 

Given the executive functions in your brain (Neurons #48), you have both the
capacity and the potential to be your own best executive making executive
decisions about what to think, believe, decide, say, and do.  How great is
that?   This capacity lies in your prefrontal cortex- because it is there
that you have executive functions.  These powerful functions is also why-
without training- you can completely ruin your potentials.  Without
training, you can so misuse your executive functions that you will end up
creating a living hell for yourself.  Conversely, with training, your
potentials open up and the sky is the limit. 

 

What are these executive functions?  Here is a basic list of the key
functions- executive functions by which you can become fully human/ fully
alive as you actualize your highest potentials as a human being.  It's by
the executive functions that you are able to be human in the highest and
best sense. 

              1) Response inhibition and emotional control

2) Reflecting and meta-cognition

3) Working memory

4) Task initiation

5) Sustained attention: attending, staying focused

6) Intentionality and planning

7) Organizing: Prioritizing, organizing, sequencing.

8) Time management

9) Flexibility in adapting, dealing with change

10) Goal-directed persistence

11) Stress tolerance

12) Social intelligence in communicating, empathy, expressiveness.

 

1) Response inhibition.  This refers to the ability to hold yourself back
from doing what other parts of your brain may be mobilize to do.  Here you
can notice your emotions without acting on them.  Here you can ignore
distractions and stay focused.  Here you can exercise self-control.  It
includes emotional restraint as the ability to self-regulate your emotions,
drives, and choices.  You can over-ride your impatience, pride, and need for
instant gratification.  You can monitor yourself and assume responsibility.

 

2) Reflecting.  This refers to the ability to think before you act.  You can
take a moment to pause,  to be silent and just notice what is without
jumping to conclusions.  Reflecting means you can think things through and
deliberate about what information is most important.  Here you can use your
meta-cognition for abstract thinking- thinking in terms of concepts,
beliefs, understandings.  With your reflexivity you recognize hidden frames
and reframe.

3) Working memory.  This refers to the ability to keep information in your
mind and to retrieve it at will.  You can not only remember, you can
consciously recall what you want to retrieve.  While your working memory is
short, just a few seconds, you can develop it so that it can hold in mind
something for thirty minutes or a day.  Memory is your ability for
information retention so that you can then have access to it as needed which
then allows you to build on your knowledge base.

 

4) Task initiation and decision.  This refers to the ability to start a task
and stay focused on it unto completion.  You can concentrate on a task and
stay focused.  This is the ability to evaluate a decision, to weigh pros and
cons, to prioritize the importance of values, and to make a final judgment.
Now you can be the executive of the decisions, beliefs, understandings and
policies that you set for yourself.

 

5) Sustained attention.  The ability to focus your attention on a task, to
ignore distractions, and to maintain your intention is what we call
concentration.  Unlike animals and small children who live in a world of
attentions, you can live in the world of intentions- and by your intentions
direct your attentions do serve them.

 

6) Intentionality and planning.  This refers to the ability to set
intentions and decide and then involves structure and/or format a plan to
fulfill your intention. The ability to make a good guess about what will or
could happen.  It is the ability to think strategically about how to achieve
an objective, to consider consequences and to think a few steps ahead.

 

7) Organizing.  This is the ability to order and sequence the activities
that make up a plan.  It is the ability to track what you're doing and how
you are doing it, in other words, self-monitoring.  By organizing things in
your mind (and on paper), you are not dependent on how information comes to
you, you can re-sequence things and create more useful organizations or
strategies.

 

8) Time management.  This is the ability to balance "now" (today) and "then"
(the future).  When you can do that, you can prioritize long-term over
short-term values.  You can be aware of your own mortality and "number your
days" accordingly.  You can choose to live in the now and you can choose to
step out of the now to learn from the past and to anticipate the future.

 

9) Flexibility.  This is the ability to flexibly shift your thinking and
your strategy as needed in a given context.  It is the ability to be nimble
rather than rigid.  It is the ability to shift perspective, adopt multiple
perspectives, and contextualize things.  This facilitates the executive
ability to stay relevant and appropriate in any context and to make changes
in real time.

 

10) Goal-directed persistence.  This is the ability to define an objective
and to solve any and all problems that arise to block that achievement.  It
is the ability to sustain a goal for the long-term and to bounce back from
set-backs (resilience).  It is the ability to persist.

 

11) Stress tolerance.  This is the ability to embrace uncertainty and the
ambiguous, to use humor to lighten up, to calm yourself when under pressure,
to restrain yourself from reactivity.  This is the ability to turn stresses
and challenges into eustress.

 

12) Social intelligence.  This is the ability to communicate empathy and
care to others in order to create a connection and bonding with significant
others.  It is the ability to express yourself and your presence, your
understandings and to receive feedback from others.  It is the ability to
create a social support system for yourself and others.

 

Now, obviously, before you can actualize these executive functions, you have
to know them.  After that comes the step of developing them as fully as
possible.  That's where teaching, coaching, and training comes in.  As you
can tell, these involve what we call emotional intelligence, social
intelligence, and practical wisdom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

. 

 

 

 

 

From: L. Michael Hall

2021 Neurons #48

August July 30, 2021

Be the Executive #3

 

TAKING EXECUTIVE CONTROL

  

Unique and higher than your "lower" level brain functions, are your
executive functions.  While these are biologically based in your brain
anatomy and govern your neurology, they do far more- they open and construct
your sense of self, your thinking disposition, your attitude, your spirit. 

 

 




 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director 

Neuro-Semantics 

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

132607 NeuroSemantics Executive Learning Front Cover

 

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