Dopamine is a neuro-transmitter that plays a pivotal role in controlling arousal. It is associated with reward and a person can be induced to a heightened state of arousal when they know that they are going to receive a reward for doing something. Much like a dog looks forward to getting a treat for doing the right thing. It is strongly associated with activity within the hippocampus in the formation and retrieval of memory. I guess when you put these few things together you can see why rewarding a young child for positive behaviour is such a powerful tool: they do the right thing once, they get rewarded, they have an increase in dopamine, they want to be rewarded again, so they do the right thing again to get the reward and are aware they will get the reward so therefore are in a heightened state of arousal when performing that activity. This brings focussed attention to the task, which is another effect of dopamine on the pre-frontal and frontal cortex. The child experiences this cycle for while the task is novel, that is, they are still learning the task, and therefore dopamine is still being produced. As dopamine is involved in the experiencing of pleasure, this is probably why young children appear to be exuberant when at play. Play is implicated in the release of dopamine and from my understanding now of the different effects of dopamine on the brain and therefore behaviour, I conclude that young children are actually dopamine junkies.

Aren’t bullies just people who feel inferior to others?

The very simple answer is ‘yes’ they bully others to put them down so they can feel ‘bigger’, ‘better’, ‘smarter’, ‘stronger’ all the ‘er’ words you can imagine.

The more complicated answer is ‘NO’. Workplace bullies generally already have an over-inflated ego and sense of their capabilities that have been developed over many years of bullying others. They generally hold positions of power within organisations and don’t need to put you down or ‘keep you in your place’ in order to feel good about themselves. Remember that positions of power within organisations do not necessarily mean a position of authority, such as a management position.

Beyond IQ can help you prevent bullying in your workplace. Click here and get the ball rolling today because Beyond IQ deals with behavioural change, not just the symptoms!

For those of you who know what we at Beyond IQ do, you know that we do extraordinary workshops around behavioural change.

How do we do this?

We have a way of getting people to look at themselves like never before. Our aim always is to empower our participants to realise their full potential. To let go of their previously held beliefs about who they are and what they are capable of. We are essentially interested in getting participants to realise their greatness.

Why would we be interested in this as our aim from every workshop?

Because, we believe that when people realise their greatness (their full potential), they let go of petty squabbles, negative opinions they hold of others, and habits that don’t serve them and they begin to replace those old habits with new ones that improve the outcomes from their actions.

As we change the way we behave towards others, they change the way they behave towards us. First though, we need to change the way we behave towards ourselves. That process starts in our thoughts and culminates in our actions. As all behaviour does. It’s not rocket science, but there is a science to it.

The next time you see people in your workplace behaving badly towards each other, remember Beyond IQ and call us or email us, hell just email us now info@beyondiq.com.au because prevention is better and cheaper than cure! Human capital management is what we do best.