This article suggests an interesting brain hack for managers, especially when they have to have difficult conversations or otherwise engage with the people they manage in ways that require empathy. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
So, before I get into that: the title of this article is actually pretty deeply misleading. The studies it talks about don't show that power causes brain damage--they show that power causes people to lose some cognitive capacity AS IF they'd suffered brain damage.
But there's nothing in the article that suggests the effects of it are permanent. In fact, quite the opposite. The powerful people in the main study were college students who'd been "primed" to FEEL powerful by talking about an experience of being in charge.
"Power" in that study, is a mood, not a state of being. But in any case, those who'd been primed to feel powerful displayed an impaired neurological "mirroring" response. That is, their ability to empathize was impaired.
The word "empathy" tends to get used in a sense that suggests warm, fuzzy, fee-fees. But it's actually a societal survival mechanism. When it's impaired, you have trouble predicting how other people will respond to what you do or say, for example.
So what does this have to do with managers? Well, if you can prime yourself to feel powerful by thinking of a time that you were in charge, and doing so impairs your ability to be empathic and read people immediately afterward...
And when you're about to have a meeting with someone you manage, who's in a relative position of *less* power (and if it's a difficult conversation, likely to be feeling that even MORE acutely), you're probably hyperaware that you're their manager...
You're likely unconsciously priming yourself to feel powerful, and therefore temporarily impairing your ability to feel empathy and read someone in a situation where you actually need that ability functioning at a high level to handle the conversation well.
So it's probably worth taking a few minutes before having the conversation to think about a time when you felt powerless. Hopefully, at minimum, it counteracts the "priming" effect of feeling powerful. And who knows, maybe it might boost your empathy.
