At one time or another you’ve probably used the expression “deer in headlights” when describing yourself or someone else in a stressful situation.  As it turns out that analogy might be more accurate than you think.

In his book, What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People, Joe Navarro talks about the three responses that most animals (including people) have to threats.  Most of us are familiar with the first two: fight or flight.  Navarro adds a third to the list – freeze.  He also makes an interesting observation that these three reactions are not chosen ad-hoc.  They are ordered based on your body’s need to conserve energy.  The first reaction is freeze (lowest energy needed), then flight, and finally fight (greatest energy needed).

These responses kick in during times of stress.  They are automatic, driven by the more primitive parts of our brains.  Their presence is often a sign that the thinking part of your brain may be shutting down (or already has shut down).

These responses are so automatic and deeply programmed into our behavior that Navarro used them to guide his interrogations.  He said that people can teach themselves how to tell a convincing lie but their body always gives them away.  Want to know if someone is really engaged when they are talking with you?  Don’t watch their face (it’s easy to nod, give an occasional “uh-huh”, and look attentive).  Instead, look at their feet.  If they are pointed toward the door (or somewhere other than you), the person is in flight mode.  If they are pointed at you, you’ve got their attention.

By understanding and reflecting on these behaviors, you can also assess where you or your team may be during times of stress or change.

Freeze – the goal of the freeze reaction is to avoid being noticed.  Have you seen this reaction in your people?  When in freeze mode people disengage from meetings, stop offering opinions and ideas, and generally fly under the radar.  They are physically present but checked out.

Flight – the goal of the flight reaction is to distance yourself from danger.  Do your people suddenly seem to have a lot more conflicts with team meetings than before?  Are they missing more deadlines?  Do they no longer ask you to review their work?  All of these might be symptoms that your people are starting to “flee.”

Fight – the goal of the fight reaction is to squelch the danger.  In the business world, we don’t fight with our hands – we fight with our words and actions.  The most obvious cases of fight are people who become openly hostile in the workplace.  They can get set off by any little thing. Often what they are arguing about isn’t even the topic at hand.  In other cases they may become very sarcastic.  You may begin to see more personal attacks on you or other people in the organization.  In some organizations, the fight response is more subtle.  It shows up as passive-aggressive behaviors.  The freeze response causes them to go along with the decisions during the meeting but the fight response comes out at the water cooler.

Fight, flight, and freeze show up differently in each person.  Pay attention to your people’s responses so you’ll be able to recognize trouble.  More importantly, learn your own responses so that you’ll know when your brain is being shut down.

By becoming more attentive to fight, flight, or freeze behaviors, you will be better able to determine when your people (or you) are under stress.  More importantly, the behaviors should be a flag that you need to look beyond the surface.  Instead of confronting the person about the behavior (although in some case you’ll need to discuss that too), use the opportunity to have a discussion to uncover the deeper issue.  And remember, these responses come in order.  The sooner you catch one, the easier and more likely it will be to resolve the problem.