Ethan Kross is one of the world’s leading experts on controlling the conscious mind. An award-winning professor and bestselling author in the University of Michigan’s top ranked Psychology Department and its Ross School of Business, he has founded the Emotion & Self Control Laboratory and studies how the conversations people have with themselves impact their health, performance, decisions and relationships. Ethan is the author of the National Bestseller Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why it Matters and How to Harness It, scheduled to be translated into 35+ languages. His research has been featured in leading platforms including Science, The New England Journal of Medicine, CBS Evening News, The New Yorker, Harvard Business Review, The Economist, The Atlantic, Forbes, and Time.

In this episode of Intersections, Prof. Hitendra Wadhwa has a conversation with Ethan Kross on the topic “Recruiting Our Mind to Perform at Our Best.”

Oftentimes, it is our inner voice that gives us clarity and power — or then takes it all away without notice, leading us to tumble and fall from grace, into the rabbit hole of rumination and worry.

How can we master the silent conversations we have with ourselves, and turn our inner voice from a critic to a coach? Why is empathic leadership much more than just creating the space for sharing and listening with intent? What can we do to covertly support others in managing their inner voice better without taking away their agency or shining a spotlight on their vulnerabilities?

“Those who are able to quieten their inner voice are happier; their sense of relief can be palpable.”

Ethan Kross

This episode offers key insights on:

• How our life’s three most important domains can be severely compromised by our own inner voice
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• Two ways our internal chatter can lead to disastrous interpersonal outcomes, and push those away who genuinely care about us
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• How we can recruit our minds to solve our problems at hand without falling down the rabbit hole of rumination and worry

• Two key principles of empathic leadership that can help us curate a support network of people, both at work and in life

• Three ways to offer invisible chatter support to others without taking away their agency or shining a spotlight on their vulnerabilities

• Two powerful tools that can help us become our own chatter coach, in both everyday and high-stakes situations