Why your brain sabotages you during performance reviews

Cassandra Nadira Lee
Feb 5
3 min read

LIFT Newsletter 026

Read Time: 5 minutes

Content: Performance review, 3 brains trap, 2026 proactive wins

Your heart races before you even walk into the room.

You know your work is solid. Your results speak for themselves. But something happens the moment that meeting starts, you rush to justify instead of confidently present. You over-explain when you should pause. You defend when you should lead.

Sound familiar?

It's not imposter syndrome. It's not lack of preparation. It's your survival brain hijacking your professional presence.

The Science Behind the Sabotage Neuroscientist Dr. Paul MacLean's research revealed that we don't have one brain; we have three, each with a different job:

1. The Reptilian (Survival) Brain

Developed 500 million years ago

Reacts in 0.3 seconds to perceived threats

Controls fight, flight, freeze responses

Cannot distinguish between physical danger and professional pressure

2. The Limbic (Emotional) Brain

Evolved 150 million years ago

Processes emotions, relationships, belonging

Reads facial expressions and tone

Decides if you're "safe" in social situations

3. The Neocortex (Executive) Brain

Only 2-3 million years old

Handles logic, planning, complex reasoning

Takes 6+ seconds to fully engage

Where your professional competence actually lives

Here's the problem: Under stress, your brain follows evolutionary hierarchy. Survival always overrides strategy.

Harvard Health confirms this: "The brain's threat detection system fires before the rational thinking system which is why staying calm requires conscious intervention."

Performance reviews trigger your survival brain because they feel like social evaluation, historically a life-or-death scenario for humans.

When survival mode activates;

💥 Your executive brain goes offline

💥 Logic becomes inaccessible

💥 You default to reactive patterns

💥 Others sense your internal tension

The result? You sound defensive when you mean to sound confident. You over-explain when you should pause. You fight for approval when you should demonstrate authority.

Betty who works as a consultant in a leading FMCG, one of our client, lived this cycle:

"I equated productivity with worth - working restlessly even when unwell. I'd fill every silence in meetings because quiet felt unsafe. My feedback was always 'defensive under pressure.'"

Her recognition: Delayed. Promotions: Passed over. Confidence: Eroded.

The solution isn't positive thinking. It's neural retraining.

She learnt to identify which brain was speaking in real-time:

"Now I can step back, breathe, and make decisions more consciously. I balance discipline with compassion, communicate with honesty rather than pressure. My feedback shifted to 'steady and clear.'"

That transformation happened because she learned:

1️⃣ Release of trapped survival stories for years which traps her

2️⃣How to recognize survival mode before it hijacks her

3️⃣ Somatic techniques to reset her nervous system

4️⃣ Ways to access executive function under pressure

5️⃣ How to communicate from competence, not fear

Most professionals master strategy but never learn to manage their internal state. They wonder why their good ideas don't land, why their expertise gets questioned, why they feel exhausted after important meetings.