Sundaymail Editor
Women & Leadership
Maggie Mzumara
AS noted in last week’s instalment, there is a role and place of emotions in the workplace. In as much as we should not walk around being bags and basket cases of emotions, we do not necessarily have to deny or downplay them. All that is key is for us to know how to express them, regulate, manage and benefit from them.
David R. Caruso and Peter Salovey in their book “The Emotionally Intelligent Manager” (Jossey-Bass,2004) state that in order to leverage the power of one’s emotions to be a better manager and leader, there are six principles of emotional intelligence to consider.
These are as follows: (i) emotion is information, (ii) we can try to ignore emotion, but it doesn’t work (iii) we can try to hide emotions, but we are not as good at it as we think (iv) decisions must incorporate emotion to be effective (v) emotions follow logical patterns and (vi) emotional universals exist but so do specifics.
Principle 1: Emotion is information
Emotions contain data about you and your world. Emotions are not random, chaotic events that interfere with thinking. An emotion occurs due to some factor that is important to you, and it helps motivate you and guide you to success.
At the most basic level, emotions can be viewed as:
• Occurring due to some sort of change in the world around you
• Starting automatically
• Quickly generating physiological changes
• Changing what you were paying attention to and how you were thinking
• Preparing you for action
• Creating personal feelings
• Quickly dissipating
• Helping you cope, survive and thrive in your world.
Principle 2: We can try to ignore emotions but it doesn’t work
According to social psychologist, Roy Baumeister, when people try to suppress the expression of their emotions, they end up remembering less information. Emotional suppression takes energy and attention that could be otherwise expended to listening to and processing information.
This is not to suggest that we become awash with emotions, but that we should engage strategies that do not include suppression of emotions.
Such strategies include emotional re-appraisal, wherein we look at the issues but attempt to reframe them in a more constructive and adaptive way.
We can view the situation as a challenge to be addressed or try to gain some lesson from the issue or situation.
An emotionally intelligent manager experiences the emotions and then uses the power of the emotion as a springboard for a successful and productive outcome.
Principle 3: We can try to hide our emotions but we are not as good at it as we think
Most managers and leaders often do not share certain types of information with other people, or they try to cover up how they truly feel to protect themselves or others. They say that everything is fine, when the opposite is true. They claim not to be worried when in fact they are.
Research has shown that though disguising emotions may be common, it does not work very well. Some telling things about someone may expose them, for example facial expressions, pauses in one’s speck, speech errors, and fleeting emotional displays.
All this can have an adverse effect because the desire to protect emotions or to engage in purely rational pursuits in the workplace can end up in decision-making failures and create an atmosphere of mistrust.
Principle 4: Decisions must incorporate emotion to be effective
Our feelings have an impact on us and on others, whether we want them or not. According to neuroscientist, Damasio, rational thinking cannot occur in the absence of emotion.
We have for a long time distrusted emotion as unreliable, irrational and unwanted impulses that bring us back down to a lower evolutionary level. But more and more, newer approaches to leadership recognise that emotions make us truly human and undergird our rationality and as such emotions must be welcomed, embraced, understood and put to good use.
Principle 5: Emotions follow logical patterns
Emotions come about for many reasons, but each emotion is part of sequence from low to high intensity. If the event or thought that initiated a feeling persists or intensifies, then it is likely that the feeling also gets stronger. Emotions are not randomly occurring events.
Contrary to what we may think, emotions do not come out of nowhere. If it appears as if they have come out of nowhere, it means we missed the warning signs.
We need to appreciate the progression of emotions. Such knowledge when applied with care, can reduce surprises and help us predict what could be.
Principle 6: Emotional universals exist, but so do specifics
Emotional intelligence works in part because there are some universal rules of emotion and their expression.
A happy face is seen as happy, no matter where in the world he/she comes from. But life is more complex than universal rules.
There are also emotion specifics and these could be influenced by factors such as secondary emotions, gender, culture, personality, among others.
(Primary source of this article is David R. Caruso and Peter Salovey’s book The Emotionally Intelligent Manager (Jossey-Bass,2004).
Maggie Mzumara is a leadership, communication and media strategist as well as corporate trainer, who offers group trainings as well as one on one coaching in various areas of expertise. She advocates women leadership and is founder of Success in Stilettos (SiS) Seminar Series, a leadership development platform for women. Contact her on [email protected] or follow on Twitter @magsmzumara
Tinaye Agere
Online Reporter