Employee emotions, an unrecognised management issue

We are all influenced by emotions in our daily actions and reactions. They also play a part in the conflicts or successes of teams. Knowing how to control emotions and conflicts allows you to achieve better individual and collective performances.

Emotions can be dangerous if you let them drive your thinking, behaviour, or action. This affects your performance negatively. How good are you at managing emotions? How do you deal with anger, feelings of rejection, disappointment, frustration and work pressure?

What about joy and happiness? How often do we experience joy, and do we know how to enjoy it appropriately when it arises? Sounds pretty easy - doesn't it? But it's a skill that's hard to develop and retain and nurture in us.

Automatic response may end in automatic failure

Emotions limit the dominance of your intelligence and rationale thinking. The first step in managing your emotions is to recognise that you are experiencing an emotional feeling. You have to be self-aware. Most people are not. They act out of habit. Some experience an emotional feeling and there is an automatic response that occurs without even being consciously aware of it. Before you know it, you do it again. If it's positive, it's well and good - if not, it's a big impediment to success. You've raised your voice or shrunk away and said nothing because you could not find the words. Saying nothing is just as bad as rejecting.

Understanding emotions is critical

Business success is all about team work - how you synchronise and synergise actions through the entire value chain. So understanding the emotions of each other and dealing with them is paramount to be productive.

It's easy to understand why there is so much emphasis on conflict management in workplaces. People disagree and tempers fly. And if you are not skilled at managing your own emotions, it's even harder to handle it when others are emotional in your presence.

Going down memory lane

When you get stressed, your emotional state deteriorates, affecting your thinking, judgement and performance. For example, when you have to deliver something important but cannot because of other commitments, your mind may perceive a dangerous situation. This can create anxiety and poor thinking.

To cope with stressful situations, you can either change your perception of the situation until it becomes a positive challenge or you can change your emotional state to deal with it better. Instead of feeling stressed, learn to create a positive emotional state.

Think of a time when you experienced a positive state, when you felt calm. Imagine you are back in that state.

Think of what was happening around you then and notice how this makes you feel now. Making the right decisions at the right time with controlled emotions is an art not easy to practice.