Analysing our own emotions will help us to lead effectively and to develop resilience, write Stéphane Dubreuille, director of executive education at NEOMA Business School, and Lara Hinton, founder of Hinton Partners.
Although our emotions play a big part in our everyday lives, traditionally we have been told that we must leave our moods and feelings at the office door and not let ourselves be overwhelmed by irrational and unproductive thoughts.
However, in recent years there has been a shift in what people deem to be acceptable (or even desirable) regarding our emotional behaviour at work, especially from a managerial perspective.
Creating emotionally safe environments
People now perceive emotions to be a real factor in how we encourage teamwork and improve workplace productivity. As leaders, it is therefore essential to learn to understand our emotional state, and to identify and analyse the effects our behaviour has on our colleagues. This will allow us to make the best possible decisions in any situation.
By showing our emotions (to a certain extent), we may come across as more approachable, and enable team members to express their own feelings. Embracing our emotions can help to create environments of trust and psychological safety, in which employees feel comfortable taking calculated risks, suggesting ideas and voicing opinions.
In such safe environments, working collaboratively isn’t just an objective, it becomes woven into the overall organisational culture.
Developing resilience
In a complex and chaotic world of work, many people now talk about the concept of resilience, which has become a fashionable managerial concept. Resilience is a much sought-after quality because it supports people to adapt and to cope with change.
According to renowned psychoanalyst Boris Cirulnik: “Resilience is the ability of a body to resist pressure and return to its original structure. In psychology, resilience is the ability to live, to succeed in developing, in spite of adversity.”
To develop resilience, leaders must take the time to reflect on situations (positive and negative) and to learn from their reactions and responses. It is important that we understand how our state of mind links to our behaviours.
Effective leaders know that there is a great deal of power in their emotions. By learning how to identify, understand and manage them, we can teach the people we lead how to do the same to the benefit of our organisations.
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