In times of crisis, expect to deal with more emotions and more extreme emotions at work. While we all appreciate people who are optimistic, positive, resilient, and confident at work, how do we react to people who feel negative, critical, or pessimistic?
Very likely they have good reasons to feel like that. Suppressing those feelings doesn’t help them nor the organisation they work for. In contrary, suppressed feelings function like a pressure cooker. The pressure increases without release. Today, it takes both positive and negative emotional insight for organisations and individuals to function effectively over the long term. Negative emotions can unleash opportunities and provide feedback that broadens thinking and perspectives. We just need to learn to have effective communications about emotions and subsequently normalise having those in the workplace. Imaging the impact on mental health!
What can I do to bring my authentic positive and negative emotional state to work?
1. Self-awareness and emotional literacy.
Learn how to read your body signs and how to pinpoint them to your emotional state. Some studies revealed that over 90% of people can only correctly identify some fundamental emotions like sad, happy, and angry. We need to catch nuances of feelings and increase our emotional agility, to make talking about feelings more meaningful. Are you frustrated, irritated, hurt, bitter, or resentful? Those are all feelings that may lead to someone being angry but have different roots to explore. You can rate your emotions on a scale of 1-10 on how strong they are. Does this make you choose a different set of words?
2. Bring the emotions into your rational brain with an inner dialog.
2. Bring the emotions into your rational brain with an inner dialog. “..interesting, I feel a tension in my belly. What does my body want to tell me? I feel resentful about how my manager expects us to deliver the same with only half the team working. What else do I feel and where could this come from?… or am I just craving for some food?
3. Have a respectful conversation about how you feel and why
Yes, it takes courage, skill and practice but it is worth it! Having emotions and actions in sync is incredibly important to your health. You also give the other person a chance to consider changes. As Brené Brown says, being clear is kind, being unclear is unkind. How often have you heard people complaining to everyone else, but the person concerned? How often has this changed anything for them?
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