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L2: The Introduction to Emotional and Social Intelligence
Emotions
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From "The Story of Jim," you can see that emotions are a frequent part of leadership that can facilitate its effectiveness or derail it. Emotions can impact the way we take in information, process it, behave, and ultimately make decisions. Jim’s feeling of being “rushed” when he left home in the morning spilled over to work, his “defensiveness” impacted how he processed information during his interaction with an employee with a negative response to a poor performance review, Jim’s defensiveness caused further conflict with the employee, he was “overwhelmed” in making a decision about firing two of his employees, Jim’s “nervousness” impacted his presentation performance, and so forth. These emotional events appeared to have accumulated over the course of the day and collectively contributed to Jim’s less than stellar presentation performance at a time when he was trying to impress board members in his new position as CFO.
How to Perceive and Understand Emotions
As already defined, being emotionally intelligent has to do with the capacity to perceive and respond to emotions that arise within us or are displayed by others. So, familiarizing yourself with what emotions look like and what causes them is a good idea. Trying to become aware of emotions and recognize them is not new. Our modern interpretations of emotions can be traced back to Darwin’s (1872) book The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animal (Darwin, 1872/1965). He described the universality of expressions of basic emotions across cultures and the use of emotional expression as a signaling system to determine possible threats. The ability to read facial expressions can be used as a way of avoiding danger. More recent and extensive research about emotions has been conducted by Ekman (2007), who has furthered Darwin’s research. He describes how to become aware of and recognize six basic emotions: anger, surprise, fear, happiness, sadness, and disgust.
Common Misperceptions
Historically, it has been debated whether emotions are appropriate for the workplace. From our discussion, it is clear that when emotions are used effectively, emotions aren’t just about being emotional or are they just about being “nice.”
Questions to Consider
Think of the challenges that you experience at your work as you try to complete organizational tasks, work with customers, serve as a leader or team member, and understand the changing conditions of your work.
- Can you identify with the six basic emotions at work?
- How do you manage your emotions when they arise?
