Business leaders and managers are often driven by emotions – either their own, or those of their employees or clients. While there are many intelligent uses for emotion in your company, unchecked emotion can be the number one red flag in business. Knowing how to handle emotions in your business is key to avoiding unhealthy conflict at work.
Emotion is the Number One Red Flag of Workplace Conflict
Everyone, in every industry, and at every level, experiences emotion at work. But when those emotions turn negative and go unchecked, they can turn into the number one red flag of organizational dysfunction in the office.
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The biggest red flag emotions are anger and fear. Anger is the outward sign of workplace conflict and organizational dysfunction. If your team members (or you) are frequently expressing anger, it is a red flag that there is something deeper that needs to be corrected. On the other hand, fear stems from feelings of insecurity at work. This may be a sign of a team member’s fear that they will be fired, or management’s fear that the company will not meet its goals. Whenever fear emerges, it is a sign that leadership should step back and examine the workplace culture to see where the instability lies.
Stoicism Isn’t the Answer for Emotion in Business
Managers and business leaders bear responsibility for receiving, responding to, and regulating emotional responses from their team members. But if the way you respond amplifies your employees’ negative emotions, or minimizes their feelings, you can create a toxic work environment that is bad for business, and may leave you looking for replacement hires. It is crucial for leaders to know what to do when emotions strike – in their team, and in themselves.
Many managers and business leaders have been taught that the answer to the red flag of emotion in business is to clamp down on their own feelings. Stoicism – enduring hardship without outward complaint or a display of feelings – may be the default management position, but it won’t prevent emotions from running away with your business. Even though emotions can be red flags, they are also valuable to leaders’ understanding of what is happening between team members. If you never allow yourself to be vulnerable by showing your own emotions at work, your employees may do the same, cutting you off from important information you need to do your work better.
How Emotional Intelligence Can Help You Address Red Flags
Rather than withdrawing from or restricting your emotions at work, as a leader you should be focused on building your emotional intelligence. This leadership tool will give you a range of options to respond to the warning sign of emotions at work, and the tools you need to make sure red flags don’t develop into something worse.
Identify Your Own Emotional Red Flags
One of the key aspects of emotional intelligence is self-awareness. Emotions – even strong or negative ones – cannot be fully avoided at work. Outside pressures, internal deadlines, and interpersonal conflict can all cause you and your team to experience a flare-up of anger, fear, or other red-flag emotions. By learning to observe your own emotional state from an objective perspective, you can recognize the red flag of your own emotional responses, and better predict how those responses will likely be perceived and responded to by others on your team. That can help you make intelligent choices to limit emotional decisionmaking and regulate your emotional responses.
Regulate Your Emotional Responses to Avoid Lashing Out
Self-regulation is also crucial in using emotional intelligence to respond to the red flag of emotion in business. While stoicism is generally unhelpful, it is also a red flag if you allow yourself or your employees’ rage, fear, or anger to get out of control. Once you are aware you or a team member are having an emotional response, you need to be able to recognize and release those feelings, using healthy coping strategies such as de-escalation techniques, empathy, and modeling regulated behavior. By inviting everyone to engage in self-regulation and self-reflection, you can guide your team to be motivated by their emotions, rather than controlled by them.
Empathetic Leadership Manages Teammembers’ Emotions
The reason emotional intelligence is such a good tool for business leaders is that it allows you to connect with your employees, even when they are feeling strong emotions. One key aspect of emotional intelligence is empathy – the ability to observe, identify, and understand the feelings and reactions of others. Empathy isn’t just about being a shoulder to cry on. It also allows you to support your employees by giving them a safe place to have those strong feelings, without worrying they will result in discipline. By acknowledging and responding to a team member’s emotional response, you can guide your employee in self-regulation, allow the emotion to dissipate, and help everyone involved focus on the underlying issues of conflict so you can get back to work.
Emotional outbursts in the workplace are the number one red flag for workplace conflict. But they are also a signal that it is time for business leaders to get down to work. If you need help developing your emotional intelligence skills, working with an executive coach can help. Your coach can help you plan strategies to respond to your employee’s emotions, and develop self-reflection, self-regulation, and communication skills that will help you guide your team back on the right track.
David Stanislaw is a business and executive coach with over 25 years’ experience in resolving organizational dysfunction. Through business consulting and facilitation, David helps businesses and teams improve productivity and workplace culture. Contact us to meet with David to move toward high organizational functioning today.
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