As a leader, how do you respond to difficulty? How do you express emotions at work? Effective leadership requires emotional awareness. It requires leaders who have the ability to express feelings appropriately, and effectively.
Employees look to their leader to establish safety and trust. In the businesses where I consult, leaders accomplish this in part with behavior that is rational, calm, logical and wise. They don’t get rattled and lose control by letting situations get the best of them.
Think about it: Leaders who portray a solid, steadfast source of guidance and direction earn the trust of their people. The opposite is true for leaders who can’t control their emotions when the pressure hits. Employees question their security when their leader shows they’re not putting the team first.
In Scaling Leadership: Building Organizational Capability and Capacity to Create Outcomes that Matter Most (Wiley, 2019), authors Anderson and Adams share revealing research that leadership impatience is a common response to difficulty. Leaders who lack patience in tough situations release frustrations and resentments, showing an intolerance for something not going their way. It can be accompanied by anger and disrespect.
A Damaging Mindset
A leader who is frequently impatient indicates that they believe something, or someone, is wrong. This is a damaging mindset, even if it’s momentary. People sense this and respond negatively. Leader impatience can also lead to taking shortcuts to make up for lost time, and that has its own set of potential consequences.
Anger and tirades are more serious behavioral problems indicating a lack of emotional control. Employees are put on high alert when the leader overreacts to bad news. People sense defeat and that can lead to depression, high stress and lower productivity. A leader with little emotional control is a liability to the organization.
Leaders can handicap their company by prioritizing their personal agenda over that of the company. When decisions are made favoring their personal gain rather than team accomplishment, the organization suffers. Protecting one’s image or turf can lead to lying, cheating, blame-shifting or credit-grabbing. It is damaging and is a liability to everyone.
What do you think? How do you express emotions at work? I’d love to hear from you. You can call me at 561-582-6060, let’s talk. And as always, I can be reached here, or on LinkedIn.
This Post Has 2 Comments
When I’m faced with issues that I don’t know how to answer. I tell my team “Lets think about this for a while.” I am more concerned about making the right decision than making a decision now. At the same time, there are some problems that I think should be answered faster. Does it REALLY have to have an answer now? Can it wait a day or a week? I have found that usually you don’t have to make a decision right now. Usually you can take a little more time to think through the decision and usually it will be just fine.
Jeramiah,
I completely agree with you. Rushed decisions can create more. However, those decisions that need to be made in a more timely fashion still follow the same criteria. Your style of including your employees in the process creates that ownership mentality we strive to gain from our employees, at least those who want more of a voice.
We must also allow them to make the wrong decisions so they learn.
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