Some emotions can look like small inner tsunamis. Despite this, it is possible to manage them intelligently … especially at work.
At work, you may go through various peaks of emotions in a single day. One day, you are in a rush, very happy because your boss compliment you and encourage your positive mindset.
And then, an hour later, it all falls apart. Your wellbeing at work is brutally down by a feeling of deep sadness when you learn that your colleague just get the promotion you have been hoping for for months …
Depending of mood, these emotional changes are more or less easy to manage, or not … The world of business is complicate. Smetimes employees are asked to hide any emotional behaviour while, paradoxically, work place should let you manifest all your feelings.
Knowing how to “take control” of your emotions at work becomes a necessity … although it is not always easy. The target is to avoid a chain reaction which may appear disproportionate to the situation. It’s not about suppressing one’s emotions but about channeling them better.
Some companies are offering to their employees training for organisations, courses about stress management or communication trainings, in order to improve the management of their emotions.
Take the time to identify your emotions:
When you feel an emotion, it’s important to allow yourself to feel it. Fear expresses a threat, sadness, lack or loss. Shame shows a lack of self-esteem, that the relationship is abusive. Anger emphasizes that your values have been transgressed, flouted….
All negative emotions highlight an unmet need.
The positive emotions are satisfied needs who boost your energy level.
Identifying them is a necessary task, in order to manage them and avoid over-reacting. To explore your own emotions is to identify your needs. You don’t manage it right by the first time. It’s a matter of training. Sometimes you need to meditate, to relax, maybe some yoga classes, for a better way to recognize your emotions.
Formulate your needs:
Becoming aware of your feelings, recognizing them, is very important.
It is also important to take the time to “digest” them. To avoid being “overwhelmed”,
Sometimes you can take a break, telling the person you are talking to that you need time to think things over and that you will come back to him the next day to discuss.
It’s about clarifying and formulating your needs.
The ideal is a challenge to express what emotions are deveopling in you (embarrassment, sadness, anger, incomprehension …). The intention is to also get the other to explain their needs by questioning the type: “What did you mean by that? “. The aim is to establish a constructive exchange based on facts, and not on accusations which, in the end, would lead the discution to turn into a settling of scores.
Make a “contract” with your interlocutor:
It is about finding common ground that allows you to respect both the needs of your interlocutor and yours. The aim is to find a “win-win contract” for each of the parties. You can, for example, set up a regular time slot, once a week, to take stock of current issues.
One way to respect your desire for autonomy in your work as well as the will of your supervisor who wants to be in control and be reassured. A peaceful atmosphere is generating productivity improvment.
This attitude will empower you as well as your interlocutor. The goal is to calm things down and stop a flurry of emotions and situations that push us to always react and over-adapt.
JoyCorporate Academy can help the companies to offer tailor made courses for employees training and development, to increase the wellbeing at work and generate a productivity improvment.