Control your own emotions
Control your own emotions and you will control the emotions of the team
For a long time now, more and more organizations have realized that a leader’s level of emotional intelligence has an impact on the effectiveness of his or her team management and performance. In this article, I will outline why cooperation with emotions is important in leading a team, what are the most common challenges for leaders, what problems managers face in managing in cooperation with emotions, and what strategy can be used to bring one’s own emotions under control so that the team will willingly cooperate with the manager and be more effective.
Strategies for working with emotions, not just at work
One of the biggest challenges managers face is dealing with stress, pressure or anxiety. A strategy that can help manage one’s emotions at work and beyond is to develop the ability to read the information that emotions carry. As the authors of “In Captivity of Emotions” point out. Leslie Cameron-Bandler, Michael Lebeau “Emotions are an “independent jury” that expresses an opinion about our inner self, whether we wish it or not. They are like a messenger who delivers a message to us – no matter if it’s good or bad – just a message.” Hence, it is worth asking
yourself the questions: What is the emotion informing me about? What does the emotion “X” want to make me aware of? What should I pay attention to? Often emotions indicate to us that we have “violated” our values or norms, so we reveal them not to analyze them, but to draw conclusions that we will apply from now and in the future.
The role of communication in managing emotions
Communication is key in managing and working with emotions in a team. Whether you and your team are currently exceeding results and increasing the value of the organization depends hugely on
effective leadership based, for example, on managing knowledge workers including experts. Without the competence to ask questions or understand linguistic structures and how we evoke emotions in the recipient through the language we use, it can be difficult for leaders and managers to manage, including employee emotions. Instructional management is reserved for newcomers to a position, when there is a need to learn procedures or existing rules. For experts or knowledge workers, the aforementioned approach is very ineffective, generating conflicts and resistance to cooperation.
Effective conflict resolution
Conflicts are obvious at work, but there are principles and approaches to effectively resolve them. One such principle is the “win-win” approach, in which both sides try to find a solution that is satisfactory to all. In this approach, it is not a matter of choosing between two parties “x or y”, but of creating a third solution that captures the elements of the two positions. The starting point for a successful negotiation is to focus first and foremost on the causes of the conflict, rather than on the emotions of the conflict, the impressions or feelings of the two parties. It is worth asking questions about facts, findings, data. The question “When would this problem not have occurred?” Will allow us to go back to the above-mentioned cause of the conflict and more easily begin to create the first foundations for resolving the conflict….
Benefits of mastering cooperation and managing emotions as a leader
Mastering emotion management is crucial for effective team leadership because we more effectively control ourselves: our mechanisms or internal states, which may not be abundant at any given time. Emotions such as strong fear, grief, shame or guilt limit us, cognitively, in finding solutions, thinking logically, some of the key skills for management positions. Leaders who can manage employees’ emotions are more effective in conflict resolution, decision-making and building strong team relationships.
Mastering the competency of working with emotions can also help increase employee engagement and motivation and achieve better results for the team and the organization, as we better read what employees are calling for and understand them more precisely. As a result, this allows communication and management to be more effectively aligned so that both parties remain satisfied and the company functions better.
