During my coaching sessions with coachees whose professional roles and responsibilities involve leadership, I often ask them how they feel about the topic they bring to the session, prior to introduce powerful questioning and other coaching tools. I rarely get a concrete answer at once, which signifies that these highly successful people, need to develop a greater awareness of how they feel and the impact of their feelings on the way they work, relate to and communicate with other people. They may also need to find a way to express their emotions. 

Marc Brackett, in his book “Permission to feel’, points out that emotions flow through the organisations and that everything that happens at work is, at heart, an emotional moment. “I deserve a promotion means I think I am worth more to you than you realise, and If I don’t get the new role, I will feel unappreciated and look for another job. 

Knowing that our emotions and moods transfer from one person to another, and from one person to an entire team – both consciously and unconsciously,  and understanding that these emotions do influence how people think, decide and work towards their goals:

– How could you generate an empowering emotion to achieve the best outcome for a team? 

– How can you let this emotion dictate the way you think, act and communicate?

Marc Brackett  also illustrates that the bottom line depends on a workplace that it is motivated, energised and committed to a common goal. A recent research study carried out by the University of Leipzig, found that part of avoiding burnout is encouraging workers to speak up when feeling pressured, or unfairly burdened. This can be challenging for those in managerial positions, as the emotionally intelligent managers and leaders do not always have to be ‘nice’ bosses. Often they need to use emotion skills to perform difficult and delicate tasks. Emotional intelligence in the workplace does not merely  mean providing comfort and sympathy. Sometimes it requires the ability to deliver difficult feedback to help people build greater self -awareness and skills.

Based on the arguments noted above:

• What belief can help you to be comfortable at expressing your authentic emotions at work? 

Marc Brackett associates the results with the application of emotional intelligence  arguing that unlike the notion that a bad boss is one who does not deliver results and a good one is one who exceeds expectation, a bad boss is one who is low on emotional intelligence while a good one is high it. His thinking alone could encourage companies and organisations to take emotion skills seriously. 

Source: Brackets, M. (2019). Permission to feel. The power of emotional intelligence to achieve well being and success. New York: Celadon Books.