emotions and reasoning at work
Six Principles of Emotional Intelligence
1.Emotion is information. 2. We can try to ignore emotion, but it doesn't work. 3. We can try to hide emotions, but we are not as good at it as we think. 4. Decisions must incorporate emotion to be effective. 5. Emotions follow logical patterns. 6. Emotional universals exist, but so do specifics.
What Role Should Emotions Play at Work?
After all, managers (and leaders) are charged with making good decisions. However, making good decisions and being an effective manager of self and others cannot—and does not—happen in the absence of emotion.Emotions are at work, and they work with and for us, as we'll see in the next section. Bigal Barsade, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, demonstrates that how a management team feels has a direct impact on a company's earnings. She discovered that a top management team that shares a common, emotional outlook that is positive will have 4 to 6 per-cent higher market-adjusted earnings per share than companies whose management team consists of members with diverse emotional outlooks.5 In a nine-week-long research study by University of Queens-land's Peter Jordan and Neil Ashkanasy, teams consisting of members low in emotional intelligence ended up at the same level as did teams of people with high EI.6 At first blush, these results are not something that the high-EI manager might expect. What is striking is the difference in performance during the first weeks of the study. The high-EI teams were able to get their act in gear a whole lot faster than the low-EI teams. Eventually, the low-EI teams did catch up to their more emotionally intelligent peers. The lesson learned from this study is that team emotional intelligence doesn't much matter—as long as you don't mind weeks of lost team productivity and hundreds of worker hours wasted. Emotions at a team level have a powerful impact in other ways as well. You might call it team spirit or morale, but all of us have experienced how the mood of a group can change. And how we feel does seem to influence our performance.7 Sometimes it hap-pens slowly and subtly, but sometimes you can almost feel a chill come over the group; at other times, a sense of excitement permeates the air. The spread of emotions from person to person is a phenomenon known as emotional contagion motional contagion has powerful effects on a group. Con-sider the experiment in which several groups of people were asked to simulate an end-of-the-year bonus pool discussion. Videos of the groups made it clear that the actor had an impact on the groups' mood, depressing it in the negative condition and enhancing it in the positive condition. The research participants also reported changes in their mood, but they did not seem to realize why their mood had changed. Even more important, the positive groups showed a lot less conflict and much more cooperation than did their negative-mood counterparts. But emotional contagion, on its own, is neither intelligent nor unintelligent. The strategic application of emotional contagion is what makes it part of the repertoire of the emotionally intelligent manager. How leaders feel also affects how, and how well, they influence people, which, after all, is the core of leadership. A leader who is feeling sad is more likely to generate arguments that are persuasive and well thought out. Sad moods, in general, help people think in a more bottom-up, systematic manner than do happy moods. The same leader, feeling somewhat happy, will probably generate creative and original arguments in a bid to influence others. This leader will also come up with a whole lot more arguments when feeling happy than when feeling sad. And in general, emotions at work influence judgment, job satisfaction, helping behavior, creative problem solving, and decision making. What makes all of this either smart or dumb is whether you realize the role that emotions play and what you do with that knowledge.
Can You Be Too Emotional?
Agassi's moods seemed to get the best of him. This would seem to be a clear-cut case for the need to have balanced and reasonable emotions and to control one's emotions. There is such a case for tight emotional control, but it's not a case we're going to make.Nor is the notion of being "too emotional" one that is recognized by the emotionally intelligent manager. Agassi's temper tantrum and resulting performance meltdown is not an argument for less emotion but for appropriate emotion.Anger is a powerful emotion, and it rises from a sense of injustice or unfairness, or being blocked from achieving an important goal.In Agassi's case, his temperament—the way he is wired—and not the external situation created his frustration and his anger. And his inability to allow anger to motivate him to achieve his objective—winning the match—resulted in the negative outcome.
Secondary Emotions
Closely linked to the notion of emotional display rules is the concept known as secondary emotions, or as they are called in some cases, self-conscious emotions. Unlike the basic emotions of anger, fear, and joy, these secondary emotions have a strong social or cultural component to them. Consider the feeling of embarrassment. We feel embarrassed when we commit some sort of faux pas, and we are"caught" by someone else. This general rule of embarrassment probably applies to all people and cultures, but what sets the emotion called embarrassment apart from its more basic colleagues is that the actions that bring on the feeling are tied to culture. Different cultures have different social norms for behavior, and what is accepted in one environment may give rise to embarrassment in another.
PRINCIPLE 6: EMOTIONAL UNIVERSALS EXIST, BUT SO DO SPECIFICS
Cus-toms and manners do vary markedly from country to country, as well as within regions of larger or diverse nations. But the case of emotions is a special one. We know that cultural universals exist in emotions. A happy face is seen as a happy face by people all over the globe. A face of surprise is interpreted the same way by a WallStreet investment banker and a New Guinea tribesman. Even non-humans display and recognize emotional expressions in fellow creatures. Perhaps we all recognize a smiling face for what it is because there are universals in the underlying causes of different emotions.Thus we are happy when we achieve or gain something, and we are sad when we lose something. At its core, an emotion signals some-thing important and therefore communicates a universal signal to all peoples.
PRINCIPLE 5: EMOTIONS FOLLOW LOGICAL PATTERNS
Emotions come about for many reasons, but each emotion is part of a sequence from low to high intensity. If the event or thought that initiated a feeling continues or intensifies, then it is likely that the feeling also gets stronger. Emotions are not randomly occurring events. Each emotion has its own moves, sort of like in a game of chess. You just have to know which piece you have and the rules that govern that piece Your emotional knowledge can serve as a crystal ball of sorts.When applied with care, it can reduce surprises and predict thefuture.
PRINCIPLE 1: EMOTION IS INFORMATION
Emotions contain data about you and your world. Emotions are not random, chaotic events that interfere with thinking. An emotion occurs due to some factor that is important to you, and it helps motivate you and guide you to success. At the most basic level, emotions can be viewed as: Occurring due to some sort of change in the world around you• Starting automatically• Quickly generating physiological changes• Changing what you were paying attention to and how you were thinking• Preparing you for action• Creating personal feelings• Quickly dissipating• Helping you cope, survive, and thrive in your world
But life is more complex than the universal picture we are painting, and there are, indeed, emotional specifics. Some of these specifics have to do with display rules, secondary emotions, and gender. Emotional Display Rules
Even though all of us may be able to identify happiness in people's expressions clearly, and even though we may all experience happiness for similar, underlying reasons, it doesn't mean that we all show our happiness the same way. This brings up the concept of emotional display rules. Our society and culture teach us when it's okay to show how we feel and when it's not. We learn these rules early in life, such as when little boys are told that "big boys don't cry," Emotional display rules are a form of hidden knowledge. This is knowledge that we are aware of, but we're not quite sure where we acquired it. Display rules vary from organization to organization. The creative culture of a New York advertising agency may encourage the display of joy, surprise, and interest, whereas a buttoned-down, Park Avenue law firm prides itself on its quiet restraint. Cultures also have their own sets of emotional display rules.29When in France, we were initially surprised when our hosts kissed us goodbye—on both cheeks! That would not have gone over very well in the United States, but in France, it's perfectly acceptable to express your feelings of happiness in this way. In the United States, we might simply smile and say a word of thanks. In Japan, a col-league may feel angry with you, but all you see on his face is a smile.
Gender and Emotions
Gender has important effects on emotions and emotional intelligence. Our own work, for example, suggests that women may have a slight advantage in the hard skills of emotional intelligence.
Emotions Are Not Always Data-Driven
If emotions are this wonderful source of data that we need to em-brace, then what about those stories you have heard about how emotions derail people, how destructive they can be, and about the need to rein in our emotions? t's a great question. As Figure1.1 illustrates, emotions are real-time feedback signals that come on quickly and dissipate just as rapidly.But what gives emotions abad name and gets us into trouble, is something related to emotions: moods. Scientists often distinguish between emotions and moods. Emotions have a definable cause. Moods are feelings that last a long time, often occur for unknown reasons, and can be part of our body chemistry. Sometimes the "aftershocks" of emotions are felt as lingering moods. It's likely that calls to carefully regulate and control emotions, as well as the view that emotions are often irrelevant and give rise to undue stress, are really calls to examine our moods.12
Emotions Help Us Survive
In fact, emotions are not unique to humans. The survival and development of a species depends on a number of behaviors, including attending to emergencies, exploring the environment, avoiding danger, maintaining bonds with other members of the group, protecting oneself, reproducing, fighting against attack, and giving and receiving care.13 Emotions were hard-wired millions of years ago through evolution to protect us from threats to survival, as suggested by Exhibit 1.3. In current times, with the advances in technology and a general growth of civilization, do these"primitive" emotions interfere with survival and success in the modern world? This is a very logical and sensible argument. But it is very wrong. The world that we live in is exceedingly complex, and accessing our emotions is still important to behaving adaptively and surviving. Of course, fear can also paralyze us and prevent us from achieving important goals: fear of rejection leads us to avoid relationships with people; fear of failure causes us to delay our plans. But emotionally intelligent managers integrate their emotions and their thinking in ways that are adaptive and productive. The intelligent use of fear involves using it to energize us to address things that are important: feeling nervous about a major presentation can motivate us to work harder; Emotions are also linked to action. Consider a situation in which you're angry with certain team members for failing to show up at the meeting you called. That's only natural. These no-showsare an obstacle in your path. Rather than physically attacking them, however, you can contact them, express your displeasure constructively, and gain their assistance
PRINCIPLE 2: WE CAN TRY TO IGNORE EMOTION, BUT IT DOESN'T WORK
Most of us would admit that emotions influence performance in some areas of our life and that this is normal and even desirable. We see the impact of emotion in sports, as we attempt to psych out our opponent or energize our team. "Attitude"—mood and emotion—is critical in all sports. In an experiment with radiologists, she found that their diagnoses were both faster and more accurate after they were given a small gift (presumably mildly elevating their moods). We told you earlier how emotional contagion influences the effectiveness of groups. It is remarkable that although emotion shave a major impact on judgment, we are almost completely un-aware of their effects. It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not, or whether you are aware of it or not, emotions and thinking are intertwined. You can try to fight against Principle 2, but it won't work. Social psychologist Roy Baumeister found that when people try to suppress the expression of emotions, they end up remembering less information.16 It seems that emotional suppression takes energy and attention that otherwise could be expended in listening to and processing information. his is not to suggest that we must continuously be awash in emotion. Instead, we can process the underlying information, as well as the emotional component, of the situation, through strategies that do not involve suppressing the expression of our feelings.One such strategy is emotional reappraisal, wherein we look at the issues but attempt to reframe them in a more constructive and adaptive way. We view the situation as a challenge to be addressed, or we try to gain some sort of lesson from the situation. In fact, emotionally intelligent individuals try to avoid Pollyanna-like positive reactions to all things all the time. That is not an effective way to deal with problems—or to avoid dealing with them. An emotionally intelligent manager experiences the emotions and then uses the power of emotion as a springboard to a successful, productive outcome.
PRINCIPLE 3: WE CAN TRY TO HIDE EMOTIONS,BUT WE ARE NOT AS GOOD AT IT AS WE THINK
Organizations are notorious for their attempts at controlling emotions, especially the display and the expression of emotion. In many service-oriented jobs, employees are explicitly taught to sup-press their feelings and to put on a happy face. This is the concept of "emotional labor," an idea that sociologist Arlie Hochschild first brought to wide attention.17 There are a few ways that people try to display the emotions that their employer demands. One is through surface acting, when you feel one way but don't show the true, underlying feeling. In deep acting, you actually try to change your current feeling to match the desired feeling. As you might expect, surface acting, as well as emotional labor, have been linked to performance burnout and job turnover, among other issues.18 Emotional suppression in organizations takes many other forms. In a process known as normalizing emotion,19 we do not show strong emotions or emotions that the organization or group deems inappropriate. What may surprise you are the sorts of emotions that people are taught not to show at work. Think about your own observations of organizational life. In one workplace study, anger was the most likely emotion to be expressed to the person who provoked it .20 In fact, this study found that 53 percent of people expressed heir feelings of anger. The emotion that was least frequently ex-pressed at work was the feeling of joy; only 19 percent of people said they expressed this emotion while at work. At first blush, these results seem counterintuitive. Anger is a powerful, negative emotion that people cover up and try to sup-press, whereas joy is a positive emotion that seems more appropriate to display. But the emotional norms of organizations dictate that the expression of joy is not professional. After all, this is work, and we're not supposed to be having that much fun at work. Anger, on the other hand, is the expression of power and authority, of showing others who's the boss. These attempts at disguising our emotions, although they are consciously made, may not work terribly well. Ekman's research on facial expressions and lying indicates that it is possible to spot a liar by observing pauses in a person's speech, speech errors, and fleet-ing emotional displays. Our desire to protect emotions or to en-gage in purely rational pursuits in the workplace can end up indecision-making failures and create an atmosphere of mistrust.2
PRINCIPLE 4: DECISIONS MUST INCORPORATE EMOTION TO BE EFFECTIVE
Our feelings have an impact on us and on others, whether we want them to or not. Quite simply, no decisions are made without emotion. As we noted earlier, according to neuroscientist Dama-sio, rational thinking cannot occur in the absence of emotion.22 Perhaps this passage illustrates the most critical point of divergence between many approaches to the topic of emotional intelligence and ours. In our approach, we recognize that emotions make us truly human and undergird rationality, and, as such, emotions must be welcomed, embraced, understood, and put to good use.Although we'll teach you the importance of strategies such as regulating and managing moods and emotions, we emphasize the fuller experience of emotion, not blocking it out or rationalizing your experience. It means that there are times as a manager, a team member, an individual contributor, when one might feel hurt, badly hurt. But if it doesn't hurt badly at times, you're probably not making emotionally intelligent—and effective—decisions.
Different Moods Influence OurThinking in Different Ways
Positive emotions tend to open us up to our environment for exploration and discovery. The broaden and build theory of Barbara Frederickson suggests that positive emotions do more than make us feel good.25 Positive emotions: Expand our thinking• Help generate new ideas• Encourage us to consider possibilities Positive emotions have other effects on us. For example, happiness motivates us to play or to interact with others; smiling and laughing signal others that we are friendly and approachable. In this way, positive emotions promote social bonds and stronger social networks. Positive emotions also inoculate us against negative events and emotions. If people are asked to watch a film that induces strong negative emotions and are simply asked to smile after watching the movie, they tend to recover more quickly from the physiological impact of the stressful event. Negative thinking has received bad press of late. Yet negative emotions are also important, as they can enhance thinking in very useful and practical ways. Some of the effects of negative mood or emotion on thinking include Providing a clearer focus• Allowing details to be examined more efficiently• Motivating a more efficient search for errors Negative emotions call for us to change what we are doing or thinking. They narrow our field of attention and perception, and they motivate us to act in very specific ways Compared to positive emotions, negative emotions tend to be experienced more strongly, and there may be an evolutionary ex-planation for this phenomenon. There are greater survival costs for an injury or an attack than there are potential rewards for find-ing something interesting out in the wild. Therefore, negative emotions that signal the chance of danger must be more carefully attended to, and if they are experienced more strongly than positive emotions, then we are less likely to end up on some predator's dinner table.
Figure 1.1 shows graphically the function of an emotion. Emotions are a signal, and if you pay attention to what an emotion is signaling, chances are the emotion is going to help you out of a tough situation, prevent something bad from happening, or help bring about a positive outcome.
Principle 1 has an important sub principle: emotions are primarily signals about people, social situations, and interaction. Emotions tell you a lot about you—how you feel, what's happening to you, what's going on around you. But emotions likely evolved in order to ensure our survival by helping us work together. When we are angry, we send a signal to other people to leave us alone or to give back what they took from us—"or else." Our smile of happiness shows that we are open and accepting and, most important, approachable. The interpersonal, or social, nature of emotion is what makes these data sources of such vital importance in the lives of all managers and leaders.
Exhibit 1.1. Assessment of YourWorkplace Decision-Making Style
Retiring at the peak of her career in order to make ends meet, she never made it big financially. Gibson later became a coach and mentor to hundreds of kids over the course of many years, working in the East Orange New Jersey Recreation Department. She never sought the limelight, nor did she attempt to become a spokes person for a cause. Instead, she faced each struggle with determination and provided young kids, who might have reminded her of herself as a child, with a hope and a dream and a belief in self. Gib-son's emotions did not sideline her, they helped her. Woosnam seems to have been able to take the feelings of frustration and use them in a constructive manner. He did not forget them nor did he try to deny them; instead, he integrated them into his play and into his thinking. His decision not to fire Milesalso shows sophisticated thinking and reasoning that included emotion.
