Recognizing and managing emotions at workplace

The ability to deal effectively with emotions is undoubtedly the key to fostering harmony and improving efficiency at the workplace. It is equally beneficial for both employers and employees. A conducive work ambience, characterized by a subtle understanding of each other’s opinions, feedback and way of working irrespective of acceptance or rejection could indeed ensure better work performance and camaraderie.
According to research conducted at Virginia Commonwealth University, the emotional intelligence of employees can be a yardstick of measuring the efficiency of the workers in the future, Reuters reported. Emotional intelligence can help in knowing the person’s ability to coordinate well with the team, as well as to manage as a leader.

The study further evinced that paying heed to people’s moods and sentiments is beneficial for businesses. Emotional intelligence is the capacity to gauge emotions in oneself and others which includes: The ability to tackle and control difficult emotions like sadness, anxiety and disappointment. So much so that the research ranked the ability to perceive and manage emotions as the second most important attribute after cognitive intelligence at the workplace.

So how do we deal competently with our emotions at the workplace? Recognizing and dealing with our strong and weak emotions is the first step in becoming emotionally equipped and smart at the workplace, according to a Harvard Business Review report.

There are certain points that need to be borne in mind here:
Identifying emotions means calling out and naming that feeling as strong or weak, positive or negative.

As social individuals, we are mostly conditioned to suppress our strong and negative emotions like fear, anxiety, anger and stress.

The two most commonly unmanageable and adversely affecting emotions at the workplace are anger and stress. The way out for this is:
Ability to describe one's emotions accurately:
One should try to unmask the real emotion underneath the apparent emotion and describe it precisely.

This emotional agility helps in successfully establishing connections with ourselves and others.

On the other hand, incorrectly recognizing or generalizing an emotion can lead to an incorrect approach in dealing with it.

For instance, one should try to find out the actual reasons and past factors responsible for the current anger or stress and address it accordingly.

Acknowledging and confronting the real emotions ensures the high well-being of individuals, clarity into the situation and sincerity towards others and oneself.

Now, what are the ways to manage emotions?
Opposite action which means channelling the intense negative emotions to positive drive and resolution is one of the ways to manage emotions at the workplace according to an article in forbes.com. It helps us:

To not get swayed away with emotions and remain focused on our work project.

For this one needs to firstly ponder over and assess the negative emotion and action that is being invoked at the workplace due to some reason.

Ask oneself if that negative action can benefit the work or the person in any way.

Then after understanding the repercussions of the negative emotion, one should head towards the opposite action, which could be working on the presentation according to the feedback.

The foremost action in such a situation should be having a conversation with the person who caused that emotion.

For example the employer, and learn from him the issues and the ways to sort out the problem.

Talking directly to the concerned person makes one feel clear and confident and helps direct the intense emotions in sync with the work goals.

Empathy for others - According to an article on ccl.org, empathy is one of the most vital qualities needed to ensure productive teamwork and a fulfilling work environment. This includes three things:

Paying heed to others’ aspirations and needs: Employers should genuinely be concerned in knowing and understanding the distinct goals, needs and concerns. Accordingly, they should assign the employees the teams and projects, which would yield better results.

Helping in personal problems: The subordinates and seniors should be more eager and open to help each other in times of need to ensure emotional and psychological comfort and relief.

Helping co-workers from overworking: The employees should reach out to their fellow workers when they need support to lessen the excessive workload. Cooperating and helping cope with overwork helps in reducing tremendous stress and pressure.