The Upside of a Down Mood for a Leader’s Team
What happens in the office when a respected boss is in a bad mood?
An occasional bad mood is normal, healthy, even useful.
The upside of a bad mood:
A bad mood…
- Lowers gullibility and increases judgement. You think more critically when you’re in a bad mood.
- Improves memory and enables people to better focus on details. Maybe you should get in a bad mood when you have to work on details.
- Enhances communication effectiveness. A little sadness makes some people more persuasive.
- Increases grit and elevates effort. People in a bad mood tend to try harder than people in a good mood.
An occasional bad mood may be interpreted by team members as dissatisfaction with progress. What happens?
In order to please a respected unhappy leader, people often pour themselves more fully into achieving goals.
If you’d like to learn more about the advantages of a bad mood, read, The Upside of Your Darkside, by Todd Kashdan and Robert Biswas-Diener.
The upside of a good mood:
When the boss is in a good mood, teams tend to cooperate and coordinate with each other better. They view a good mood as an invitation to get along.
Moods are contagious.
How leaders feel bleeds into the lives of others. This is especially true if the leaders are high status individuals.
Successful leaders monitor and manage the impact of their moods on others. Surprisingly, there are some advantages to not being happy all the time.
Note: An enduring dark mood isn’t an advantage.
How does your leader’s mood impact your performance?
Everyone chooses the attitude they walk in the door with. Everyone has a bad day now and then and bosses are people too. My boss’s bad mood does not have to determine my mood for the day. This too shall pass.
Ken, you are correct that some leaders, by their actions, put folks on edge worrying “what’s he going to do?” when in a bad mood, which surely is a disservice. But in Dan’s blog, he writes “when respected leaders” are in a bad mood… Mercurial, explosive, pessimistic, punishing leaders are not respected.
Happy or unhappy, we owe it to our teams to send clear signals.. sure we all get a bad day, or a exceptionally good one, but putting folks in that hyper cautious “what’s he going to do?” position is -in my mind- a disservice.
I think there’s a difference between a “bad mood” and having a bad day – and a good boss – respected or not – should not reveal nor display signs of being in a bad mood. You don’t want members of the team thinking or saying “The boss is in a bad mood.” Moodiness is not a strength. Certain circumstances can dictate a bad day and it may be unavoidable, but mood is about attitude. I don’t think one can be productive in a bad mood or think more critically – but may and should adapt accordingly when having a bad day. Apples and oranges? Maybe, maybe not.
Let them have their coffee first, does wonders! Remember your bad day doesn’t have to ruin everyone else’s! Perhaps a gesture of saying, anything we can do to help? Or a simple who pissed in your Corn Flakes today ? Can lighten the moment.
Sometimes best to leave them alone if you have seen them in action before.