Secrets of Emotional Contagion
Emotion is contagious. Stressed leaders have stressed teams. Angry leaders are surrounded by anxiety.
You care about the way work feels because:
- Motivation is a feeling.
- Momentum is a feeling.
- Vitality is a feeling.
If work sucks, life is less fulfilling.
Emotionally dark environments lead to detrimental outcomes. HBR
- Sad people call in sick.
- Marginalized workers give marginal effort.
- Resentment causes theft.
If you don’t like how things feel at work, look in the mirror.
Project: evaluate emotional presence:
Ask your team to anonymously evaluate the emotions you bring to work. Rate the following items between one and five. (5 = frequently and 1 = almost never.)
- Stressed.
- Exuberant.
- Joyful.
- Disturbed.
- Concerned.
- Sad.
- Fulfilled.
- Frustrated.
- Energized.
- Happy.
- Surprised. (Pleasantly)
- Trusting.
- Disgusted.
- Hopeful.
- Fearful.
- Drained.
- Preoccupied.
- Present.
- Caring.
- Compassionate.
Ask your team to list the three most frequent emotions you exhibit.
Evaluate yourself and compare results.
Three follow-up questions for your team/co-workers:
- What do you specifically see me doing that caused you to give me high scores?
- What specific actions would you suggest I do less of?
- How might I take my emotional presence to the next level? (Think behaviors.)
Pockets of emotional energy are led by sparkplugs who ignite energy.
Positive culture:
“Positive emotions are consistently associated with better performance, quality, and customer service—this holds true across roles and industries and at various organizational levels.” HBR
Compliance is gained with authority, but winning hearts and minds requires emotion.
How to manage emotional culture:
Emotional culture is managed in tiny interactions.
- Be curious about people.
- Practice patting people on the back.
- Find something to smile about. (If you aren’t pleased to be at work, your team won’t be pleased either.)
- Engage in playful mischief.
- Stop in at the end of the day.
Bonus: Give a monthly smiley award in each department.
What drags organizations into dark emotion?
How might leaders ignite and fuel positive emotion?
Bonus material:
Balancing Emotional and Cognitive Culture (Wharton)
Manage Your Emotions at Work (Mind Tools)
Why Scientists Say it Pays to Get Emotional at Work (Inc)
Your Success Depends on Emotional Culture (Psychology Today)
Emotional energy is often seen as a two-edged sword. Exuberant, joyful and energised can change in the blink of an eye to stressed, fearful and preoccupied. Hence the usual mechanism isn’t to build positive emotional energy but to remove any and all emotion: no peaks, no troughs, just level-headed, logical, Spock-like delivery…
Thanks Mitch. At least zombies are consistent, if not particularly exuberant.
Feelings are based on –the facts, numbers, and comments that we hear and face in each situation.
Bad feelings reflect–bad facts, bad numbers, hurtful comments.
We need to re-frame the bad stuff and find the opportunity to improve the situation…
Real optimism produces emotional energy.
Too much “happy talk” (fake optimism) isn’t useful. We need to keep it real.
Thanks Paul. I’m with you, happy talk isn’t useful Personally, I find it irritating. The people who engage in happy talk are out of touch. However, finding a forward-facing approach to negative situations can be energizing. Perhaps it’s realistic optimism.
I love this thought-(feeling-?) provoking post. I know a handful of leaders who exude positive energy that seems less than genuine. It creates far more noise, confusion, distrust and skepticism than those who are transparent, genuine and authentic. How can we as leaders be both authentic and real while being positive and energized? In good times, this is pretty easy. In harsher situations, it requires a firm belief that things can and will get better, while also recognizing the brutal reality (Stockdale Paradox). Thanks for this. I’ll be noodling on it for days to come!
Thanks Christi. You ask a great question that brings up an important issue. Should we fake being positive, when we’re feeling negative. I’ll noodle with you.
One thing seems to be clear in the Stockdale Paradox. It’s not helpful to bury your head in the sand or to pretend the future is bright when it’s dark.
What drags organizations into dark emotion? Organizations that lose balance between people and priorities will eventually land themselves in a dark place. Making people the priority is paramount. Communicating the importance followed by the actions to support it instills confidence in the team. Communication, at times, is the shortfall of organizations – for example, we can use the COVID-19 situation as an example of how vital communication is when speaking about the people and their well-being. Communication must also be coming from a trusted agent that builds confidence into the community.
Thanks Kishla. We all know when our leaders don’t really care about us. When it’s ONLY about the numbers, people become numbers.
The assessment bit is very useful and can be a great way to figure out whether I’m leading my team exuberantly or things are falling apart. Thanks for sharing
In the brain, we have an interconnected network of cells known as the Mirror Neuron System (MNS for short). It causes us to mirror the facial expressions, body movements, and gestures of others as they express their emotions. In the presence of someone expressing negative emotion, then, your MNS mirrors the movements of their facial muscles that are conveying those emotions.
Hi Dan,
I agree with you that emotions are contagious. I can not tell you how many times a random person I stand beside on the subway or that serves me my coffee makes my day. I can be wrapped up in my own world and interact with a ‘bubbly’ individual and my whole mood will change. The same can be said for negative emotions, as you describe in this post. I think it can be difficult to analyze ones self thus your recommendation of reaching out to those you work with can definitely be an eye-opening experience.
Beyond the initial ‘contagion’ of emotions, I think teams or the individuals in your life can often be encouraged through positive emotions. My mom always says “you’ll get more with sugar than with salt”. I always interpreted this as “people are more likely to want to help you if you show them kindness, rather than being abrupt or rude”. I believe this ties into your discussion on tiny interactions, “practice patting people on the back”. It feels good to be acknowledged for your hard work, I know when my work is recognized it certainly encourages me to keep working hard- it feels good to be recognized.
Great exercise idea! I think that it could be particularly applicable in smaller organization settings where there is more collaboration and contact. It would be a great team building activity and more likely to receive honest answers and feedback. I’m not quite sure how this activity would fare in a corporation type setting.
In addition, I enjoyed learning about the Mirror Neuron System (MNS) from George’s comment. My MNS must be quite sensitive at picking up other people’s emotions.
Leaders may be more effective at igniting positive emotion among the team by:
1. Regulating their own emotions
Leaders should always maintain their composure and remain level-headed in the presence of their team. It is okay to show appropriate emotions for each situation, but extremes should be avoided.
2. Being more receptive and accepting to others’ emotions
It is important to acknowledge and validate other people’s emotions and
concerns. This will inspire respect and strengthen the team dynamics
3. Introducing means of enabling emotion regulation
Leaders should prioritize creating a harmonious environment by providing team members with opportunities to help regulate their emotions. Some examples include promoting taking extra small breaks in times of high emotions and having stress releasing outlets.
Mental and emotional stability enables productivity. Therefore, it is important for leaders to promote and enable it.