Talking about emotions in business? A delicate topic. Emotions are often associated with weakness and sometimes also with female managers or employees – quite frequently with a sour ring to it. Is it justified that this topic has such negative connotations?
In an article written by Dr. Anja Henke (published in the German magazine “Perspektiven - Die Führungskräfte”) I came across an analogy which I find interesting: “Emotions are like a coin, they have two sides: fear on the one hand and enthusiasm on the other.“ In times of crisis or when we have to make difficult decisions, we find both sides of this coin inside of us: the fear connected with a risk (be it related to our health, financial situation or environment) and enthusiasm linked to hope of a more positive future. Both sides of this coin are necessary to make good decisions.
At this point, you inevitably come across the somewhat worn-out concept of “emotional intelligence.” First and foremost, emotional intelligence means being aware of yourself and your feelings and to consciously care for them. Only then, in a second step, will you be able to put yourself in other people’s shoes and support them, if necessary, to handle their feelings. It becomes obvious that one of the major tasks of an empathic manager is to support employees in dealing with their feelings.
So, if we were to repress our own emotions and to ban these from our private or business environment,
- we would not be able to make good decisions since we have to take into consideration both the risk assessment and our own enthusiasm (i. e. the two sides of the ‘emotions’ coin) in order to make such good decisions and
- we would not be able to show empathy and would not be able to support others in dealing with their emotions.
Now, I would like to delve into little more detail as regards the two sides of the coin and dare to claim that we in Germany give more room to our fears and our risk behavior than to our imagination what kind of opportunities hide behind an idea, a crisis or change. During the corona crisis, it seems that this was the reason why we gained an edge over other countries. However, when we look into our pioneering spirit in the business environment, we do not dare to take radical steps and therefore miss opportunities. In my view, one example for this is the German product ‘Smart’ of the Daimler Group. In the 90s, this tiny little car was a symbol of the ‘new’ urban mobility and for decades, it was being built in the French region of Lorraine close to the French-German border to highlight the idea of a common Europe. This highly sophisticated main production site in Hambach will now be closed by the parent company Daimler. Sales figures have been below expectations and thus below the profitability threshold for a longer period of time now. One staff member says (see article “Don’t dream, it’s over” in German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung): “In this context, there was a lack of radicalism to implement and advance the entire mobility concept associated with the Smart. For example, a special fare for car trains and a bigger rental car for holiday trips was supposed to be included.” However, none of that was actually put into practice. The Smart simply remained an overpriced small car. In addition, the switch to electric drives was carried out much too late. It seems that, in this case, German risk awareness had more of an impact than enthusiasm linked with the hope of a better future.
No matter where you look at: emotions cannot be banned from our day-to-day business – at least not if we want to be successful as leaders or teams. If you look at
- the pyramid of successful teams explored by Google or
- the publications dealing with creative meetings by quantum physicist David Bohm or the Thinking Circle introduced by Matthias zur Bonsen or
- statements by Peter Burow in relation to the most recent insights of neuroscience as regards successfully operating start-up teams,
all of them describe feelings that employees need to have to be creative and to be able to work together well as a team. It is the emotions such as psychological safety, affiliation, honesty, appreciation, attachment, freedom of judgment as well as aspiring for a greater purpose and the hope of a better future that allow us to fully dedicate ourselves. If the attributes and circumstances described above are not in place, we restrain our ideas – ideas that are badly needed to advance our team or the company.
In a nutshell: Emotions should finally become accepted in a business context. Research shows that knowing and recognizing our feelings and those of the people around us, and dealing with these feelings improves our cooperation, our work and our decisions.
This text first appeared in my newsletter 'Innovation on Wednesday'. It is published every other Wednesday. For subscription click here