A survey in 2000 found that the most frequently expressed emotion at work was anger and the least frequently expressed emotion was joy. When I mentioned this to a group of b-school students a few days ago most were not surprised. Anger, they report, is common in their work experience. Expressing joy is associated with being a ‘lightweight’. It is not professional. Anger is associated with power, joy with weakness. This is obviously a problem for all of us. While anger has a place and can be an intelligent emotion, joy and other positive emotions are critical to idea generation and enhancing cooperation. The question is, how do we express joy, or happiness, or as Josh has noted, appreciation and gratitude, in a way that is accepted and heard by people? And how can we convince leaders of the importance - and ‘professionalism’ - of the expression of joy?
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
 |
April 11th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
This is so important isn’t it? Cheerfulness and good humour are often viewed as unprofessional but when we go against the mood and express these feelings, people often follow - and this can really lift the atmosphere.
There is no doubt though that it can lead to people underestimating our capabilities… I guess we have to make sure we also represent ourselves honestly by taking to the opportunities to reveal our abilities too.
April 12th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
And David, wasn’t anger something like 10 times as prevalent as other feelings?
Maybe it’s tied to a terribly mistaken notion of how to motivate. Kind of the “drill sergeant” mentality? Of course anger IS motivating, it just usually motivates something other than the desired behavior…
I suspect that part of this is unconsciousness — I suspect many leaders would change the emotional climate if they realized how destructive this is.
April 15th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
PS. Was thinking about this… recently was getting a photo taken @ client site w a group of managers. I think I was the only one smiling and afterwards I felt kind of self-conscious… I was “breaking the rules” by showing happiness.
April 21st, 2008 at 4:03 am
As an EQ Coach, I can agree with the perspective that anger is expressed the most - however, often expressed covertly or inappropriately. Anger expression tolerance varies in each workplace, depending on the emotional intelligence level of the workplace and the type of work being done. While people may express frustrations frequently (complaining is a popular sport and falls in the emotion category of anger), they seldom take constructive action with their anger. These are my observations from 20 years of teaching emotional intelligence (even before the term became popular).
Please tell us where this study was done and by whom.
April 27th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Sigal Barsade conducted the study a few years ago with Gallup.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I think that the portrayal of anger can be a learnt behavior in conjunction with a fear of not being taken seriously. Older style management do not know how to involve a lighter mood environment, that will lead to more idea generation and involvement. Not to mention the physical impact and the transfered stress which also has a negative impact.
June 24th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Very True! When does one do one’s best? When one is angry or when one is happy? I guess it is when one is happy, speaking for myself. As a manager, I need to motivate my team by keeping them happy. I do not believe that anger is a show of strength or happiness a show of weakness. To me the reverse is true. Anger or angry face is always associated with insecurity and happiness is associated with confidence. This is my mantra.
Zeb
June 24th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
As an Internal Coach while facilitating large groups of people at Hindustan Petroleum, I have come across the display of anger by Senior Management on many occassions. The display is in a subtle manner but its impact is not lost on the team members.
This happens whenever the results of conversations differ from the ones expected by Sr. Colleagues. This creates fear, defensiveness or abject surrender to the ideas of Senior colleagues by other team members. Such Senior Team Members add little value to discussions and in fact subtract value as no new ideas, new thoughts emerge and people continue to voice the one voice which is the lead voice.
We can probably convice leaders to express joy and happiness as well as appreciate people on appropriate occasions ( Since anger also has place) if they learn how it helps them and enhances their effectiveness.
June 24th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Anger and fear are the factors mainly - if not only - used by executives to motivate in corporate world | one and all except their own bosses!
B-Schools teach many things which are hardly useful in reality of management- The one advantage of doing a B-school is it helps to cultvate the habit of going thru druggery - go on & on working long hours - 60> hours per week or 24/7/365. ANOTHER ADVANTAGE IS that the students develop felicity over use of jargons! They write n talk to IMPRESS rather than EXPRESS!
June 25th, 2008 at 6:36 am
The old school and weak managers use anger to deflect questioning of their authority with the belief that most people would rather just do what they’re told than have a confrontation. However, the newer generations in the workforce have self-awareness and more self-confidence coming into a new work environment than the older workers and do not hesitate to stand up to anger. All of us could benefit from cognitive rebuttal to lateral agression training which teaches how to call attention to inappropriate anger with direct feedback. An example of cognitive rebuttal would be, “When you use that tone of voice, I cannot understand the instruction you are trying to give me,” or “Could we talk about why you feel that you can shout at me at work?” This actually works. I work in a large university hospital and this technique has quieted several former screamers and angry supervisors.
June 25th, 2008 at 8:01 am
Love the idea of being assertive and letting the angry manager know that you are aware of the behavior, that it is not appropriate, and does not work. But I also think that lots of aggressive behavior at work, or by managers, is subtle. Micro-aggression is harder to call people on but it’s just as or more important to do so. Anyone have good ideas how to handle these situations?
June 27th, 2008 at 6:53 am
I have always understood anger and joy as necessary emotions. When something is not right, one should be angry enough to effect the necessary change or changes. When there is a cause for joy, how should be it expressed rightly except to be joyful? To equate anger with power and joy with weakness is to me a bit strange. For sure, there is real power in positively expressing anger. Making corrections and making something right produces strength, and yes, joy.