Why Navigating Emotions in the Workplace Matters
It’s been an emotional time—or, as we often hear, an “emotional roller coaster.” And whether you’ve shifted to remote work or not, the truth is that the line between our work lives and our home lives has blurred more than ever. The result? Learning how to navigate managing our emotions at work is more of an imperative than ever.
It starts with debunking the myth that emotions don’t belong in the workplace. Unfortunately that mindset is still far too prevalent. If we’ve learned anything from last year, it’s that this is a time when we’re most in need of our humanity. And one of the traits that most defines us as human is that we feel and have emotions.
So what does that mean in the workplace? How do we bring our whole selves to work in the healthiest and most productive way possible? Here are some lessons I’ve learned about managing emotions at work.
How to Bring Your Whole Self to Work
1. Accept your emotions
The truth is, whether at home or work, it’s impossible to avoid emotions—they’ll always find a way of expressing themselves. And if we try to suppress them, that’s often when they show up in their most extreme forms, which can lead to toxic or self-sabotaging behaviors. In fact, studies show that when we ignore our emotions and don’t try to understand them, we can damage our well-being. So we first have to start with accepting that our emotions are natural, they’re part of who we are, and we can’t control them by denying them.
2. Recognize instead of react
We might have positive emotions or negative emotions, but that doesn’t mean they’re good or bad. Emotions are simply signals that something is going on. So what are your emotions telling you? How would you describe the emotions you’re feeling? Give them a label. When we recognize our emotions, we can do more than simply react to them.
Labeling our emotions also teaches us that it’s possible to feel positive and negative emotions at the same time. We can feel happy and sad, frustrated and hopeful. Studies have even shown that accepting mixed emotions can help us improve our well-being.
3. You are not your emotions
Labeling our emotions also allows us to realize that we’re not defined by any one emotion we happen to be feeling. For instance, saying “I feel sad” is different than saying, “I am sad.”
4. Look after your physical body
Our physical well-being is deeply connected to our emotional well-being. When we’re tired, sleep-deprived, and depleted we’re less able to recognize our emotions and more likely to find ourselves as passengers on that roller coaster.
5. Practice compassion—for yourself and others
We can be very hard on ourselves, and much of the time that negative self-criticism is based on our emotions. We can’t always control how we feel, but we can control any judgment we feel toward ourselves for having those feelings. When we’re angry, or frustrated, or sad, the first choice we have available to us is to simply say, “I feel frustrated and that’s… OK.”
When we accept our own emotions, it’s easier to help others do the same. A few months ago, I happened to be struggling. I got a call from a colleague who asked how I was doing. “Great,” I replied in a knee-jerk way. But my colleague heard something. “Really?” she asked. And that pierced the bubble. “Actually, to be honest, I’m doing just OK,” I said. And then we had a much more productive conversation, because she had forced me to take my own emotional temperature.
HOW INBLOOM HELPS LEADERS LEAD WITH WELLBEING FIRST
We wish to help leaders lead more compassionately; Compassionate leaders are those who lead from within, those who have the ability to inspire others through encouragement and empowerment. When you treat people with compassion they never forget. You cultivate people who want to work for you not because of what you do but because of who you are. Find out more about our 1:1 Wellbeing Coaching.
Reference:https://www.mindful.org/why-navigating-emotions-in-the-workplace-matters/