Feel Those Vibes
Wednesday, September 29, 2021 - Joe Kiedinger
We’ve all sensed it before. Have you ever walked into the office in the morning and even before anyone has spoken a word you know something’s up? You can tell, for whatever reason, someone is off their game.
There is energy in the world all around us—including emotional energy. Want to build relationships and achieve success in business? As a leader, it all starts with understanding, then managing the emotional energy of your team.
Take this chart of the Emotional Energy Zones, for example. At the top, you’ll notice “soft” and “hard” attitudes. Soft-natured people tend to see the world in shades of gray and prefer a calm, patient approach to life whereas hard-natured people see the world in black and white and prefer a direct approach that gets results faster.
When a person is being dignified and understood and their needs are being met, they will work in Zone 1 (dignified behavior). If people don’t feel understood or their needs are not being met, they can easily move down the scale to Zone 3 (stressed behavior).
People can’t live in this kind of environment continuously without seeking out emotional relief which often, is complaining to coworkers. Zone 3 is an unproductive zone in business and it costs companies millions.
Take a quick read through the different attitudes and decide, do you tend to lean toward the soft or hard side? Now, think of a time you found yourself in Zone 3. What was the progression of emotions that took you there? What “dinged your dignity?” What helped bring you out of it?
In our Organizational Health training programs, we dive much deeper into the topic and provide real-world tools and solutions to not only understand emotional energy, but how to use it for the advantage of our team and our business.
JOE KIEDINGER
ACTION PLAN: Be the type of leader that runs toward challenging emotions, cracks the code and brings dignity to your people. We can help you get there.