“Every organization has an emotional culture, even if it’s one of suppression”Sigal Barsade.Humans are emotional creatures. At a basic level, we are more emotional animals capable of reason than rational animals capable of emotion. That fundamental truth is born out in decades of research, which – among other findings – shows that emotions drive performance at work. Yet, despite the availability of this knowledge, most organizations manage their cultures more cognitively than emotionally. We present organizations as rational enterprises when the truth is, as humans, we cannot separate our calculative decisions from our intuition. As a consequence, because we suppress the emotional elements of our organizational cultures, in turn, we suppress the passion, creativity, and purpose of our employees. To unleash potential, we must unleash emotion.
Consider this statistic “75% of careers are derailed for reasons related to emotional competencies including: inability to handle interpersonal problems, unsatisfactory team leadership during times of difficulty or conflict, or inability to adapt to change or elicit trust.” Source: Center for Creative LeadershipOrganizations sputter because of the human struggle of change. If we rooted our leadership in the knowledge that work is emotional and change produces irrational fears and anxieties, we would reduce the tension our employees experience and boost their commitment and engagement on a massive basis.As an example, think about how negative emotions are handled in the workplace. When people feel frustration or even anger, employees are typically pressured to bottle or regulate those feelings to exist within rational workplace norms. This can lead to emotional dissonance – the emotion they feel on a gut level becomes at odds with the emotion they’re told is permissible to experience by their employer. When days, weeks, months or years of emotional dissonance pile up, they are likely to lead to emotional exhaustion. Festered, buried feelings eventually lead to a breaking point. People blow up or burnout. On the other hand, organizations that encourage coworkers to be open and honest about their emotions and express them authentically but productively are more collaborative, creative and reliable.What happens when you, as the leader, do not manage emotions in the workplace? Our emotions are at the core of everything. Emotions shape our thoughts. Our thoughts drive behavior. And behavior drives results. Emotions = Results. Therefore, when we, as leaders, do not effectively manage emotions in our culture we face significant risks in the workplace such as:

- Lack of urgency
- Lost productivity
- Poor employee engagement
- High employee turnover
- Low quality metrics
- Lack of innovation, creativity and collaboration
- Collaboration
- Productivity
- Creativity
- Reliability
- Employee engagement
- Healthy corporate culture
- Accountability
- Strong communication skills
- Trust
- Authenticity
- Integrity
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