OWP liVe REPORT

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For example, if commenting on a traumatic event , leaders should connect with their own feelings and be able to empathize with people’s sadness. But if an organization is caught up in a corporate scandal, the public expects the leader to contain their emotions such as anger, worry and sadness. In such cases it would be inappropriate for the leader to share their emotions and therefore it would be better to display courage to solve the problem. Leaders should not bottle up how they feel or suppress their emotions; but rather work constructively with their emotions and know in which context they can be more or less vulnerable when it comes to sharing them. Connecting to feelings – your own, and those of others – demonstrates emotional empathy and can help to establish strong connections with people. It’s important that leaders do not rush to judge others who are displaying emotion. “Many executives say that sharing positive emotions in their organization is accepted, but that they can’t necessarily show the negative emotion,” says Mischke. “But every emotion has its purpose and is experienced for a reason, therefore leaders have to create an environment where it feels safe to display emotions. Demonstrating emotional empathy

By allowing the space these emotions can be explored and addressed to better understand a situation.”

will allow them to collect more accurate emotional data and work effectively with it. A good starting point could be to include an emotional journal in your leadership practice.

"Many executives say that sharing positive emotions in their organization is accepted, but that they can’t necessarily show the negative emotion."

Leveraging emotions at an organizational level

In her OWP session, Mischke drew on a case study from Ed Shelton, a guest speaker who heads New Product Innovation at Dyson, the consumer appliances maker. In early March 2020, James Dyson was asked by the British government to build ventilators for coronavirus patients. The company rapidly developed a product outside of its usual business line against the backdrop of supply constraints and concerns over staff welfare and delivered 15,000 ventilators for the UK health system. In addition to gratitude and excitement, the initial emotional response included terror and apprehension. This quickly gave way to pride, and Shelton leveraged this to galvanize his team. “The mission was so dominant and so obviously the right thing to do, it transcended any personal concerns that we had,” he says. This underscores how emotions can not only improve performance at an individual level but can benefit whole organizations and beyond, Mischke observes.

Leveraging Emotional Key Competencies

Leaders who face adversity and need to address complex business situations are more effective by including the information provided through emotions. Effective and emotionally savvy leaders start by accurately perceiving their own emotions and those of others by reading faces, postures, gestures and tone of voice, and then empathizing with these feelings. This approach helps them to “collect” the emotional data and thus allows them to understand what triggered these emotions and how they might evolve over time. By creating this emotional picture, they can then identify and define the appropriate emotion management strategies to influence their or other people’s feelings if required by the situation. Leaders can develop and leverage these emotional key competencies by working with experts or applying strategies that

SILKE MISCHKE