Our natural inclination is to avoid emotions like the plague, or count them as insignificant when it comes to creating a company, growing a business or functioning in a workplace. The problem is, none of us are void of emotion. And the good news? We can learn productive ways to process and channel our emotions to actually fuel our performance.
Example: We worked with a client that had a history of growing up with unpredictability in life through some volatile circumstances. How does that translate to work and life patterns today?
They had a “prepare for the worst” mindset, operating in a constantly reactive state, thinking through what they needed to do to be “prepared” for any and all possible circumstances every day, all the time.
The challenge:
1) It’s an emotionally draining state in which to operate, stealing energy from creativity and productivity.
2) The reactive mindset comes from a place of fear, not freedom, hindering decisions based on the ability to be prepared at all times for something to go wrong - this frequently led to overspending.
Once this pattern was called into account, we were able to start tracking it and combating it with tools, such as journaling, to understand it and channel it into productive behavior.
This is just one example of how powerful the baseline work is for you as a CEO, entrepreneur, team, organization, and individual. When the “emotion” is put to process and combined with tangible tools and systems to fuel performance, we become focused, wisdom-filled leaders with great clarity.
One of the latest Entreleadership podcasts covers exactly this with Michael Gervais - the psychology behind high performance and how to get there - powerful insight and well worth the listen.
Link to listen.