When you think of a CEO of a company, you may think the person who makes the big decisions might be cold, and calculating – only making decisions that exist in the realm of logic.

We think that being data-driven and statistical, with the absence of silly human emotions is what will get the job done, but perhaps this is an oversight?

Now whilst logic and reasoning are an asset to every leader, our fast-paced digital landscape has meant that expectations have risen of us in line with the speed of our computers. Yet, human interaction is not something that can be quantified and measured in terms of time.

From my experience of working with people dealing with anxiety, there is a common theme, and that is the sense that all their emotions have been numbed, and so the only emotion that can be experienced is anxiety.

Anxiety, along with every other human emotion works in some way to benefit our survival. Therefore, we need to understand our emotions in the context of social situations and our survival. Archaically our emotional responses were geared towards protection and ensuring the survival of the next generation. 

By having emotions, and by displaying emotions, we equip ourselves and others for dealing with events that present themselves. Now, it’s our jobs that are at risk, or maybe our homes, or our reputation, or our status, and so on. So the emotions that we feel – that were there for our survival – are now being applied to events that are not exactly life-threatening.

So what about when we make decisions by rationalising?

As homo sapiens, we have developed a higher functioning part of our brains, the neo-cortex (the new brain) and here we can construct language. The neo-cortex is where we can think rationally – and, therefore, we can rationalise. Well, when we make a decision we do so by tuning into our emotions. Of course, it is possible to make decisions based entirely on logic – but almost every time we will override logic because “it feels wrong” “it doesn’t feel right”. Feelings- huh?

For further clarification, let us distinguish between a rationalised decision and a rational decision.

A rationalised decision is based on emotions, but we pretend that it is based on some good reasons that we figure out after we have already made the decision. Whereas, a rational decision is based on all factors, including the recognition of our emotions. We either go into denial or pretend our emotions are not impacting our decision-making – or we acknowledge and accept their role, which will also allow us to make a better analysis. Why? Because once we accept that we may have an emotional bias we can question and challenge that.

Two of the key components of emotional intelligence (EI) that have been identified as necessary for leaders are self-awareness and empathy. This relates to being able to understand how your moods, and emotions affect others and also being able to understand the emotional makeup of other people. All leaders need followers, so you should be taking account of how your emotions (and the emotions of people on your team) play a pivotal part in the success of your business or organisation. It has been found that high EI managers can reduce lost time accidents by 50%, reduce grievances in one case from 15% down to 30% per year.

When we have good self-awareness we can create better relationships with other people, as we understand our needs. If we have good communication skills we can then explain our needs without resorting to manipulative or controlling tactics.

Overall, it is clear that by ignoring the importance of emotions we are failing to tackle the first step in EI (self-awareness). By ignoring emotions we are denying the biochemical responses that we are programmed to have and by default, this could jeopardize your ability to be the best possible leader to your team. 

An effective leader is an emotive leader after all.

Here at Wellbeing with Cari, we believe that everyone should be psychologically safe and feel the joy of peak performance at work. Our mission is to use neuroscience and AI technology to solve the problem of presenteeism by seeing behind a brave face. 

Do you want to be notified every time we release new data?

Here at Wellbeing with Cari, we love data! Can’t get enough of it. Click here to subscribe to our data updates and receive the latest wellbeing stats before anybody else…

Was this blog ‘your cup of tea’? Why not feast your eyes on these too…