Put Your Emotions to Work
When was the last time you asked your employees about their passions? Their hopes and fears? In conversations about work, managers tend to emphasize job performance and overlook the most important aspect of employee engagement, says Professor of Organizational Behavior William Kahn. To feel fully engaged in our work, we need to be emotionally invested in it.
Don't Do That Whether implicitly or explicitly, organizations indicate that professionalism requires leaving emotion at the door, says Kahn. But promoting that mentality does a disservice both to employees and your organization.
Do This Take the time to ask each individual: What are you passionate about? Do you believe your work is meaningful? Do you feel valued? Until you address these questions, you’ll “only get part of the employees’ energy, commitment, and enthusiasm,” says Kahn, who recommends helping staff members find ways to match their passions with the company’s needs. Engaging negative emotions is equally important; when we ignore anxiety, it festers and distracts us from our jobs, a phenomenon Kahn calls the Ostrich Effect (the subject and title of his new book). When facing an anxiety-triggering situation—a series of layoffs, for example—acknowledge it’s a difficult time, talk through the implications, and encourage employees to express their concerns. “If you create space for people to talk in a way that they feel validated, it frees them up psychologically to engage in their work,” Kahn says. “Happiness is important. It’s not rocket science, but we forget about it all the time.”
