Emotions are always present in the workplace. They have a powerful impact on how people behave and perform. That’s why emotional skills are one of the core pillars of success in today’s working life.
Emotions in the workplace
Every employee has good days and bad days: moments of excitement and deep focus, times of frustration, boredom, disappointment, and sadness. Some tasks feel engaging, others less so.
The emotions employees experience – and the emotional climate of the workplace – have a crucial influence on learning, motivation, and performance.
When an employee is stressed or fearful, their brain focuses on survival and staying safe. This narrows their thinking and attention, making it harder to see the bigger picture. Their ability to think flexibly and creatively is reduced.
On the other hand, positive emotions broaden thinking, make it more flexible, help people see connections, boost readiness to act, and support recovery from setbacks.
When the mind is open, and thinking is flexible and expansive, learning and performing at work become much easier.
Emotional skills at work
Emotional skills are tools we learn throughout life that help us consciously influence our own emotions and the emotions of others.
These skills affect how individuals perform, how they express themselves, how they manage stress, and how they make decisions.
Emotional skills matter at work because emotions are constantly present in human interaction. Learning emotional skills helps build stronger communication and collaboration at work.
It’s valuable to reflect regularly on your own emotions at work:
What emotions and energy do I bring into meetings and conversations? How do my emotions affect my performance?
In the next sections, we’ll explore how emotions influence different areas of working life.
What do emotions tell us?
Every emotion carries important information and energy. This emotional power is always within reach – as long as we know how to notice it.
- Excitement fuels energy.
- Sadness, shame, and contentment lower energy levels.
- Frustration arises when our will is blocked. Tackling frustration starts by recognizing what you want and turning your focus toward how you’d like things to be.
- Anger increases risk-taking and speeds up thinking – but makes it more superficial. An angry mind seeks blame and quick, final solutions. That’s why broad, flexible thinking is difficult when angry.
How emotions affect decision-making?
Positive emotions lead to broader and more careful decision-making.
People feeling positive emotions tend to seek more information, consider different perspectives, and notice the factors influencing the situation.
Negative emotions, on the other hand, narrow thinking but make it more detailed and analytical. They often signal that something is wrong, prompting a more critical and thorough examination of the situation.
How emotions affect goal-setting?
People experiencing positive emotions set higher and more challenging goals for themselves. When in a good mood, belief in one’s own abilities is strong, and the bar is set high.
When anxious, even small goals can feel overwhelming, and the bar is lowered as much as possible.
Emotions and social behavior
Whether an emotion strengthens or weakens social interaction depends on whether we feel comfortable sharing it or prefer to keep it hidden.
For example, would you feel comfortable admitting to your colleagues that you’re feeling jealous of them? Or telling them when you feel ashamed?
Excitement and gratitude encourage social connection.
Shame makes us want to withdraw and isolate ourselves.
This social aspect of emotions is crucial for team performance. If shame and fear dominate an organization’s culture, psychological safety is low, and natural collaboration struggles to emerge.
Emotionally intelligent leadership
Emotionally intelligent leadership is a rapidly growing trend. There are simple, research-backed methods that help boost any organization’s success.
While every employee is responsible for their own emotional footprint, leadership has a huge influence – up to 50–70% of the emotional climate at work comes from the leader’s example.
When leaders are able to express and name their own emotions appropriately, it creates space for others to do the same.
In leadership psychology, identification explains why some leaders are so highly respected – employees feel the leader is human, relatable, one of us. People trust those they perceive as genuine and sincere.
Want to learn more?
Emotional skills develop throughout life, and anyone can improve them.
In Emergy® IMPACT and Emergy® SKILLS trainings, you’ll learn to lead yourself and interact with others using emotional intelligence.
In Emergy® WORKPLACE trainings, teams learn to better understand one another and take emotions into account in daily collaboration.
