The Radar of Leadership Emotions
Our emotions - as individuals, teams, and the whole company - are key drivers of actions and decisions. How people feel about their work has a direct impact on the speed of strategy execution. In short, emotions act as accelerators and brakes. The sooner you recognize and identify the emotion (or range of emotions) in a situation, it becomes easy to manage the impact on the business.
How to use it
1 Recognize it
Start either with the primary emotion or name it precisely.
The six primary emotions - happy, sad, disgust, fearful, angry, surprised - are in the inner circle. Start here, then move towards the outer circles to identify it more precisely.
If you're confident enough, you can move straight to the outer circles and name the emotion precisely.
Dig deeper - there are more emotions in life than one wheel captures. Trust your intuition and use your judgement to choose an emotion that reflects your situation. Don't be limited to the boundaries of this wheel.
2 Rate the intensity
The six core emotions come with a range of intensity.
Take fear as an example. It ranges from mild - anxious, hesistant, cautious - to moderate - insecure, frightened - to the more extreme - like terrified.
Use a simple scale (1 to 10; 1= mild, 10=extreme) to help you and your team rate the intensity of the emotions you are feeling.
Rating the intensity - of both positive and negative emotions - makes it easier to mobilize the resources needed to manage them.
3 Manage it
Time to take action.
So where does this emotion go? What is the effect of this emotion on me, my direct reports, my company?
I recommend "going towards" the emotion - recognize it, and accept it. These two steps make it easier to manage. Nothing lasts forever: anger subsides, joy fades. All emotions pass.
The alternatives - forms of denial and suppression - make it harder to move on. By managing the emotion you move smoothly through challenging situations.