NEWS
- Is Facilitating part of your role?
- Meet the New Boss!
- The McLeod Report on Engagement
- Sheppard Moscow gets Engaged
- Sheppard Moscow sponsor forthcoming Corporate Research Forum workshop
- The Unwritten Rules; what women need to know about getting on in the corporate world.
- Asia Pacific leads the Way
- Encouraging high potential women leaders in a global organisation
- Sharing Practice through Sheppard Moscow’s Open Programmes
- Sheppard Moscow leads Change for CRF in Barcelona
- Leading in Uncertain Times - A Conversation hosted by Sheppard Moscow Asia Pacific
- Helping a global automobile company accelerate change in the current climate
- Business Partnering: Fad or the Future?
- Global Crisis: A Time for Greatness?
- Leading the Emotional Dimensions of Change
- Leadership in Uncertain Times - thoughts from Sheppard Moscow
- Leading in Uncertain Times – building capability through coaching - Dublin, 4th November 2008
- Sheppard Moscow champions research into business-focused learning and development
- Boosting performance through management development within organisation-wide cultural change
- Partnering for Business Transformation - Open Programme
- Advanced Facilitation Skills – for those needing to change the culture of their organisations
- Refreshing Leadership: Edinburgh 15th May 2008
- ‘Flat world’ video conference brings international teamwork to life
- Refreshing Leadership in Edinburgh
- How to Manage in a Flat World - Sheppard Moscow hosts International Video Conference
- A telling way to make changes
- Executive coaching best practice gets even better
- Helping cement relationships in a new management team at a children's home
- Sheppard Moscow and How to Manage in a Flat World
- Cancer Research UK and Future Search
- Discover Authentic Leadership in Scotland
- Leadership in London
- Directors Positive Power and Influence - Encore in Asia
- Henry Mintzberg - Developing Today's Managers For Tomorrow
- Sheppard Moscow helps HR discover 'The Future Opportunity'
- Sheppard Moscow Scotland assists 'Schools for Ambition'
- The Well in Singapore
- Authentic Leadership in Ireland
- Sheppard Moscow helps HR Focus on the Future.
- Leadership
- Director's Positive Power and Influence
- Whom Can We Trust?
- A different view of resistance to change
- Appraisals - what performance difference do they actually make?
- E-mail - tool or torture?
- Getting high performance with a globally dispersed team
- Influencing when not face-to-face
- Issues facing leaders of remote or virtual teams
- Potential pitfalls for internal consultants
- Putting a man on the moon
- Strategies for cross-functional team leaders
A Corporate Research Forum Event with Sheppard Moscow
“Research increasingly shows that people who are emotionally engaged with their work will deliver improved personal and business results. The question is: what is the best way to connect with individuals and their emotions to effect an economic outcome?”
Sheppard Moscow has focused on the key importance of human relationships within organisations since the 1960s. We were therefore delighted to support a recent one-day workshop held by the Corporate Research Forum at Trinity House in London.
Laid out below is a summary of the presentation of Susan David, Director of Evidence-Based Psychology, the event’s key speaker. (Full post meeting notes are available from Sheppard Moscow).
Susan David began the workshop by asking two questions of members.
Have you been on the receiving end recently of large-scale workplace change?
And, did such change produce deep changes in individual relationships and emotions such as increased personal stress?
Most members were affirmative on both questions.
Susan then made these points on the emotional dimensions of the workplace.
- Culture, of which individual/group emotions are a core part, helps or hinders strategy implementation – depending on the level of connectedness and trust underpinning work relationships
- Such connectedness flourishes more in a relational, rather than, transactional/task and budget-focused culture – in her view, strong relationships and emotional stability tend to produce beneficial economic outcomes
- David’s research has shown that emotionally engaged people tend to deliver improved personal, team and business results – whereas those feeling emotionally disconnected will not
- All change processes involve emotions at self, team and wider group levels – feeling engaged or disempowered, receptive or threatened, at a loss or well-being, etc
- Research does not support the traditional societal view that emotions are ‘unfriendly’ and disruptive to logical thinking
- Nor does it confirm the belief that there are both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ emotions – or that people have to continually experience ‘happy emotions’ to be happy
- Emotions are functional – they help us send signals and convey information/data about what is important to ourselves and to others
- They interact well alongside rational thinking such as that needed for actions on budgets, tasks, resource allocation, etc – rather than being counterproductive
- David believes they are fundamental to our effectiveness whether in personal, social or organisation settings
- It can lead to a focus on the wrong issues as people may become less logical or too obsessive
- Negative impacts on problem-solving skills will likely occur
- An individual’s interpersonal skills may suffer – as may the quality of their work/team relationships
- Higher levels of stress may be experienced
David then drew on her and others’ research to clarify what she meant by, and the place of emotions, in organisation settings. This highlighted that
The problem is, emotions are often ignored – or are regarded as a by-product/end-product of specific situations and interventions. “Large organisations,” said David, “tend not to be emotionally-oriented. Typically, they don’t accept, or help people manage, them – and fail to appreciate that emotions don’t have to be acted on.”
According to David – and it’s a view long supported by Sheppard Moscow –, understanding and managing emotions is key to more effective change management, usually through applying the discipline of ‘emotional intelligence’.
“If an organisation sidelines emotions which will over-simplify an individual’s work situation and goals, this will hinder change efforts,” she stressed. “Leaders and managers must understand what people feel – and what they themselves feel – about what is going on.”
This also requires an awareness of the dangers of suppressing emotions and thinking too deeply about them. For example,
An issue here is that organisations are very different with regard to their display rules for emotions and what is acceptable.
Susan David then outlined three steps for effective emotion management:
1 Go to emotions – be ‘emotions friendly’, though avoiding a therapeutic approach
2 Develop meaning and insight – getting a sense of what is causing emotional responses to work and change
3 Go through emotions – devising solutions to help people understand and deal with such responses
David then highlighted the Mayer-Salovey Model of Emotional Intelligence with its four steps – recognise, use, understand and manage.
“This,” said David, ‘is one of the most simple, evidence-based models we have for emotion management. It encourages people to understand emotions to guide them in moving from reflection to insight and actions.”
Susan David went on to discuss a series of illustrative Case Studies.
For a full copy of the Post Meeting Report, relevant Sheppard Moscow Case Studies and details of future CRF events, please contact Sheppard Moscow.
To learn more about the Corporate Research Forum please visit:
www.crforum.co.uk