“Negative emotions— especially chronic anger, anxiety, or a sense of futility— powerfully disrupt work, hijacking attention from the task at hand.”

A thought by Daniel Goleman; Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee, (2013-07-23) from their book, Primal Leadership, With a New Preface by the Authors: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence (Kindle Locations 362-363). Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

And so many people come to work each day and they live each day with something negative that is effecting their emotions and in turn will affect their work and of course their relationships. 

The authors share a couple of examples.  “For instance, in a Yale study of moods and their contagion, the performance of groups making executive decisions about how best to allocate yearly bonuses was measurably boosted by positive feelings and was impaired by negative ones. Significantly, the group members themselves did not realize the influence of their own moods.”  I think I would want my boss to be in a good mood when he is thinking about my bonus.

Another one, “For instance, of all the interactions at an international hotel chain that pitched employees into bad moods, the most frequent was talking to someone in management. Interactions with bosses led to bad feelings— frustration, disappointment, anger, sadness, disgust, or hurt— about nine out of ten times. These interactions were the cause of distress more often than customers, work pressure, company policies, or personal problems.”

They then said, “Not that leaders need to be overly ‘nice’; the emotional art of leadership includes pressing the reality of work demands without unduly upsetting people. One of the oldest laws in psychology holds that beyond a moderate level, increases in anxiety and worry erode mental abilities.”  Our moods effect our mental abilities.

I strive every day to write down on social media a positive reinforcement to start my day.  Now I do start every day reading a Psalm from the Old Testament.  The writer many times will start in a bad mood with a negative thought about his life but he then shows how he gets out of it through focus.  He focuses on God and who He is, what He can do and what He has done.  That changes his view of his negative situation and gives him hope.

“Negative emotions— especially chronic anger, anxiety, or a sense of futility— powerfully disrupt work, hijacking attention from the task at hand.” 

What negative emotion is holding you back?