“Feelings aren’t always the magic key to a great leadership decision, but they must not be ignored.”

A thought by John Townsend from his book, Leading From Your Gut (p. 83). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

We do too many times see them as negative, don’t we?

John says, “Sometimes leaders describe a thought as a feeling (a typically male phenomenon). For example, the leader will say, ‘I feel that we need to allocate more resources to marketing.’ But that is not an accurate expression of emotion. Emotions aren’t ideas; they are internal responses.”

He goes on, “There are, of course, good reasons for hesitation when it comes to incorporating emotions in leadership. We have all seen situations in which a leader gave vent to some emotion and made a huge error in judgment. Or we’ve been in other situations in which fear and anxiety caused a leader to shrink back rather than boldly move forward, and bad outcomes followed. Or we’ve witnessed how intense feelings alienated a leader from those close to him. The leader who has constant emotional displays tends to create a negative impression of his competence.”

John also says, “Having acknowledged, then, that emotions can present a real problem in leadership, I want to present the other side and show that emotions not only can be helpful but are, in fact, essential to successful leadership… I wrote in the introduction about the dangers of not paying attention to emotions? If you choose to ignore the soft data—your intuition—you do so at your peril. That warning is probably most true in this arena of the emotional world.”

He then asks and answers, “What are emotions or feelings? A good and simple working definition is that emotions are subjective reactions. Emotions include positive reactions, such as tenderness, happiness, or satisfaction. They also include negative reactions, such as anger, anxiety, or sadness. Emotions can be intense, or they can be subtle. They can be absolutely overwhelming, or we can be totally unaware that we are having them.

“Like anything else inside you, emotions don’t exist of and for themselves. Your emotions have a function, a purpose, a role. When you understand this role, you can harness your emotions to lead others well.”

And that, of course, is what each leader wants, isn’t it? 

Yes, yes!