Managing Emotions at Work
Ever experienced that moment where your in a meeting and your boss asks you a daunting question in front of a group of people and you just cant recall the words to answer in the moment but leave the room and an hour later its clear as mud? That’s our limbic system kicking in, with our automatic brain instructing the dumping of cortisol in our gut to prompt action most commonly described as freeze, fight or flight. Useful when we were running from sabretooth tigers, not so useful at work in stressful situations. This part of our brain kicks in on average four seconds before our thinking brain even knows what happens meaning we're literally left speechless.
If we couple these kinds of interactions with many common work related challenges that only intensify or arise in times of change, we risk not only the mental health of employees but the financial health of the organisation.
Such common work challenges can include:
Long, inflexible hours short-staffing due to cutbacks or unfilled vacancies, or an ever-increasing workload.
Working remotely with no clear separation between work and personal time.
A toxic workplace that fosters bullying, harassment, or abuse.
Lack of training or guidance for the role you’re expected to fulfill.
Limited or unclear communication from management about tasks, goals, or decision-making.
Lack of support, shortage of equipment or other job resources, or unsafe working practices.
Current mental health schemes focus too much on resolving the individual issues and symptoms suffered as a result of such challenges once they are there and much of the damage is done. Handed to the benefits team to manage with an outsourced provider who has no context of the wider workplace and cultural dynamics at play.
In addition to the huge cost to your humans, the cost to the business can be significant with decreased productivity and increased churn, grievances, absence and sickness.
Proactive, positive management of mental health or the organisation as a whole, where we learn to recognise and regulate our emotional responses is the key to management of these fear-state symptoms and responses. What is equally important is an environment with reduced threat which starts with a leadership team who are emotionally regulated and understand (and practice), creating a psychologically safe environment.
If you are keen to learn more how you and your leadership team can proactively minimise or avoid work-related mental health challenges, with clear metrics to track organisational health, you can read more at https://www.humanbutbetter.com/organisational-therapy to learn more about our integrated services in transformation and therapeutic change.
Human but better™. Uniquely human. We achieve so much more together when we feel emotionally safe.