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Do we need to suppress our emotions at work?

by Rick Baker
On Mar 5, 2013

The quick answer is - Yes.

Here's one explanation...

Anger is a consequence of the ‘fight-or-flight’ mechanisms that come with having a body and a brain. Anger is a protection-emotion that comes with physiological changes – adrenalin and clenched hands, as examples. Human beings share this ‘old brain’ & physiological stuff with other creatures. Compared to other creatures, human beings possess a larger, more-complicated, and more-powerful brain.

Our human brains have allowed us to be advanced - knowledge-wise, technology-wise, etc. – and they have allowed us to be social.

‘Being social’ has allowed us to exchange share value, in numerous forms.

‘Being social’ has allowed us to build things of tremendous value for ourselves and others. 

'Being social' has come with a price; if we want to be business leaders or if we want to play the social game well, there is a ‘social price’.

That being-social price is...

Successful human beings must possess 2 defining qualities – Intelligence and Self-Control.

So, to maximize our success in business we need to illustrate to others we have both intelligence and self-control.

Control of anger is one aspect of self-control. When we illustrate the ability to control anger other intelligent people view that as a positive attribute of character, worth emulating, worth following.

So...

PS: Anger succeeds as a communication force when it generates fear…but typically, fear does not create extraordinary work or sustained performance. Sometimes anger succeeds as a communication force when it triggers anger in the other person and that anger in turn triggers self-motivation. But, this rarely is constructive.

PPS: Physiologically speaking, anger is accompanied by a redirection of blood flow…and not to the prefrontal cortex where executive thinking happens.

Tags:

Emotions & Feelings @ Work

Comments (4) -

rick baker
8/12/2013 11:31:05 PM #

"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry."

Abraham Lincoln

rick baker
9/12/2015 5:50:46 PM #

"The great thing in all education is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy."  

William James

rick baker
12/12/2015 6:12:11 PM #

"When you dominate other people's emotions, the time has to come when you will have to pay, and heavily, for that privilege."

Ethel Waters
American Singer & Actess, (1896-1977)

rick baker
12/12/2015 6:14:51 PM #

"When I say manage emotions, I only mean the really distressing, incapacitating emotions. Feeling emotions is what makes life rich. You need your passions."

Daniel Goleman
American Author & Psychologist, (1946-  )

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