Managing Emotions in the Workplace

Perhaps the description of such figures is quite familiar to you: coworkers who never have a pleasant words, whether in the regular weekly internal meetings as well as in the chat in the cafeteria for lunch. People like this usually takes the energy in a brainstorming session because his comments are "not important". 

Their tendency to easily "bore" is also disturbing. In short, their negativity can contaminate the life of the office. As affirmed by the Wharton School of Management Professor Sigal Barsade who studied the influence of emotions in the workplace, emotion was contagious. "Various emotions spread from one person to another like a virus," he said.

Barsade join the team of writers paper "Why Does Affect Matter in Organizations?" In the study of organizational behavior, "affect" is another word for "emotion". And, answers to written questions from the paper's title: mood, emotions and attitudes of all employees have an influence on performance, decision making, creativity, turnover, teamwork, negotiation and leadership. "Everybody brings their emotions to work," says Barsade.

"You bring your brain to work. You may also bring your emotions when working. The various feelings that stir the performance."

In the paper, Barsade and his team detailing the existence of three different types of feelings:

1. Discrete, is instant emotions, like love, anger, fear and disgust.

2. Mood, namely the long-term feelings and not related to specific causes, such as someone who is gay, or inferior.

3. Dispositional, or personal qualities inherent in a person who 'defines' the relevant overall. We often hear people comment, "He's always happy," or, "He's always been prejudice."

According to Barsade, some people do have better control of his emotions than others. However, it does not mean that the people in surrounding areas not affected by their mood. "You might not realize that you're showing your emotions, but that's reflected in facial expressions or body language. The emotions that we do not realize it could affect our thinking and behavior," he said.

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To the managers suggested Barsade transfering positive emotions, such as by saying, "I know you're worried. Things do not look good, but you know we have a way to overcome it and we can work together."

Employees will appreciate honesty like that and can get a sense of comfort to be optimistic.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

5 Malevolent Executive Failed

An executive or manager was clearly not an easy job. In their hands of the company's future lies with its stakeholders. That's why, you do not be too having caution when appointed as CEO, director or even a manager. One-one you actually make the company stumbled, went bankrupt, lost, eliminating jobs for employees, and so on. Your reputation as a professional would ever tarnished.

Results of research by the Research Team Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth (under Sydney Finkelstein), against employed several business failures in a number of developed countries shows how the failure of the company is determined more by the poor quality of the leader personally. Fuss, these personal qualities associated with admirable personal qualities of leaders themselves. Automation is the most destructive people who have extraordinary intelligence and talents. They always appear attractive, displaying the personal charm, and inspire others. Photos often decorate their faces magazines world-class business types Forbes, Fortune, Business Week, and so forth.

From the search for a list of companies that failed executives, ranging from Rubbermaid company to Enron, Wang Labs, Sony, and Samsung, this research team succeeded in formulating the seven executives who fail the character. This character must be a record company at all levels, from managers to CEOs.

Nature 1. They see themselves and their organizations to dominate their environment.

An executive must have big ambitions and act proactively for success, but the basis of this action must be based on the philosophy of the right. Successful leaders act proactively because they realize that they do not dominate the environment. They know, however the success in the past, they are still faced with a changing environment. They must continue to introduce new initiatives because they are unable to ensure everything happens according to expectations. Integration planning must be constantly adjusted and reviewed.

Leaders who see themselves and the environment dominate their companies forget this. They really confident with their ability to control what will happen and ignore the role of chance and condition against their success. They think they will be able to dictate to the environment. They felt that the success of themselves and their companies because they make it happen.

Nature 2. There was no line between personal interests with corporate interests.

Executive ability Management to identification interests in detail could cause them to take decisions that are not wise. In addition to treating the company as something they need to protect and exaggerated, CEOs who identified company interested too much could treat the company as an extension of themselves. They lead the company to do something that makes sense for him, but not necessarily make sense for the company. They seemed to act as the owner of the company and the right to do anything with the name of good of the company. Though, actually more for their own interests.

These executives have the mentality to take advantage of the company in order to bring own ambition, although it was not the best way to make a profit. Samsung CEO Kun-Hee Lee decided to enter the automotive business more because he liked the car. Saatchi brothers continued to expand his company, regardless of whether it produces income, but more due to the expansion of personal ego.

Nature 3. They think has all the answers

It's hard not to be impressed with detailed business leaders who know everything that is important. They are very easy make the complicated situation into something that makes sense. Beyond all that, they were given the advantage to make good decisions in any situation.

Fair if later, the mass media and the public to admire them. They are executives who can take dozens of decisions in one minute, gave orders that have a major impact for the company, could face a crisis many times, and is able to digest the situation in one second that for others it took several days to do it. At higher levels within the company, they are executive prototype is superb and should be followed. They are considered an ideal figure who always has a lot of answers to all problems, and able to give an answer as soon as the question was asked.

What happens to the executive overview of this kind is actually a scam. In the world of business conditions are constantly changing with innovation and only really take place constantly, nobody has an answer for long periods. Leaders who are always making quick decisions do not make the opportunity for deepening. This is very bad, because they already have the answers, without ever learning to find new answers. Their instincts, something that is often very important, always encourage rapid inference, does not allow the period of uncertainty, including uncertainty as it was something that really what it is.

People around the CEO is sometimes encourage the habit of making quick decisions this. They want to follow leader who always had an answer. In fact, this sort of thing actually plunged the company into trouble.

Nature 4. They rudely replace those who are not 100% supportive.

CEO with a great vision to believe that the main part of his job is to instill confidence in that vision to the whole company, invites everyone to work together realizing that vision. If a manager does not show full support, the CEO will feel his vision ignored. In turn, the CEO will ask the manager to support the plan or leave. This is the character shown by Roger Smith at GM, Jill Barad at Mattel, Bill Farley at Fruit of the Loom, Wolfgang Smith at Rubbermaid, and others.

Surely this kind of CEO action is unnecessary and destructive. CEOs do not need everyone in the company just confirmed what he had to say. The differences can actually improve the vision that they were able to overcome problems when they arise in the future.

Nature 5. Being a malevolent company spokesman, obsessed with the company image

Leader in this category is a high-profile executive, wants to always be in front of the public. They spend a lot of time by giving public speeches, appearing on TV, interviewed by reporters, build incredible charisma. They were brilliant inspire confidence in the public, employees, potential job seekers, and its main investors.

The Day of Love

This now global festival of romantic love and its accompanying chocolates, cards and flowers was surprisingly named after two early Christian Martyrs (Valentine of Terni and Valentine of Rome) who were later sainted.

The story of these men has been embroidered over the years into various myths and legend. In one version of the tale, valentine resists a law attributed to the Roman Emperor Claudius II ordering that young men remain single.

In other version of the myth, valentine is imprisoned by Claudius and subsequently falls in love with the daughter of his jailer. Before he is executed sends her a note signed, “from your valentine”.

In the middle ages, literary legend Geoffrey Chaucer and the flourishing

Tradition of courtly love cemented valentine’s day into the calendar, turning it into a romantic holiday.

Chaucer’s Parliament is set in the fictional context of a valentine day’s tradition, but of course no such tradition existed before Chaucer wrote about it.

Valentine’s Day was reinvented in the 1840s when an American woman, Esther Howland, created the first mass produced cards which were made of embossed paper lace. The traditional exchange of love notes has now blossomed into an industry that sees an amazing one billion cards sent every year.

In a rather telling confirmation of the oft heard female assertion that mean are unromantic, it has been estimated that a disproportionate 85 percent of these cards are purchased by women. Most recently in a send-up of po-faced political correctness, Valentine’s Day has been renamed Single Awareness Day by some bright spark.

Lose Weight

Five Point Plant to Help You Lose Weight

1. Reduce Fat and Cholesterol

By eliminating fried foods and instead grilling, steaming and baking. Use low fat products.

2. Increase Fibre

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By eating whole grains and snacking on fruit and vegetables.

3. Control Calories

By eating in moderation and saying no to second helpings.

4. Reduce Sugar

In beverages and cooking, basically cut out all high sugar foods.

5. Reduce Salt

In your home cooking and avoid pre packaged meals.



Fat : 1 Gram = 9 Calories

Protein : 1 Gram = 4 Calories

Carbohydrates : 1 Gram = 3.5 Calories

Alcohol : 1 Gram = 7 Calories

From Single Star to Team Player

A single star is someone who performs really well in his or her job but does not help others. Or one asks for help and is sometimes even abrasive when asked to do something for the company that does not benefit him or her directly. The problem with these people is that they can poison the organization—they set a bad example for others if executives keep rewarding and promoting them. Managers may feel that they need them, of course, as they do perform well. So it is pretty gutsy to fire them in today's rather poor economic environment. But if you're really serious about building a collaborative company and want to reap the economic rewards from doing so, you have to screen for single stars

Companies, industries, and functions that reward hugely based on individual performance are prone to this problem. It is a problem in investment banking and can also be a problem in sales organizations where individuals are compensated for their own sales and not for helping others and sharing best practices.

Many companies have focused on knowledge management the last couple of years. While that has been a good start, it is only one part of the overall challenge of creating an effective collaborative organization. KM is only a special case of instilling a collaborative organization, which also includes coordinating activities and doing joint work across organization boundaries.

Why Employees Don't Collaborate

Executives first need to understand why people in the organization are not collaborating and sharing as much as they should.

There are four obstacles involving employees' motivations and abilities that must be overcome.

First, unwillingness to seek advice and learn from others. Employees may not want to seek advice across the organization, either because they believe they cannot learn anything or because there is a prevailing norm that people ought to fix their problems themselves. No electronic knowledge management system can fix this problem; simply making documents and links to experts available does not help if employees do not want input from others.

Another method is to recruit employees who have a natural inclination to ask for help. A chain of restaurants in the U.S. does this deliberately. At interview, it asks: "What obstacles have you faced in a previous job that prevented you from doing a good job and how did you overcome these obstacles?" The desirable answer should include asking for help and communicating the problem to others, not trying to be a hero and fix it alone.

Second, there is inability to find expertise. There is often someone who knows the answer to a problem but it may be nearly impossible to connect the person who has the expertise with the one who needs it. Clearly, databases and electronic search engines serve a useful role here but more in the capacity of being "electronic yellow pages" than as self sufficient electronic repositories. In most management consulting companies, for example, consultants upload sanitized documents containing their finished work into databases, which are then accessed by other consultants who review prior work and contact the consultants who did it.

However, technology has its limits. Expert directories become out of date and do not fully capture what each person knows. More importantly, they do not allow for creative combinations of ideas and individuals. Companies therefore need to cultivate people who know where experts and ideas reside. These "connectors" tend to be long-timers who have worked in many different areas in the company and hence have an extensive personal network. They see opportunities for new value creation based on the combination of talent, ideas, and expertise in different units.

Then there is unwillingness to help. Is knowledge hoarded in your company? Employees may be willing to seek advice but others are sometimes reluctant to share it. The growing emphasis on performance management has fuelled this problem: People no longer have the time to help others, or they do not care, because they are only asked to deliver on their own targets. While performance is important, executives also need to develop incentives to help others and cultivate a shared identity among employees. This is a notorious problem in many investment banks, where bankers chase their own opportunities without properly assisting others.

Lastly, there is the inability to work together. A "chemistry" problem can sometimes prevent people working well together, even if they want to and are part of a project team. It is a very different problem from the other three obstacles and requires different responses, including training sessions on teamwork, coaching people as they try to work together, and the development of strong relations between people from different units.

For example, a study of time-to-market performance of new product development projects in a high-technology company found that project engineers who worked with engineers from other divisions took 20 to 30 percent longer to complete their projects when they had not established a personal relationship. Engineers found it hard to articulate, understand, and absorb complex technologies that were transferred between divisions when they had not learned to work together beforehand.

Managers must respond to each of these obstacles in different ways. For example, developing an electronic knowledge management system will not help if the underlying problem is that employees hoard knowledge and will not seek help; it will only make people cynical about collaboration. Likewise, making promotion contingent on the extent to which people seek advice from others will not help if there is no way of identifying experts. All four obstacles need to be overcome for effective collaboration to occur. Solving one problem, but not the others, will not help.

by Morten Hansen