While the Covid pandemic has heralded a desire for more compassionate leadership from our organizations, the display of emotion in the workplace remains something of a prickly topic.  While historically there has been a sense that we should keep a lid on our emotions at work, research from Wharton highlights the values of expressing our emotions.

The authors argue that when people feel they have a sufficient level of psychological safety at work to express their emotions and feel supported in doing so, this then also helps them to generate ideas and solve problems more effectively.

The findings emerged after a field study involving a number of management teams across a couple of experiments, both of which resoundingly highlighted the value of teams having healthy emotional exchanges.

“We found that teams that have this environment where they feel comfortable sharing their genuine emotions with their team members, and they don’t just ignore [emotions] but they work through them, not only come up with better ideas and insights, they get to the richer discussions as well,” the researchers say. “They’re more creative. They produce more creative outcomes.”

Showing your emotions

The authors highlight how our workplaces have often been places where emotions were left at the door.  It’s a culture rooted in a belief that work should be for logic and rational thinking rather than emotions, which can only undermine our decision-making.  This orthodoxy should be challenged, however, because emotions are crucial to bonding as a team, which underpins how effective we are at work.

“It’s not that emotions fundamentally drive irrationality, it’s how emotions are used,” the researchers explain. “For example, your gut and intuition can be telling you something important if you analyze and systemically look into that. If you just use your gut without that analysis, then you’re more likely to have bias.”

Of course, emotions aren’t an untrammeled positive and can have negative consequences, but the authors believe they highlight and complement previous work on the value of authenticity, which allows us to be our true selves in the workplace.

So, the authors urge managers not to dismiss emotions as a negative presence in the workplace, but rather to treat them as a natural part of who we are as humans.

“I think most significantly and probably urgently for leaders is having the courage to deal with emotions, and not just the positive ones, but being curious, validating people’s experiences, not trying to shove them away, not trying to ignore them,” the authors conclude.