East or West Emotions do matter.

Throughout Asian society emotions tend to be suppressed and are rarely acknowledged and even more rarely shown to others. Often it is the view that to show your feelings or emotions is a sign of immaturity. As this article illustrates emotional literacy is a key component to possessing a creative, efficient and healthy workforce. Furthermore developing emotional links with customers and consumers is a sure way to receive their repeat custom.

A sense of being emotionally involved brings with it a heightened sense of responsibility and desire to do the right thing.

Emotions are energies generated by our inner self. They signify that something you value is being called into question or that there is an opportunity to be seized. They often serve as intuitive nudges and stimulate you to ask questions, take a stand or action, to learn and stretch your capabilities. Emotions themselves are neither good or bad, it is how they are acted upon that determines the effect they have.

All of the experiences acquired throughout life and work are emotionally laden memories that are stored in the brain. The sum total of these experiences present themselves as instantaneous hunches or gut feelings. Neuroscience research demonstrates that emotional insights or gut feelings are an indispensable part of problem solving and reasoning. They also provide you with creative, intuitive business intelligence and a desire for rapport and connection. Everyone lives in a stream of emotional information; to be successful such energies must be controlled and channeled directing them towards something constructive.

All too often in the business environment people condition themselves to ignore their feelings in an attempt to keep 'emotions out of business'. The attempted suppression of emotions often does little good, emotions tend to build up leading to eruptions frequently over something petty and insignificant. Often during these eruptions things are said and done that may be petty, frightening or dangerous. Continued impulsive acting upon emotions gets in the way of trusting relationships and undermines top performance. Emotions should not be used as excuses for behavior everyone can exercise control.

Anger itself is not a negative emotion. It is meant to demand respect and action. Anger only becomes detrimental when it is escalated into rage and hostility. The ability to possess and control anger is important, if you lack anger then you begin to accept the intolerable. This indifference can lead to a decrease in business efficiency, can undermine relationships and undermine top performance. Anything that produces strong feelings of fear suppresses ideas. A fear of ridicule, critiscm and failure prevents honesty and creativity. Over time feelings of fear undermine confidence and leads to an atmosphere of uncertainty and suspicion.

A lack of emotions can be just as detrimental as their exaggeration. It is time wasting and irresponsible to suppress strong feelings while a meeting or discussion becomes stagnant or goes astray. By being in touch with our emotions personal responsibility is taken for the respect and disrespect we bring to discussions and interactions, the kindness or unkindness, the generosity or cruelty, the fairness or lack of fairness. A lack of emotions can lead to an uncaring sterile environment unconducive to creativity and innovation

Former vice president of Monolithic Memories Irwin Federman observes that "you don't care about someone because of who they are; you care about them because of the way they make you feel." It is believed that people will work harder and more effectively for someone they like and that they will like someone in direct proportion to how they make them feel.

It is said that most executives have an undeveloped capacity for understanding and dealing with emotions. Researchers at the Center for creative Leadership claim that insensitivity to others is the most frequently cited reason for why executives and leaders fail. Ambiguous behavior where we unintentionally fail to express clearly how we feel as well as what we think, is often a source of tension. The brains reticular activating system has developed throughout evolution to amplify the negative presumptions and minimize the positive. When in doubt most people tend to assume the worst. Consequently when there is a lack of sufficient communication people quickly make assumptions, usually negative about what a particular behavior may mean.

A lack of response to suggestions or input is viewed to mean that their ideas or input were disregarded or dismissed this can lead to mistrust and a sense of powerlessness and resentment. According to the US Department of Labor, 46 % of people quitting their jobs last year did so because they felt unappreciated

Similarly, Robert Peterson, marketing professor of the University of Texas, has discovered that the key to repeat business is an emotional link between the customer and the product or service.

The above material is taken from a book called Executive EQ, by Robert Cooper and Ayman Sawaf. 1997.

Best Regards to all our subscribers,

Paul A. Renaud.

www.thaistocks.com