Hi everyone!
In this edition we visit the impact of emotions … how they can drive behaviour that diminishes relationships, decreases performance and destroys motivation and …
It features the importance of building an emotional culture that supports a mentally healthy workplace.
Here’s the thing …
Emotional outrage has been triggered by recent world events …
“We all want a world where respect is paramount, family is first, and love transcends. We can realize this world again. Each of us must demand to get it back. We must insist that respect fills the cornerstone of our relationships again.” – Melania Trump 14 July 2024
The challenge for many organisations now becomes … how can we build an emotional culture filled with respectful relationships that support a mentally healthy workplace?
A culture where everyone feels valued and connected at an emotional level.
Every organisation has an emotional culture even though it may not be strategically defined.
If there’s a focus on data and metrics, procedures and processes, emotional engagement may be relegated to the background.
If there are a lot of unexpressed emotions the culture may be one of suppression.
The bad news is unexpressed emotions never go away … they can resurface at any time in uglier ways.
Suppressing oneself by not speaking about what’s not working right now with seeming inequities is currently commonplace:
- Inequities may be happening through working from home or choosing a hybrid option.
- Inequities may be about not feeling heard or being overlooked in comparison with those choosing an in-person workplace option.
- Not being heard can create a foundation of disconnection and feeling disrespected.
It can manifest by voting with one’s feet, becoming a quiet quitter, shifting to covert behaviours through a passive-aggressive approach, or blowing up out of the blue.
Any team can have everything going for it, but if it lacks collective emotional intelligence, it can still fail.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou.
The Australian Government National Mental Health Commission’s Blueprint for Mentally Healthy Workplaces features what ‘we’ are working towards with building an emotional culture.
According to the Blueprint, when we are in a mentally unhealthy workplace it can feel:
If any of the above is present in your organisation, emotional engagement will be diminished, and performance will be impacted.
Any person’s experience at any given moment includes emotional responses to the relationship … how the other person FEELS about youand the level of emotional engagement within the organisation.
Conversely, the National Mental Health Commission’s Blueprint for Mentally Healthy Workplaces, says that when we are in a mentally healthy workplace it can feel:
Focusing on creating WE through respectful conversations steeped in neuroscience, creates positive energy and lifts emotional engagement to enable a mentally healthy workplace.
Emotionally engaged people know how to connect, show compassion and support others.
Emotionally disengaged people set out to judge others by always looking for what’s wrong.
It’s important to clarify the difference between cognitive and emotional cultures.
A cognitive cultureconsists of the values and behavioural norms that build organisational culture.
By identifying and developing your emotional culture you can align your emotional and organisational culture … and it’s measurable!
Creating an emotional culture is putting in place the structures, environments, and procedures to enable people to feel their desired emotions.
The first step in implementing the Respectful Workplace Culture Model is the CONNECT with R.E.S.P.E.C.T. workshop.
Grounded in research and proven to make a real difference with teams, the workshop features: CONNECT – From isolation to inclusion.
A Team Emotional Culture fosters open conversations about emotions … helping to create a workplace environment where people feel heard and acknowledged.
For people who say they aren’t ‘touchy-feely’ or “I don’t do emotions” it’s a revelation!
Some CONNECT with R.E.S.P.E.C.T. workshop examples past participants have shared that enable a mentally unhealthy workplace to persist:
– I feel overwhelmed when I’m given 10 tasks to do at once
– I feel anxious when others have radical swings in behaviour
– I feel powerless when I see others being bullied
– I feel insulted when people go to others instead of coming directly to me
– I feel intimidated when I’m being put under scrutiny (micromanaged)
– I feel disheartened when others are being reclusive, negative, withdrawn
– I feel uncomfortable when others become reactive with each other.
By the end of the workshop, they’ve designed a Team Emotional Culture they’re proud to be part of!
I’m currently filling my calendar for the new financial year. If this resonates with you and you want to book a call, here’s a link: Chat with Maree or maree@upshiftsolutions.com.au
Respectful Workplace Insights is a weekly newsletter I am publishing on LinkedIn to highlight some of the things that get in the way of creating a respectful workplace culture.
Eliminating disrespectful unproductive and depleting conversations and behaviours that are getting in the way of building respectful alignment and performance is where we start.
Each week I’ll offer tips on how to do that so you can create a respectful workplace culture where everyone feels safe and included.
