Successful leaders give much time and thought to the creation and sustainability of their workplace culture. They generally focus on what organizational experts call the cognitive culture — the how we think, our integrity, behavior. Edgar Schein, former professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and an expert in organizational development, divides cognitive culture into three categories: the artifacts (the things that are visible such as rituals and office settings), espoused values (strategies, goals, and how we represent ourselves to the customer), and shared assumptions (beliefs), all of which contribute to the foundation of an organization.
In their January-February 2016 Harvard Business Review article “Manage Your Emotional Culture,” Barsade and O’Neill tell us that in an emotional culture, all staff is keenly aware and use multiple methods to stay on top of what they are feeling and what they are not sharing. Research has shown the health of a workplace’s emotional culture impacts everything from absenteeism to motivation, to burnout, work quality, and job satisfaction, as well as the bottom line. All organizations have an emotional culture, even if it is one based on anger and suppression.
I coached in an organization where the CEO sat in a corner office with a wall of glass overlooking the staff. His desk was located in such a way that he faced a magnificent skyline view; his back was to his employees. His door was always closed; he rarely spoke to anyone, and never showed emotion except for anger. The cognitive culture of this organization was visionary and creative; the emotional culture, by the CEO’s example, was superiority, exclusion, and you are not valued. Ideas were clearly more important than the people and what you thought took precedence over what you felt. People were a tolerated distraction.
The employees spoke to one another of “hating” their CEO. They were angry at what they perceived as his arrogance, aloofness, hyper-critical manner, and took his emotional temperature hourly. (“Is he civil today or will I get my head handed to me?”) They avoided him at all costs and spent many hours complaining about him, and hoping for his failure. They worried about their job security and spoke about the stress he caused them to bear. Sometimes they even sabotaged a project just to “get even.”
Fortunately, the company had a COO with a different perspective on the workplace emotional culture and possessed higher emotional intelligence. His office had a similar view and an adjoining glass wall. His desk was angled, giving him a full view of the people who worked with him as well as a glimpse of the outside world. His door was always open. The COO was an older, fatherly figure who was considered an expert in the field; full of enthusiasm for life and work. He greeted everyone each morning, walked the office peeking into people’s work and offering words of encouragement and advice. He asked them about their vacations, kids, and how “we doin’?”
It was serious business but they had fun doing it and there was joy in the air when he was around. People were encouraged to talk about hard days as well as good ones. They would also check in on him on a regular basis just to make sure he “was okay” knowing he too suffered from the behavior of his boss. Everyone pitched in when someone was particularly stressed, on deadline, or upset because of a personal issue. When a woman went on maternity leave, there was a celebration and a cheer for the newest “member of the team” rather than resentment others had to pick up her work. The COO taught his employees how to have fun. His enthusiasm for the product, developing staff, and the reaching of targets was contagious. He genuinely loved the people he worked with in a way experts call companionate love.
In companies with a weak or sick emotional culture there is rigidity, fear of being wrong or embarrassed. Anger and anxiety fuel the place and bad, or no, decisions are made because of the negative emotions that prevail. Employees take these feelings out on one another and stakeholders, sometimes overtly and at other times in more covert ways. They make poor ambassadors for recruitment and retention.
How do leaders create a positive emotional culture? First, senior management must commit to the idea of change and begin to practice with one another. They need to model behavior and lead by example throughout the organization, even if they have to “fake it ‘til they make it.” Direct line supervisors have the most important role, bringing consistency to the message and actions. The shared value must be that expressing feelings is not only acceptable but encouraged.
In their January-February Harvard Business Review article titled “Can Your Employees Really Speak Freely?,” authors Detert and Burris note that “fear of negative consequences for speaking up and a sense of futility,” nothing will change, are the main reasons employees don’t share negative feelings. To counteract this, the message must be negative emotions will always be addressed for the good of the employee and the team.
Finally, there must be a reward for participation — be it on a performance review, in a kudos system, or in public or private meetings. The message must be consistent and believable — we care how you feel.
Creating a thriving emotional culture in the workplace takes commitment, time, and teamwork. Fun and joy are important goals as is the mitigation of anger, resentment, and fear. Concern should be focused on what is not being said rather than how difficult it is to hear and see the emotional side of the team.
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