Thomas- a participant in one of
our workshops on Managerial Effectiveness based on 7 Habits shared an incident
that happened in his team a couple of months before this workshop.
Thomas was noticing that one of
his very effective team members- Rajesh was behaving differently than usual-he
started being irritable, lost, withdrawn from other co-workers, not as punctual
as he used to be. While a few co-workers did start highlighting his mistakes
and using this as a ploy to get a deserving employee ousted, Thomas –the caring
boss did what a good leader should do. He while patting Rajesh’s back asked him
in an informal conversation if everything was fine with him. Rajesh broke down
and told him that his mother was battling with cancer and was undergoing
chemotherapy for which he had to take her to the hospital off and on. There
being just his wife and an infant in the family, he had to manage the
logistics. Thomas very empathetically listened, offered Rajesh some water and
tea and then suggested him to take leave for a month while being available on
the phone and email when required and hand over the pending projects to a team
mate in Thomas’s presence. He assured Rajesh that his job will remain safe and
his rating will remain unaffected if after coming back he shows the same
enthusiasm in his work as he used to earlier.
Thomas, while understanding an
employee’s genuine problem, offered help and retained a good worker who became
more dedicated and motivated after coming back. He earned respect, appreciation
and sincerity forever.
How many of us pause to think
that if a person is behaving differently than usual, he could be going through
some kind of a hardship or crisis? Do we stop and try to understand?
I get taken aback when I read or
hear senior leaders say that there is no room for emotions at work. “I am a
totally different person at work than what I am in my personal life.” There
will of course be a few differences in our engagement with people in our
personal and professional lives. But how can we have different set of values –one
for personal life and one for professional life? How can something as natural
and intrinsic as emotions stop to exist the moment I reach my workplace?
Imagine what will happen if our heart muscles do the same thing- work at home,
stop working at office?
There is just no need to cut off
the emotional-the human side of oneself at work. What is needed is-
1. Emotional
control and proper expression of emotions
2. Using
emotions to build a strong connect
Steven Covey – management expert
talks of building a strong Emotional Bank Account by adding the deposits of –empathy,
integrity, attending to little things, clarifying expectations, apologizing sincerely.
When the emotional bank account is strong, people will give their best, will be
more productive, there will be team spirit and the organization’s objectives
will be met. There will be a win-win situation for everyone. People will want
to work with such leaders who have an emotional and the more human side even at
work. And the organization will earn a good name because of good leaders and
workers.
Have a lovely weekend!
