{"id":15063,"date":"2017-11-08T06:00:57","date_gmt":"2017-11-08T14:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=15063"},"modified":"2017-11-08T06:00:57","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T14:00:57","slug":"the-many-colors-of-emotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-many-colors-of-emotion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Many Colors of Emotion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I often have discussions with my colleagues concerning leadership and emotional function or emotional processes. More than a few of my colleague would argue that there is no place for emotion in leadership. Leadership, they argue, should be a logical almost mathematical cognitive process in which the best decisions are made based on the data and information at hand, outside of any emotional attachment. In this paradigm, leaders should make the decisions based on what is best for the organization. Those impacted by the decision will just have to get over it and get on board or get off the bus! [1] \u00a0The logic of this argument usually goes out the door when a decision doesn\u2019t go the leader\u2019s way resulting in heated exchanges that remove the cloak from hidden or even buried emotions exposing the depth at which emotions flow in the leadership process and the impact they have on the leader and those being led. Kets de Vries posits that leading is a human enterprise and therefore leadership is all about emotions, of both the leader and of those they lead.<\/p>\n

For this reason, I appreciate The Leadership Mystique<\/i>, as it focuses on the emotionally healthy leader and the good that they can do for people and for an organization. Although the thought is not new to me, the application in the context of leadership\u00a0is refreshing and illuminating. Three concepts are especially applicable to my leadership situation. The first is the ability to express emotions in a constructive manner; second, the ability to delineate the actual work of a leader; finally, the importance execution plays in leadership\u2014it is, according to Kets de Vries the third leg on which leadership stands. I will introduce each of these with a quote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to maximize the positive effects and minimize the negative effects of emotions, we need to become adept at recognizing emotions and fluent at expressing them constructively.\u201d [2] To put it\u00a0succinctly, emotions effect leadership. I can\u2019t tell you how refreshing this is for me to read. In my experience as a leader, I have observed that many leaders are only able to express to one or two emotions. The first being anger, the second disapproval. The sad part is that there may be as many emotions and shades of emotions as there are colors and yet many choose only express themselves in their leadership context with two emotions\u2014 anger and disapproval.<\/p>\n

It is difficult to paint a picture with only two solid colors and one shade with the same intensity and expression as with a full range of colors and shades. It\u2019s even harder to be a leader who can sense and express only two emotions. Many times I have wished for a chart listing all of the human emotions\u2014like a color chart\u2014so that I could refer to it regularly to see the breath, width, and depth of emotions that humans can feel and express. In a recent search, I found one such chart and attached to this post. It does not show shades or intensity but it does highlight the many emotions a human can experience. Sometimes seeing a list helps to acknowledge first that the emotions existence and second with their existence their availability to express them in a healthy context. This is important for leaders and those who are led.<\/p>\n

The second quote answers the difficult question of what is it exactly that leaders do? \u201cTo be more precise, they\u2019re figureheads, leaders, liaisons, monitors, disseminators, spokespersons, entrepreneurs, disturbance handlers, resources allocators, and negotiators\u2014all this as need demands.\u201d[3] Painters paint, teachers teach, cooks cook, baseball players play baseball, store owners own stores, brokers broker, and doctors doctor, but what does a missionary do? Even more complicated what does a missionary leader do? From my perspective, it helps to be able to quantify what one does, but it very challenging to do that as a missionary leader.<\/p>\n

An emotionally healthy leader is one who sees her work as somewhat limited or in other words able to complete. To face an unlimited task with unquantified boundaries is discouraging at best and demoralizing at worst.\u00a0It wasn\u2019t until I read Leadership Mystique<\/i> that I realized others in leadership positions struggle to answer the same question. In citing Mintzberg\u2019s taxonomy, Kets de Vries helps to answer that complicated question for many. The answer is all of the above and more\u2014as the need demands! The demands of the need are huge but Kets de Vries quantification goes a long way to put boundaries around an otherwise unlimited task. That alone is worth the read.<\/p>\n

Finally, \u201ccompetencies and attitudes are the two legs of the global leadership triangle. How these competencies and attitudes are executed is the third leg.\u201d[4] It\u2019s easy to fall into the trap that to be a leader a person needs only to be competent with, for example, time management or even people management. Functioning as a leader is more than just being competent or even having a healthy attitude. It is being able to negotiate all of your resources as well as an understanding of the organization and the people into a healthy execution of decision making. Leadership without proper execution is like a dancer who knows all the right steps but cannot put them together as a \u00a0whole dance, or the piano player who loves music, knows all the cords, but cannot put them together in a \u00a0lucid song. Without proper execution, leadership falls short because in the end leadership is not only an emotional process but a relationship with people and an organization. \u00a0As leaders, we need to work on execution as much as we do competencies and attitude.<\/p>\n

For now, or if or when Harari\u2019s predictions of cyborgs come true [5], leadership is still a human endeavor, where a person draws on all their emotions, relationships, and competencies to lead people in a way that benefits them and the organization. To do this, a leader must embrace emotions as a motivating factor in leadership. They must also understand the limits of their complex role and be able to execute their role in such a way that it combines both the competencies and attitudes of the leader and the people they lead into a lucid song or a flowing dance with the many colors and shades of emotions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. James C. Collins.\u00a0Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap–and Others Don’t<\/i>. Kindle ed. New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2011.<\/li>\n
  2. Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries.\u00a0The Leadership Mystique: Leading Behavior in the Human Enterprise<\/i>. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Press, 2009, 31.<\/li>\n
  3. Ibid., 64.<\/li>\n
  4. Ibid., 192.<\/li>\n
  5. Yuval Noah Harari. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind<\/i>. Kindle ed. New York, NY: Harper, 2015.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I often have discussions with my colleagues concerning leadership and emotional function or emotional processes. More than a few of my colleague would argue that there is no place for emotion in leadership. Leadership, they argue, should be a logical almost mathematical cognitive process in which the best decisions are made based on the data […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[536],"class_list":["post-15063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-kets-de-vries","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15063"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15071,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15063\/revisions\/15071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}