Personality, Emotions and Leadership

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Table of Contents

Abstract
Introduction
Management of negative emotions
Positive emotions
Personality and leadership
Conclusion
Reference List

Abstract

Emotions are experiences that involve thoughts and feelings. Management of emotions is a key area of personal development since it influences individual options that in turn influence our results both in our daily activities and at the work place. Most people struggle to manage their emotions since they are important in ensuring success in most life endeavors because they boost individual self-improvement.

Changing behavior pattern and positive thinking helps in the management of emotions. Proper emotion management leads to positive thinking and this helps in doing away with the negative emotions that might put off our self- esteem. Positive personality helps in progressive thinking and positive decision making thereby encouraging team work and social togetherness.

Introduction

Poor management of emotions in personal life can lead to less productivity and bad reputation. However, at the workplace, such negative emotions as personnel layoffs and departmental restructuring often lead to damaged professional reputation, poor decision making, lack of creativity, poor team spirit, inappropriate leadership, and reduced productivity.

The effects of negative emotions at the workplace are bound to impact on the employees considering the fact that all these individuals have different experiences with emotions and as such, they tend to express them differently. Employees manifest poor management of emotions in the form of anger towards fellow employees and the management, resentment, and low self-esteem (Goleman et al 2002).

Due to the problem and negative consequences of negative emotions, several topics are analyzed to understand and help in finding the solutions. Such theoretical approaches include neuroscientific approach that asserts that diagnosis of the negative emotions like depression requires accurate brain scans. This helps in finding alternatives of maintaining a happy environment and proper communication skills.

Another approach is the evolutionary approach that offers alternatives to the understanding of happiness and proper management of anger amongst others, this helps in realizing the quality of life and identifying feelings.

Management of negative emotions

Due to the negative effects that emotions have on personal and employment life, it is important to deal with them as soon as they are detected. This is done by first recognizing that it as an important skill that should be corrected for effective communication. It is therefore important to identify personal and others feelings in order to identify other emotions.

Oplatka (2002) asserts that the identification and supervision of feelings and the management of behavior is vey important. Emphasis should be put on motivating actions that encourage compassion. The ability to identify and manage emotions can be boosted and it is therefore possible to be more emotionally intelligent and since birds of a feather flock together, there is the need to ensure that the surrounding is of individuals who are positive emotionally. Improved communication skills can also help to identify and manage emotions.

The management of negative emotions such as unhappiness, anger, worry and dislike involve stopping and evaluating the situation in case of frustrations. It is crucial to find something positive about the negative situation that an individual is faced with. In addition, it is also important to remember the way and manner in which an individual walked out of a past frustrating experience (Malhotra & Birks 2003).

Worry at the workplace impacts negatively on an individuals attitude of taking positive risks. In addition, worry may also affect the emotional wellbeing of an individual. It is therefore important to manage worry by stopping to worry because worrying only leads to more worrying.

Some of the strategies that have been adopted to deal with worry include deep breathing, taking exercises, focusing on improving the situation at hand, and trying to avoid an environment full of worries and anxiety. It is important to learn how to manage worry because it can dent self-confidence and self-worth (Goleman et al 2002).

Anger has very destructive effects on an individual if not controlled and could lead to trouble and shame. This therefore underscores the need to control anger so that we can live and work in an environment free of temper flare-ups. It is important to watch out for the signs of anger and take prompt action so that they do not become uncontrollable.

It is important to stop any actions that might lead to anger; the picture of being angry can at times help us to avoid anger and also encourage us to treat fellow workers at the workplace with respect and assertiveness in situations of dislike. Even when you dislike a workmate it is for the good of the company to keep the relationship amongst yourself as professional as possible. There is also the need to set aside individual egos and learn how to treat each other with respect.

If the other party is rude and unprofessional, it is important to remain assertive. Unhappiness impacts negatively on productivity at the workplace and as such, it is crucial to always try to be happy so as to boost the energy required for better performance and to take risks that ensure the achievement of goals (Covey 1989).

Looking at the mindset and adjustment of goals will help put smiles on the face of fellow workers. Putting a smile on the face of others and positively looking at the individual mindset in addition to adjusting goals and good record of thoughts will help in managing and coping with disappointments and sadness.

Since emotions are experiences of feelings and thoughts, positive treatment of both feelings and thoughts will imply constructive communication that builds self-esteem and relationships. Feelings should not be used as an arsenal to getting the attention of others; there is therefore need to ensure that emotions are not inundated.

Positive emotions

It is important to build on positive emotions because negative emotions can be risky in trying to make decisions in a very challenging environment since they distort perception and encourage errors. They also interfere with rationality that is important for efficient and accurate decision making.

Due to the far reaching importance of positive emotions it is important to know and master self management techniques that are important in helping to recognize personal response patterns, reframing self discussion for sufficient results and service of self-control in stressful situations (Duignan 2002). It is important to try and maintain good relations with the people in the surrounding by acquiring awareness of personal filters, broadening the range of behaviors for effective interactions and identifying and avoiding bad behavior patterns.

The emotional landscape in the life of an individual should recognize and value the emotions of other individuals and evaluate the effects of emotions on personal performance. It should also encourage proper communication skills that would enable interpretation of both verbal and non verbal communication.

The adoption of proper communication skills should also help to mitigate the risk of unmanaged emotions, create positivity in the emotional landscape, actively engage the emotions of others and leverage listening techniques that tend to disclose the inner self for purposes of improved relationships.

Analyzing the patterns of self behavior is important in influencing the dynamics that boost performance and in dealing with negative emotions and bad behavior. An individual should authentically motivate others and foster high level of interpersonal engagement.

A positive self concept and enables an individual to adapt to change, to cope with stress, anger and anxiety, creates the ability to love and care for others and enables an individual to act independently. Since everyone has to grapple with various problems, those who are emotionally healthy are able to adjust and solve problems and help others live satisfactorily.

The relationship one has with his/her work mate might lead to stress. Therefore it is advisable to undergo training in case the sour relationship is due to your negative emotions; this is useful because the knowledge of positive emotional appraisal can help in influencing the attitude of those whom we are working with (Harris 2002). In order to reduce or control stress it is important to undertake muscle relaxation programs and proper time management.

Emotional intelligence quotient helps in recognizing behaviors and moods, this helps in realizing competencies. This leverages diversity, brings about personal development and help in understanding others. Individual adeptness is important in positive leadership, bringing the possibility of conflict resolution which in most cases leads to self awareness.

The ability to respect, inspire others, and build teams and to shape culture is dependent on personal attributes like positive emotional upbringing. Leadership in fast changing environments is made a success by varying leadership styles that best suites the circumstance. There are leaders, who make decisions after consulting, those who make decisions without consulting and those who leave decisions to be made by their teams; this therefore implies that each leadership approach considers the environment and the behaviors to employ in different situations.

Personality and leadership

Duignan (2002) contends that a number of personal traits shared by successful leaders show the strong relationship between leadership and personal characteristics. In order for a leader to build a team with credibility and trust, he/she will look upon employees experience, positive emotional development and technical skills.

As a leader, an individual depends on other peoples skills, knowledge and experience. Therefore it is paramount to build progressive personal characteristics in a team. Environment and genetics influence personality which is not static but changes over time.

The concepts of personality that influences leadership include the ability to effectively communicate so as to instill direction for all stakeholders in an entity. Positive emotional thinking among all stakeholders in an organization enables a leader to align and build collaborative teams with responsibility and accountability. A good leader should be able to convert positive emotional behavior into self awareness, self management, societal awareness and relationship management for the appraisal of the entity.

All leadership works through emotions and as such a leader should modify ways and means to manage their own and other peoples emotions and drive the collective positive emotion in a positive direction and avoid the exposure of dangerous emotions. A leaders ability to manage his/her mood and to positively influence the moods of others has a dramatic effect on business results. It is therefore a worthy investment if an organization that chooses emotionally intelligent leaders.

Emotions help us cope with life. Automatic responses for example can affect our behavior in a negative or positive way. Feelings stimulate the brain to process certain information faster and this at times lead to poorly analyzed action because quick processing might disregard facts and common sense. The desire of positive emotional response from other people can alter the behavior of an individual to always try to be nice and to follow rules.

Beatty (2002) asserts that a leader should have effective interpersonal skill and high versatility so as to increase the chances of success. High versatility enables a leader to relate well with others so as to reduce the stakeholders tension as they reduce their own. A good leader therefore is emotionally intelligent, understands and manages moods and emotions within him/ her and within others. To do this, one needs to express and appraise their feelings.

In addition, emotions should also be used to enhance cognitive processes during the process of decision making. The aforementioned issues as they relate to interpersonal skills are very crucial in helping to develop joint objectives and goals. In addition, they also instill in others the discipline to appreciate the work of others, maintain enthusiasm, trust and cooperation, and enable individuals to exercise flexibility when establishing positive and meaningful identify at the workplace.

Conclusion

Deeper levels of self examination and purposeful communication with others allow leaders to develop creative and collaborative relationships among the stakeholders in any social setting. These conflicts can be resolved by maintaining friendliness among the parties in conflict, determining the source of problems and finding appropriate solutions to them, these will unite the conflicting parties.

Conflicts should not be assumed but rather solved in order to maintain unity and effectiveness of working environment. It is also important to note that conflicts are not problems but rather assists in dynamism and viability of the conflicting parties.

Seligman (1998) argues that personality plays a key role in leadership and effectiveness of interpersonal relationships. Positive personality is important in promoting effective communication skills among the stakeholders. This facilitates proper administrative and social relationships among the stakeholders of any entity. Good communication skills enable the juniors to report a problem or development of a project to the seniors without any fear of being belittled.

Reference List

Beatty, B., 2002, Emotion matters in educational leadership: Examining the unexamined. Doctoral Thesis, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Canada.

Covey, S. R.,1989, The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. New York: Fireside Duignan, P., 2002. Authenticity in Leadership in the Real World: Discover the Spirit; Encourage the Heart. Paper presented to the Association of Catholic School

Principals (NSW & ACT) Biennial Conference, Manly, May, 2002. Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. & McKee, A., 2002, The New Leaders, transforming the art Of leadership into the science of results. London: Little Brown.

Harris, A., 2002. Effective Leadership in Schools Facing Challenging contexts. School Leadership & Management, Vol. 22, No.1, pp. 15-26.

Malhotra, N. K., & Birks, D. F., 2003, Marketing Research, an Applied Approach. London: Pearson Education Company.

Oplatka, I., 2002. Women principals and the concept of bum out: an alternative voice, International Journal of Leadership in Education, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 211-226.

Seligman, M. E., 1998, Learned Optimism. New York: Pocket Books.

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