Encouraging Emotions at work

Real-Life experience of Mr. Sony Surana, MD for Creative Web Mall (India) Pvt. Ltd., curator of Creative Social Intranet.

How emotional intelligence is becoming vital to humans’ success in the increasingly digital future of work.
“Sometimes back, My office colleagues were returning home in an auto rickshaw on this rainy day. When the rickshaw cut across the traffic and slammed into a water pit. The auto rickshaw fell upside down and the people inside were startled, and concussed.
The first thing they did was to call me in office. I could have sent my office peon, as I was in between a group discussion. But I got a call, so without wasting any single moment, I rushed into their accident location. And proceeded to go with them for first aid, food, and some relaxation. I confirmed until they reached home safe.

I don’t know my kindness and emotional support would be remembered or not. But emotions at work are kind of taboo. Research shows that vulnerability is a key part of human connection. Your emotional wellbeing (i.e., your happiness) depends on human connection and is strongly tied to physical health and mortality. This sense of safety was a direct result of our team’s deliberate and intentional work.

The creative team has spent months building up shared vulnerability with long walks, awkward conversations, personal questions, and more. So, how do you build up this type of openness and vulnerability?

Here are three easy EI hacks to try on your team:

Role modeling:

Even though you are on a higher post, whatever your role is in your team if you start to share more about how you’re feeling, others will do the same thing as others, especially by following their example. You can start with something general like expressing your evening or weekend during a 1:1 and sooner you’ll be talking about your fears during team meetings or even company all hands.

Check-in rounds:

Start team meetings with check-in rounds where each teammate can share how they’re doing. Check-in rounds are a great way to build a habit of shared vulnerability.

Personal status updates:

Incorporate the personal side into daily standups or work updates — ask a specific question like “how are today” or “provide some food option like apple or pie” to lower the bar for people sharing. Even something as simple as sharing a picture or quote for the day on Creative Social Intranet can help start conversations about how people are doing.
These ideas are just the beginning. Encouraging emotions at work is a long term shift, and things like coaching and therapy can help you and your team build up these skills at a deeper level.

Creative Social intranet is one such initiative for bringing teams closer within an organization by sharing their personal experiences, feelings with other employees through blogs, news feeds, group discussions and more.