Unlock Passion at Work: How Validating Emotions Fuels Success and Builds Stronger Teams

It’s okay for someone to be pissed off at work. It’s okay to show emotions.

What’s not okay is to dismiss or diminish someone elses feelings.

It’s an outdated and harmful practice to tell your teams to hide their emotions.

Things happen at work. People can spend 30% of their lives at work. And suppressing who we are as humans during that time can hurt people psychologically. And it’ll hurt your business.

How do you feel when something like this happens 👇

– A 30 minute meeting turns into a 2 hour one – You disagree with a new project direction – You lose a big sale or account

If youre like me, it’ll raise your blood pressure. And youll start thinking of all the smartass things you want to say.

Your team feels the same way.

As a leader, you dont want to shut that down. Because the flip side of anger is passion. What theyre really saying is:

– They have strong opinions on how to make things work – They care deeply about the success of the company – They value how they spend time in their role

So when you see someone whos angry, sad, pissed off, or jealous…its time to lean in. Because shutting down the emotion is how you kill their passion.

Talk about their emotions. Validate them. Help them uncover their underlying motivation.

Be a great leader and teach them better self-regulation and communication skills. Teach them to channel that emotion into action that will get them what they want.

Theyll love you for it. (another great emotion 😉)