By Pearson Mbendera
Each and every day we have to make decisions about many things. Even if you have nothing to do, it is a decision you make when you end up spending the rest of the day in bed. You would have decided it somehow. How we end up making those decisions is very important, because our thought process may be tainted by one thing or the other. Many a times, our emotions are to be blamed for making rush and stupid decisions, to the point that, in businesses people rarely resort to making decisions out of emotions, but sometimes, going with your emotions might be exactly what you need to do.
Business is no place for emotions. A friend of mine, after having been confronted by a boss to the point that he was avoiding him was later told by another boss not to take it personally. But is it even possible, can you separate the human part of you-that is the emotions and feelings- just so you can be a better worker. I think not.
They say emotions cloud judgment, which is true. Sometimes they are, I won’t lie about that, but we all have emotions so why not make them work for us. Perception is reality and for that reason things are as we see them. Pretty much how we perceive things is driven by our own emotions, and no matter how hard you may try, you will never be able to separate the two. And sometimes you don’t even need to, you just need go with it.
Back in January I was working for this other firm and it was draining all my energy. I was always tired and considering there was little production made at the company and little money being made at the day, there was no reason for my being tired always. Only after I had written an article titled, http://newsofthesouth.com/i-hate-my-job-but-am-i-the-only-one/ did it actually dawn on me how much this job was making me feel? 3 days later I handed my boss a resignation letter, and never really looked back, and to this day, I don’t regret such a decision.
Generally I am a laid-back kind of person when it comes to an emotion that was one emotional decision I made at work that I was happy with. Not that the other emotional decisions didn’t work for me, but in that I kept them all to myself. And it took offloading my emotion on paper for me to actually realize what I was supposed to do.
Truth is our careers or business ventures may actually be born out of our emotions. Sometimes we do things because we are passionate about it, no big deal, why then should we second guess our emotions when they got us to do what we do in the first place. Sometimes there is no right or wrong, it’s just about how it feels to us. Who cares if the decision you make may not be viewed as the best decision by someone else, if it feels right to you, then it is the right decision you were supposed to make.
But this concept is more limited to personal decisions; it is not advisable to put the future of an organization in jeopardy just because you went out on an emotional journey when it would have been more practical and more beneficial for everyone else not to.
If you go through business psychology or career advisors’ help material, they are encouraging people to be more emotionally intelligent, which is to have a better understanding of feelings. This attribute, is said to enable people to succeed in life, including having great self-awareness, empathy, self-confidence and self-control. Without understanding your own emotions, you will spend your entire day throwing temper tantrums at work to people who don’t even care what it is you are feeling inside.
And when it comes to making emotions work for you, that doesn’t necessarily mean let all of them out. But better manage them. If you are short tempered, find ways to avoid unleashing the temper beast in you when it might not be required. That might mean avoiding face to face confrontations and resorting to emails so that you may be able to present a better side of you on a written note than you would have done through your mouth by saying things you would regret later.
So get to know yourself better. What kind of a person are you? Once you are able to fully answer these questions will you be able to make decisions that suit you. You will be surprised where this will take you, but in the end, you will be glad how things would have ended for you.
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