An emotionally intelligent organization needs to come to terms with any disparities between the values it proclaims and those it lives. Clarity about an organization’s values, spirit and mission leads to a decisive self-confidence in corporate decision-making. An organizational mission statement serves an emotional function: articulating the shared sense of goodness that allows us to feel what we do together is worthwhile. Working for a company that measures its success in the most meaningful ways — not just the bottom line — is itself a morale and energy raiser.
Managing Emotions Well
One largely ignored pulse of an organization’s viability can be read in the typical emotional states of those who work there. Sounding the depths of emotional currents in an organization can have concrete benefits. Consider a gas plant division at Petro Canada, the country’s largest oil and gas refining company. “Guys in the gas plants were having a wave of accidents, some fatal,” said a consultant who was called in to help. “I found that in the macho culture of the petrochemical industry, guys never acknowledged their feelings. If someone came to work hung over, preoccupied over a sick child or upset by a spat with his wife, his workmates would never ask how he was doing that day or if he was OK enough to be sharp on the job. The result would be that the guy would be inattentive and cause an accident.” With this basic insight into the human cost of ignoring emotions on the job, the company initiated a series of workshops for crews “to get them to see that how they are feeling has consequences — that this matters. They saw that they had to look out for each other, and they were doing themselves and everyone else a favor if they checked in about how they were doing. If someone was off that day, they needed to say to him, ‘I don’t think I can work with you today.’ And their safety record improved.”
Exerpt from "Working with Emotional Intelligence" --Daniel Goldman
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