Leaders can show Emotions

Let’s talk about emotions, and what I mean by that in this case is emotions when you are leading people. For example, when you have to convey a message or when somebody speaking to you. Should you show your emotions or not?

Recently for the last few months, I have been exposed to a few people who ask me if it's okay to show emotions when you're leading. Should you be calm and content in every situation and never really show anything on the surface?

Here are my thoughts. First, I will give you a background on my thinking. Studies show that of the message that people receive from you, 7% of that message comes from the words, you say. 38% comes from the tone of your voice, how you use your voice, how you push, etc. 55% from your body language. So imagine when you convey your message and try to create a sense of urgency. How do you now do that? If you take away your body language and the tone of your voice because you don't want to convey any feelings in the message, do you leave basically the 7% left for the receiver?

No, you actually don't because what people are going to hear is you say it's very urgent, but you're going to look like a person who thinks it's not. That's really what I believe. Let us know in the comments, what do you think?

A little bit of pushing the voice, just a little bit, not creating drama, but to show how you feel about this specific subject. I don't think it's a bad idea. There's another side to it because I have been thinking a lot about managers I had in the past and people, maybe I should say that I met in the past. The people that I met in the past, who don't show anything, the face is still, nothing happens. You just told them that we just won a million dollars, nothing. I don't know how people can do that, but it's a little bit impressive. I think parts of me think it's impressive, but for me, it creates anxiety. Because the person is not reacting. You expect them to react somehow, and they don't react at all.

I believe It's hard for the person speaking to somebody who doesn't react at all. Again, you have a chance to comment to me and explain to me how awesome it is when you try to convey an important message when the receiver doesn't seem to react to it.

For me, it's important that they do. I read micro expressions on peoples faces a lot. I learned that they are very generic around the world. Body language is not, and it's not universal, so every person has a different type of body language.

I would love to hear from you. What do you think? Is it better? And is it a more safer work environment for people to work around a manager or leader who shows a bit of emotion?

We are not talking about drama, we are not talking about aggression or scaring people. It's just showing that you're present.

I use a Key principle for communication:

Listen and respond with empathy.

It's a key communication tool for me.

How do you do that without showing any emotions? Well, maybe I can learn something new from you all. Let me know in the comments again. Thank you so much for reading.

Johan Majlov

CEO Lean Dimensions International

Email: [email protected]