Emotional awareness and managing uncertainty

Interest in the emotional dimension is growing steadily in the world of organisations. There was a time when managers were required to leave emotions out of the work and only deal with concrete matters, but nowadays, fortunately, the scenario has definitely changed. Many studies confirm that certain aspects of emotional intelligence are predictive of effective performance, and the belief that the presence of emotionally intelligent managers is a strategic advantage for companies is finally beginning to take hold. Considerations that are particularly important today in a global scenario characterised by great uncertainty.

Emotions are an extraordinarily important natural endowment, perfect mechanisms that have been refined over the course of our species’ evolution. Their particular efficacy lies in their ability to put us in a position to produce effective responses to protect our psychophysical equilibrium, automatically, thus in the absence of cognitive mediation. But this efficacy is lost if, for some reason, we fail to identify a trigger. The most recent example of this is what each of us experienced during the first period of the pandemic, a condition more akin to anxiety than fear, because the danger came from an undefined enemy, about which not even the experts were able to express certainty. Anxiety, unlike fear, is a typically human manifestation because it projects itself in time, towards a future imagined as dangerous, even in the absence of a real threat. It is important to understand this difference: emotions have a defined time and a defined trigger, this peculiar characteristic of theirs is what distinguishes them from a mood, a mood or a feeling, which are behavioural manifestations prolonged in time and largely influenced by subjective and cultural components. Only in this way can we understand the adaptive function of emotions, which have evolved with the precise aim of protecting us and ensuring our life balance in the face of environmental aggression.

Developing a good awareness of our emotions can however help us in situations of uncertainty, when it becomes necessary to know how to accept a phase of inevitable disorientation. Working on ourselves is therefore the first important step to take, because it is true that we are no longer subject to the dangers that threatened our ancestors on a daily basis, but our organism continues to be programmed to react automatically, and this happens even when faced with threats that are only imagined, but perceived as absolutely real by our mind. This awareness is the basis of a pathway that teaches how to recognise one’s emotions, understand their causes and meaning, and then manage them. Only after this first phase is it possible to learn to recognise and know how to manage the emotions of those who relate with us, a skill that proves to be truly strategic in moments of uncertainty.

All this can be conveyed through specific training for people who have to know how to manage these situations within organisations. Today, this type of activity is particularly important in the face of a scenario marked by instability, profound changes in the lives of all of us and the inevitable questioning of many old certainties. It is quite normal, therefore, that in situations where a picture of uncertainty prevails, fear is evoked. Fear is probably one of the emotions most involved, but it is not necessarily the only one, careful analysis of situations often reveals other components such as anger or sadness for example. Understanding these differences is crucial for proper management of these phenomena.

The affluent life of modernity has long cultivated the illusion of being able to eliminate all discomfort, all fatigue, all fear; the current scenario reminds us instead, in all its harshness, that this is not possible. Listening to our emotions, and the awareness derived from them, represents a great opportunity to become a little wiser and a little stronger day after day.

Article by Diego Ingrassia