Monday, November 16, 2009

Let's get emotional!!

Do you find yourself trying to act more remote/emotionless in public than usual?

With such stereotypes such as "women are emotional" and "professional means serious and always calm", have we left a critical and strategic piece of ourselves behind?

In the recent Toronto Star articles around the evolving neuroscience and education debate, the issue is raised that folks who have lost the ability (due to accident or illness) to experience emotion cannot make decisions.

And yet, our professional cultures often praise those who remain rational, logical and remove emotion from the equation. Meaning they are not making a true decisions that uses all the tools and faculties required for good decision making?

In our efforts to be more professional, have we forgotten that we are creatures of emotion and need (and that's ok as long as it isn't draped across your desk every moment)?

We feel - from the C-suite executive to the artist in the underheated church basement - every look and remark. We choose to respond or not and how.

I'm not suggesting the Return of the Drama Queen. Far from it. But perhaps our difficulty in making genuine connections across our networks is the limits we set on the emotion we allow ourselves to both express and accept?

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