Why Emotions in The Workplace Rule

Why Emotions in The Workplace Rule

Do we see reality as it is, or as we feel at the time?
Don’t we all believe that we are objective - while others are emotional?
The world is right-brained and only I am rational and left-brained?

Wait. In a scientific study of physicians – 90% stated confidently they were
in the top 10% in knowledge and effectiveness. Aren’t half of them average?
No one rated himself or herself in the lower half. They were shocked to learn 33% of them were ranked below average by their hospital administration

Do the medical schools before graduation electrocute all the “average” students?

The Infamous 70/30 rule

Lawyers believe self-aggrandizing fantasies too. My experience is that some of the
most winning trial lawyers I know got a couple of “Fs” and “Ds” in law school.
Two of the best failed the Bar exam more than once. They got better with experience. But their confidence is built on a fantasy of reinforcing successes.

Educators never discuss the tested and proven 70/30 rule. It reminds us that 30%
of professional learners are “unsalvageable”. They just never get it. Yes, that high.
In Accounting For Lawyers – I tried twice and quit twice before they failed me.

Fact: what we Think has a dominant (up to 60%) effect on our Perceptions
(insights and intuitions). Example: you witness a Chase bank robbery. Your bias toward certain groups will influence your memory for the bum’s face and emotional
expression.

Sure, “seeing is believing”, but remember that “Believing-is-Seeing!” about other
people’s emotions. Our beginning interpretation strongly influences our later memories.

So What?

Fact: our body is the interface (merge/unite) where thoughts and perceptions
(insights and intuitions) meet up. We got embodied “cognition” and embodied
“emotion” linking up in our mind. There is no isolated “thinking” or “feeling”.

There is a blend of HOW and WHAT we think and feel. Please remember:
Emotions are contagious and virus-like; monkey see, monkey do.

Pay Attention to what you see and hear from your peers because they invade your
mind and you become copy-cats of their emotions. Not you, because you pay attention to your environment, right? Google: UCSD: 9.03.2010 Professor P. Winklelman.
Anger Management

Read this twice: your left-Frontal region of your brain is involved in experiencing
Positive emotions like joy and happiness. Lefty cooperates with your right-Frontal region of the brain, which processes Negative emotions like anger and stress.

One more step: your left-Frontal region is involved in experiencing emotions of
“closeness” (bonding). Wait. Your brain’s right-Frontal region is linked to emotions
where you experience “withdrawal”. Throwing Grandma under the wheels of the
moving bus is an aggressive form of withdrawal, right?

Ten Levels of Anger

We experience low levels of anger from 9-5pm, and so do our peers. Our power of
anger-management separates the successful executives from the other guys who never get the promotions.

Backwards

Level Ten anger is where you are totally Emotional and zero Rational. You are a danger to yourself and others. Ever see “red”? Your retina uses the cone and rod
photoreceptors and ganglia cells to blank out the other colors in our electromagnetic
field. Loss of vision (seeing red) occurs because the Optic Nerve has stopped communicating with the brain.

Level Nine anger: acting out your angry thoughts and feelings. Screaming, cursing
and using insulting words.

Level Eight anger: focus on getting even and retaliation. We lose the ability to analyze facts and modify our behavior. A split occurs between left and right hemisphere, reason and emotion, and consciousness and nonconsciousness.

Left brain maintains a veto-power over emotion which must be supported.

Anger

Anger increases heart rate, arterial tension and testosterone production. But,
Cortisol, the stress hormone decreases. Our left hemisphere gets more stimulated.

Anger activates an instinct to get closer to what caused the original anger. Why? We want to eliminate it; we experience a greater activation of our left-hemisphere.

Reward

Feeling anger makes us want to seek rewards. We pay more attention to rewards
than threats. Emotion affects what we pay attention to. When a peer at the workplace goes berserk which should be offered, words from the manager to calm
down or get out or a remembrance that he or she is up for a promotion?

Google: Hormone and Behavior journal 2010 (53) 276 DOI.
See: Sympathetic Nervous System, and activation of Fight-Or-Flight response.
See: Dr. William DeFoore on Anger Management.

Endwords

In a recent survey of corporate executives, 87% voted that their emotions are a result of an external causes like “behavior of other people”, circumstances and situations.

Fact: how we feel is a reflection of how we Think. Emotion expresses outwardly
what we Believe about our lives. Wait. Negative thoughts (mental imagery)
produce the Negative emotions of anger, hate and anxiety, and vice versa.

Emotion is not something that falls down on our head, it is caused by what we are doing and thinking. Get this: assuming health, feelings follow thoughts, not the opposite. Control (veto) negative thoughts leads to neutral or positive thinking.

Follow me – our feelings produce our behaviors. Our behaviors are (90%) responsible for our outcomes, huh?

Conclusion: habit is based on repetitious experiences; it turns many of our behaviors robotic. Pay attention to your typical reactions and exercise your willpower and cognition (thought processing) to create better habits.

Fear

Fear is creating a fantasy of Danger that is not happening in the present moment.

Behavior is motivated by both conscious and nonconscious desires. Our job is to
link (unite) left and right hemispheres, reason and emotion and consciousness
and nonconsciousness. It is brilliant to request counsel from your Internal Dialogue,
and accept responsibility for your emotions, thoughts and behaviors. Start now.

We are all a work-in-progress. Start now.

See ya,

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hardly finish one? Contact us for a free, no strings attached special speed reading
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copyright © 2010 H. Bernard Wechsler
www.speedlearning.org hbw@speedlearning.org
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