Discussion Question – Managing Emotions

There are times when you are hurt, defensive, joyous, reserved, controlled, or angry. Acting professionally means controlling your emotions. While outbursts are unwelcome as a way of communicating or expressing yourself, emotions are important indicators of authenticity and can be reflections of the ethical and cultural foundations of an organization.

For the first part of your post:

Compare two leaders you are familiar with, one who managed emotion well and one who did not manage emotion well. Provide specific examples to support your stance on the emotional management of these leaders. How did their emotional management affect the organization?

For the second part of your post, select any one of the following bullet points. Attempt to spread the bullet points out among class members (e.g., not have one bullet point answered by all course participants).

• Assess how a leader can most effectively manage emotions in the workplace.  As a leader, how can one show appropriate emotional self-control or leverage emotions for organizational benefit?
• Propose a research-supported policy or guideline statement (three or four action items) an organization might adopt concerning emotional expression in the workplace. How would such a policy enhance organizational culture? How would such a policy enhance ethics in the organization?
• Propose a brief set of coaching points for how leaders should handle a situation where an employee or a customer is extremely emotional to an unprofessional point?

Conclude your post with a three or four sentence summary of the most important point, lesson or takeaways from your research and analysis for your initial post.

Provide a substantive (500–1,000 words) initial discussion posting. Justify your answers with examples and reasoning. Comment on the initial postings of at least two peers. Your responses to other initial posts must be a 100 to 200 word minimum each.