Prevent Emotional Contagion on Your Team

There was a time when emotional outbursts at work were rare, but research shows that people are having more frequent emotional episodes, with one in four experiencing strong anger, sadness or frustration on any given workday. Unfortunately, studies show that our ability to cope with others' emotions is declining. The result is that we are trying to dig out from a bigger avalanche with a smaller shovel. 

What's behind this trend? The sources of growing emotional disregulation are diverse. There’s the impact of the news and social media algorithms rewarding increasingly inflammatory content, the dread associated with existential threats posed by climate change or artificial intelligence (AI) I and the stress of parenting the most socially anxious generation of children ever. All that, plus the standard performance pressure in any organization. 

To make matters worse, emotions aren't neatly contained within one individual. Teams are susceptible to emotional contagion, in which one person’s emotions unconsciously spread to others, even in virtual meetings. That means one person’s bad morning is one team meeting away from spreading doom and gloom across the whole group. 

Please select this link to read the complete article from SmartBrief.