Leaders managing big emotions within a team.
When emotions turn into frustration and anger towards other team members, as leaders, we can see how that creates divisions within a team. There becomes an “us vs them” mentality that slows down productivity and raises tensions within a team.
People want to shut down, work in silos and end up feeling unsafe because of the negative tension. But just because there are big emotions, doesn’t mean it has to create divisiveness.
Navigating a lot of emotions within a team can feel overwhelming and create uncertainty within a leader. Especially if there are things staff wants to know but leadership cannot share. But we can see it as an opportunity to create cohesion if we know how to manage it properly.
I was fortunate enough to interview my friend Brendan Simon who is the Artistic Director of Theatre First in Berkeley California and the Learning and Development Lead for Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre in Northern California.
As a business consultant who helps develop team cultures, I’ve gotten to work with Brendan and his people. His purposefulness and kindness for his team showed me he is a true leader.
In this clip, he shares with us what he did to bring together a team that was feeling a lot of negative emotions around a situation.