Although many times we believe that what we feel and experience depends on the events that occur around us, the truth is that this is a half truth. It also depends on the way in which we interpret reality, and the way in which we manage our emotions and in which we decide where to focus our attention.
From this fact arises the concept of emotional awareness, an important term in the world of psychology and coaching. Precisely about this the person we interviewed in the following lines will speak to us, Montse Sans, from the European School of Coaching, who has extensive experience training people and intervening in companies.
Interview with Montse Sans, from the European School of Coaching: emotional awareness
Montse Sans is Director of the European School of Coaching in the Valencian Community and coache in the same entity, as well as trainer and supervisor of the Certification in Executive Coaching program. In this interview he talks about the concept of emotional awareness.
Are our actions motivated by our emotions or is it the other way around, are our emotions motivated by our actions?
Human beings, at least most of us, live in the fallacy that we are "observers" of "reality", and yet what we do is "interpret" what we observe. We think that this interpretation we make gives rise to judgments and opinions that provoke our emotions.
But the emotions were already there. From the time we get up until we go to bed, we are always in a state of excitement. The actions that we carry out during the day always start from an emotion. What happens is that, depending on the emotion we are in, the derived behaviors will have a more or less effective result. Clearly, this is a feedback process.
Is it possible to develop something like an addiction to a feeling or emotion?
Yes, it is something that some people do: always and only show certain emotions and not others. In this sense, the interesting thing is to realize what is the emotion that we do not allow ourselves.
All of us need to have a good level of emotional awareness because as long as we are able to identify what emotion or feeling I am in at any given moment, I will be able to understand why some of my behaviors and, therefore, the reason for some of the results that I am obtaining.
In the world of organizations and the business world in general, what can be the negative consequences of not knowing how to identify emotions well?
In the world of organizations, until recently, very little attention has been paid to emotional awareness. We have spent a lot of time and effort hiding emotions, which has caused a certain deficit of understanding not only from others, but also from ourselves.
Today we already know that emotions are the key to the key to certain behaviors and behaviors. We have gone one step further and now we not only know that it is necessary to know the emotion but we also know that we can modify and manage it.
The management of the individual emotions that are generated in the thought of each one of us from our paradigms have their faithful and parallel reproduction in what happens in the business culture that is full of paradigms that generate certain collective emotions and, at their Instead, they generate certain behaviors and behaviors of people and, therefore, of systems.
What are the most common risks to which a leader who does not know how to manage his emotions well is exposed?
Without a doubt, the greatest risk is emotional blindness. A leader, as well as any of us in our respective roles as manager, father, mother, friend ... we have to do a job of self-reflection for the knowledge of our own emotions and we have to work on our emotional self-regulation.
The key is to understand what has generated the emotion. Therefore, it is not about "controlling" that emotion (as it was said before that was convenient) but about knowing and accepting to regulate the emotion that appears so that we are able to reverse the process that generated it to be capable, in turn, to generate a different emotion and chosen by us, that seems more useful and more powerful for new behaviors.
When training people in management and emotional awareness, which key ideas are the most important? And the ones that are often overlooked?
Until recently, we have been using the term "emotional control". Depending on the context and culture, certain emotions were not "well regarded." Today we know that the emotional is decisive.
It is not about covering the emotion or trying to avoid it. Management and emotional awareness is about understanding emotion and accepting it because only from that point of view will we be able to learn and take different actions to achieve better results.
On the other hand, having emotional awareness I will be able to intervene in the emotion, I will be able to go back in the steps that have given rise to this emotion to understand what interpretations and opinions have given rise to what I feel.
And finally, what tools and strategies have proved useful in modulating our emotions well and making them play in our favor?
Know that there are no positive or negative emotions, that all emotions are useful and that they have a certain purpose. Also understand that all emotions carry positive intention. For example, anger helps us set limits; fear helps us to take precautions ...
Emotions inform us of valuable matters. Understanding what the message that emotion brings is the first step to be able to become aware and manage it. This is the key to management and emotional awareness.
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