When Business Owners Are Cut Off From Emotion, They Make Bad Decisions

Recognize that emotions exist! It is not having the feelings that are the problem, it is how we learn to manage and understand them.

The Case Study:

I walked into a client’s office for our appointment.  No sooner had I knocked on the door to announce my arrival with “Hi, how are you today?” than she quickly turned and emphatically retorted “How am I?  How am I?  I am overwhelmed and exhausted.  The children need to be picked up, and I have one of the biggest deals unfolding today.  I am having a terrible time with this negotiation.”

Her logical thinking was being completely derailed by her feelings.   I asked her to take three deep breaths and just to take a pause from all thoughts and feelings about the situation.  I acknowledged and empathized with how difficult the situation was.  After being able to calm down and have an intelligent conversation, we were able to get clarity about what was real in her knowledge of the issues involved and to separate that from her feelings.

The Outcome:

We know that making a decision based purely on knowledge, or based purely on emotion, is always the wrong decision, but by employing three strategies we were able to come up with a new equation that got to the heart of the matter.

The very first thing we needed to do was to take a pause.  The second thing we needed to do was to acknowledge and empathize with her feelings.  The third and final step in the process is that she needed to do a body and mind scan and in so doing ask three questions:  “What am I thinking?”, “What am I feeling?” and “How can we come up with a new response that incorporates both intellect and emotion?”

As a result of this process, our client was able to navigate her emotions, navigate her client’s emotions and close the deal with great success!

How do you manage emotion? Need some new coping and management skills?

As a Certified Business Coach and Emotional Intelligence leader, I can help!