Succesful collaboration is built on a high level of emotional literacy.
Without the capacity to generate and sustain certain feelings, our ability to collaborate with others is not possible. By the time we reach adulthood and enter the workplace, our emotional repertoire has become habituated. Emotional habits are then fueled by our thinking process which is often fixed into patterns. Beliefs are the engine and outside events and social interactions trigger emotions.
Unless we consciously set out to explore and reshape our mindsets, we’re easily locked into patterns that make working with others, challenging.
Today’s workplace relies on flexible, learning-oriented collaborative relationships. Most organizations understand that without collaboration, real engagement is not possible.
Although we hear more today about the value of cooperation, we don’t hear much about the nuts and bolts of the how-to. The legacy of hierarchical, competitive-driven cultures is not collobaration friendly. And the emotions that many still put down as soft, are the very feelings that are the core of effective collaborative interactions.
Most of us are not schooled in the practice of the kinds of emotions that support collaboration. We do not get recognition or promotions for displaying appreciation or equanimity towards others – but these are the very feelings that promote an atmosphere of comfort, inclusion, creativity – and trust.
Neuroscience has shown that social-emotional learning goes on throughout adult life. Our early emotional learning does not have to determine how we relate to others. Since the brain is a social organ – and emotional contagion is real, how we relate in groups is always reinforcing and reshaping our personal and collective cognitive landscapes. Most of the time, it is done outside of our conscious awareness
Developing collaborative skills requires a high degree of emotional awareness and exceptional competencies of self-management and social intelligence.
The more we learn to cultivate the emotions that contribute to the collaborative process, the more we shift habituated interactions with others into more dynamic and authentic relationships.
All of these emotions, critical to real collaboration, are within our power to cultivate. Take stock and identify what emotions surface when you work with others. Developing your emotional repertoire is a powerful on-going commitment that will serve you well in every part of your life.
Thanks for reading.
Louise Altman, Partner, Intentional Communication Consultants
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