51. The MOOD elevator: an instrument for human co-operation

It is quite something, human emotions! There is no doubt; they have a big impact on behavior, both on individual and on group level. Maybe this is one of the biggest challenges that we face in our attempt to create constructive behavior.  It seems therefore useful to focus on the way individual emotions multiply themselves in social environments, such as meetings. A good instrument to do this, is ‘the mood elevator’.

Emotions that are expressed in the presence of others create similar emotions in the heads of the people present. Of course, this happens with a varying intensity, depending on the personality. This mechanism is probably based on the work of the mirror-neurons in our brain that we needed in our earlier evolution states to survive as a mammal. If the pack-leader spots a danger i twill show in his non-verbal behavior, or even n sounds, that this creates an emotion. The rest of the pack picks up that emotion, and collective behavior of the pack is the result. The fight – flight reflex is probably one of the basic behavior patterns that determined pack behavior. The same mechanism is active in our contemporary relations. People who ventilate an emotion, for whatever reason, have an infecting impact on the emotions and behavior of others. That’s why we call this mechanism an ‘elevator’. A group of people in a meeting can become very emotional in a certain direction. A group can become aggressive, paranoia, passive, careful, … in the way they tackle a problem.

We can easily classify emotions in positive and negative as shown in this overview. They are mentioned in order of intensity, from weal-k to strong, or vice versa. Of course, this list can be completed with lots of other emotions; humans have lost of complex emotions.  (opposite to our mammal friends who seem to be more limited to a smaller number of basic emotions).

 This is how the ventilation of emotions in a meeting can have a strong impact on the results of a meeting. Outside meetings there is also an impact, but the impact is weaker because the non-verbal signals are not picked up. Maybe this is why some people prefer to have something discussed in a meeting, to have a bigger impact on people.

Emotions are picked up by people with an intensity that is part of their personality. Highly sensitive people look for environments with positive emotions (such as music concerts) and suffer more from context that radiate negative emotions. The bigger the number of people picking up the same emotion in a social environment, the more intense the group pressure becomes. This could explain the phenomenon of ‘hooliganism’ that sometimes appear with football games. The ’selection’ of people that attend events like that certainly has an impact. (looking for emotional stimuli, possible in compensation for other emotions).

This mechanism is also very relevant for leadership. When a person has a very important (informal) position in a team or organization has strong emotional input, this will be considered more important. The stronger the acceptance a leader has from the group (see ‘Join up’) the stronger the impact.

This leads to an interesting question: which emotion do you ventilate sometimes, regularly, most of the time, in your social environment? Of course, this emotion will be an important part of your internal world. Here are a few emotions that go further than just positive or negative, and that might be important in your role as a leader.

Excitement: as well positive as negative, excitement can be created in a group. Excitement means that the degree of emotional drive and motivation is increasing. Maybe this is a good contribution to motivation in a certain direction, but the question is: what is the quality of that direction?  It rather fits in a style of ‘manipulation’ and ‘obedience’ to motivate people in this way. ‘They will be less conscient and rational in the way they commit to a certain action. They get ‘carried away’. Possibly they realize later on that it was not a good idea and they start feeling guilty about what they did. Presumably every reader can come up with examples of leaders who used this technique. The well-known  “HALO” effect in meetings describes how actions can become unproductive even in consensus. (this word is derived from the Latin word, ‘consentire’, meaning: feeling the same)

Rest: This is about reducing the degree of emotions to get a more clear overview and understanding about the situation at stake. As people become less emotional, the number of stupidities will decrease…  Rest in our head allows more nuances to be considered, so we don’t forget important aspects and we do not ‘turn too close around the corner’. Creating rest therefor seems to be an important competence for people in a coaching role. Certainly when the issue is to ‘emotionally stabilize’ the coachee. (see elsewhere ‘The role of a coach’)

Hold: Creating hold in a situation has to do with direction, priorities, values, durability,…It allows people to find orientation; it works like a compass that is handed over to them. It makes it possible to create enthusiasm for a positive action that is rationally founded and is sense making. The emotion that could deliver energy then becomes less important than the ‘why’ behind the decision. When we use excitement we have exactly the opposite.  Emotion drives the behavior, mostly influenced by the momentum and/or by internal emotional instability. It is worthwhile to reconsider “passion” in this context; it could be a recipe for stupidities.

People who work with dogs or horses will recognize these concepts easily. Working with animals therefor is an excellent method to study your emotional impact and to learn how to control it. Practical applications can be found in the world of ‘natural Horsemanship’ or the methodology of horse-whisperers like Ceasar Millan.

The importance for leadership is clear. Maybe this is what is we understand by ‘charismatic leadership’; having a strong impact on people by using emotion. The question is: what is that emotion? It could be positive or negative. And it takes away the free will, the clarity of choice and the sense making. Charismatic leaders can be very convincing, but at the same time be very unethical in their intentions.

Leaders who have a strong focus on content (facts, figures, objectives, results,…) often make no use of this emotional dimension; the work outside this dimension. This could be a matter of habits, perhaps under the influence of the context (social pressure). But it could also be a lack of competences. In both cases they are missing the connection with people. People need the connection before the consider the content!! Relation always comes first in leadership. But when the motion lift pulls people in the wrong direction, we are not in good leadership, only in strong leadership.

Hugo Der Kinderen