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Chapter 1: Emotions and Reasoning at Work
Rule of Reason or Rule of Emotion?
Throughout The Emotionally Intelligent Manager, we argue that the integration of rational and emotional styles is the key to successful leadership. It is clear that good decisions require emotional and logical skills. But too much of one or the other, or the incorrect application of either, can present problems. (Determine your approach with the help of Exhibit 1.1.)
Indicate whether you agree or disagree with each of the statements below: |
It is important to control emotions at work. Decisions need to be made on logical and rational grounds. People should try put their personal feelings aside. |
Overly emotional people don’t fit in well in the workplace. Expressing feelings should be limited. |
Emotional awareness is less important than logical thinking. At work, people should emphasize logic over feeling. |
If you agree with these statements, then you are endorsing the rule of reason in the workplace. You probably value rational, logical thinking, and although you can be emotional, you are able to control your emotions so that they don’t control you. |
If you disagree with these statements, then you are endorsing the rule of emotion in the workplace. Perhaps you find emotions to be an integral part of your work-life and are not able to separate thinking and feeling. |
Does it matter? Endorsing the rule of reason or the rule of emotion suggests something important about your management style. |
We all know that emotions can derail us. We have seen this time and time again, both in the business world and, even more so, in the world of sports. Consider two cases, one from professional tennis and the other from professional golf. Tennis player Althea Gibson was neither physically nor financially healthy during the last years of her life. She had fallen from the peak of her career to become a worker in the local recreation department in one of the less wealthy cities in the area. Perhaps this should not be much of a surprise, as she had lived, early on, a self-described “wild” life. She dropped out of school and, after failing to win one of her first tournaments, almost decided to leave the sport.[1] There is more to her story, as we shall see. During the British Open in July, 2001, golfer Ian Woosnam’s caddie, Miles, made a fatal error: he had placed an extra driver in the bag, costing Woosnam a two-stroke penalty. Woosnam threw the extra club on the ground in anger, and his frustration led him to bogey the next two holes.
One might think that it was Gibson’s lack of emotional control and Woosnam’s frustration that hurt their games. But there is quite a bit more to these stories. Althea Gibson won fifty-six international tournaments and five Grand Slams. These achievements would be enough to label Gibson as a real talent, but what makes her so remarkable are the obstacles she faced and overcame in order to be allowed even to set foot on the courts. She was born in South Carolina into a sharecropper’s family but soon moved with her family to the Harlem section of New York City. Having been discovered and mentored for her tennis abilities, Gibson became a highly motivated and very disciplined tennis player. But Gibson wanted more. She wanted to compete on a larger playing field, namely, on the grass courts of the all-white country clubs and associations that were closed to African Americans. After years of struggle, Gibson became (in 1950) the first African American ever to play in the U.S. national tournament. Some years later, she would also become the first African American woman to hold a membership card in the women’s professional golf group, the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
Retiring at the peak of her career in order to make ends meet, she never made it big financially. Gibson later became a coach and mentor to hundreds of kids over the course of many years, working in the East Orange New Jersey Recreation Department. She never sought the limelight, nor did she attempt to become a spokesperson for a cause. Instead, she faced each struggle with determination and provided young kids, who might have reminded her of herself as a child, with a hope and a dream and a belief in self. Gibson’s emotions did not sideline her, they helped her. There is also more to the story of the forgetful caddie. The expectation was that the caddie would be fired on the spot. Asked about the caddie’s error after the game, Woosnam said, “It is the biggest mistake he will make in his life. He won’t do it again. He’s a good caddie. I am not going to sack him. He’s a good lad. He should have spotted it. Maybe he was a little bit nervous. It is the ultimate sin for a caddie.”[2] Woosnam seems to have been able to take the feelings of frustration and use them in a constructive manner. He did not forget them nor did he try to deny them; instead, he integrated them into his play and into his thinking. His decision not to fire Miles also shows sophisticated thinking and reasoning that included emotion. So what if Woosnam was a decent guy on the links? What counts is performance, and in golf it’s quite easy to measure performance. For this reason, it’s interesting to note that Woosnam recovered his game that day and finished an even par, narrowly missing a chance to win the Open. Woosnam might not be one of golf’s all-time greatest, but he won the Masters at Augusta in 1991 and was the oldest player to win the Wentworth Cup in 2001. Would Woosnam have been better off if he had immediately fired the errant caddie? The final postscript to this story is that the caddie was indeed fired a few weeks after this incident when he slept late and missed a tee-time! [1]For information on Althea Gibson, see Thomas, R. M., Jr. “Althea Gibson, the First Black Player to Win Wimbledon and U.S. Titles, Dies at 76.” New York Times, Sept. 29, 2003, p. B8, and also Hasday, J. L. Extraordinary Women Athletes. New York: Children’s Press, 2000. [2]Brown, C. “Case of the Caddie Who Couldn’t Count.” New York Times, July 23, 2001 (late ed., East Coast), p. D.4.
