Emotional Professionalism

Absolutely fascinating!!

In the work I've been doing on Bridging the Multigenerational Gap, the concept of Emotional Professionalism came up, so I started doing some exploring and what it led to was a huge discovery in human behavior that I wasn't expecting! 

In explaining Emotional Professionalism, Simon Sinek shares that it's one thing to acknowledge you're having a bad day, and another thing to sit in a meeting, grumpy, with your arms folded - non participative.

As I've learned through the EQ Project in Empowered Living, this would be the Self Recognition and Self Management aspects of Emotional Intelligence, in other words, understanding your emotions and managing the way you express them. 

Interestingly, Simon Sinek shares that typically, the more people advance in their careers, the less emotion they share, the perception being that expressing emotion is a sign of weakness. 

He goes on to say, some people are uncomfortable being vulnerable - in other words, being open to saying I'm not sure how to do that, or I'm not sure of the answer to that question, or can you help me.

And the discomfort in expressing those things is often driven by a fear that people will think you're not qualified for the job. 

Here's one of the reasons I find this fascinating: by putting up a wall of defense, rather than expressing emotions when we're unsure, or could really use some help - when we hold those emotions in and drive through them - I believe this is an impetus for Imposter Syndrome. 

Imposter syndrome is a gap between how other people see you, and how you see yourself.

It's when feelings of self doubt persist in a way that someone questions their skills and abilities regardless of their experience and accomplishments.

According to Psychology Today, around 70% of adults have experienced imposter syndrome at some point in their lives.

Often times, someone experiencing imposter syndrome operates under a high level of self induced pressure to perform.

That pressure can actually reduce our ability to effectively leverage some of the intellectual faculties that can help us produce our best work, like intuition, imagination, perception, and the ability to creatively  problem solve from the inside out. 

So the misperception that expressing vulnerability, or authenticity is a sign of weakness - actually weakens our ability to grow forward and operate at peak performance. Wow!

Simon shares the reality is that so often we're surrounded by people that are willing and want to help us - they just don't know we need it because we don't ask.

He also shares that being a good leader doesn't mean you need to be better at your job than the people around you. 

The reason I started exploring Emotional Professionalism and what I got out of it - wow, different things, but VERY MUCH related! Stay tuned, because I'm excited to share how!!