Here is something simple to consider, a two-part question we pose in every one of our speaking engagements on “Igniting Human Potential”. First we ask the audience how many of you have good days and bad days? To this date, essentially 100% of those in attendance raise their hands. After a fun conversation on bad days, we ask, “What typically happens around you when you are having a good day?”  The responses of course are always quite similar, “it’s contagious”, “people smile”, “people want to be around me”, “it inspires others to have a good day.” To wrap this piece we make a thought provoking point by asking audiences to have more good days and remind them that having a good day is simply a matter of choice; this always brings a smile to everyone’s face.

In their book Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence, Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee write, “…people in groups at work inevitably catch feelings from one another, sharing everything from jealousy and envy, to angst and euphoria.” They go on to discuss a study at Yale University School of Management that found “…among working groups, cheerfulness and warmth spread most easily, while irritability is less contagious.” This being said, with all the recent studies on the relationship between happiness and workplace well-being with associate engagement, understanding the power of emotions in the workplace is essential. The correlation between how the associates feel about the company they work for and the resulting performance of the organization has been empirically proven time and again. And equally as palpable is the influence leaders have on the attitudes of their associates and ultimately how they feel about the organization. In Primal, the authors write “…quite simply, in any human group the leader has maximal power to sway everyone’s emotions and if people’s emotions are pushed toward the range of enthusiasm, performance can soar!”

Are you truly aware of how your associates feel? Is your assessment accurate? How intentional are you being about the emotions in your workplace? Are you full of hope, optimism, diligence and resolve about the future and the positive difference each individual and the collective enterprise is going to make in the world? Do you smile?