“EMOTIONS” is what makes us – Human beings. Being in product management & product marketing for most of my corporate career one thing which I always look for is the “USP” of any product or service. And when I apply the same question to us humans – What is our USP, among other species? I would say it is emotions, as human beings are the only animals who have a wide spectrum of emotions and we do express them unashamedly (Not sure even if other species have it, they may not be expressing the same to the extent we humans do).
We all want to be happy and remain like that forever, but we rarely are.
Something so central to our existence should be very powerful too, isn’t it? So, today let’s discuss the power of emotions. Before going down that path let’s understand the value chain of emotions –
Feelings (Input/triggers for emotions) <~~> Emotions <~~> Expressions (Output)
The beauty of the above value chain is that it is a two-way chain, meaning Expressions can act as input to drive certain feelings. Even in the above value chain Emotions form the central pivot. Emotions have the power to convert Feelings into expressions and vice versa. Such is the power of Emotions!
Anything so powerful will always have positive and negative attributes and effects. Thus, every second of our life and action is highly influenced and, in most cases defined by our emotions.
It is emotions that can drive us to move mountains and can also push us into the depth of depression and destruction. Are emotions just thoughts?
No, they are real chemical reactions involving our hormones and once triggered, they take some time to subside and most of the time are irrational e.g. people with impossible dreams and unrealistic goals are driven by their emotions, and the persons with a doomsday view of the world when nothing is happening outside are also driven by their emotions but both scenarios look absurd to an onlooker.
The power of emotions is like Nuclear Fusion – If you can learn to tap it and manage it, you have access to one of the most powerful tools ever known to humans. The capability of harnessing this power is called “Emotional Intelligence” or “Emotional Quotient (EQ)”. A science which has become very popular in recent times.
Organizations that are always looking for the right way to motivate employees, and mostly fail to find the same and use a very familiar but incorrect statement that “different things motivate different people” need to understand that it is emotions that motivate all of us. Organizations and their people managers have to learn – how to tap into this unlimited pool of power. How to measure the achievement – When employees start saying “TGIM (Thank god it is Monday)” instead of the widely used “TGIF (Thank god it is Friday)”.
I am leaving you with questions to ponder upon at the end of this write-up –
1. How can the organizations achieve the shift from “TGIF to TGIM”?
2. Will Artificial Intelligence ever conquer the final frontier of “Being Emotional”?
3. Can we even survive without emotions?
4. What can be done at an individual level to tap into this superpower?
Maybe topics for further discussions or would surely like to receive your thoughts and comments in response to this article.