Are you responsible for your team’s emotions?

Some people resist accepting a management role because they don’t want to be responsible for how other people feel.

Hey, I understand this.

People bring life’s baggage to the workplace. Feelings get hurt over simple misunderstandings. Difficult decisions cause real discomfort.

You’re not trained to be a counselor or therapist. You’re their manager.

It’s not your job to fix feelings and prevent discomfort. It’s not your responsibility to govern people’s reactions to necessary decisions or feedback.

At the same time, there is a role for you to play.

As the leader of your team and a member of management, you can influence the work environment, including workload and stress levels. You can control how you deliver feedback, showing fairness and respect. You can develop your own emotional intelligence to recognize when it’s time to show grace and when it’s time to invite people to challenge themselves to greater growth.

You can model what it looks like to be vulnerable and admit mistakes, setting an emotional tone for your workplace culture.

If you’d like to go deeper in exploring your role in your team’s emotions, let’s talk. Visit stevedwire.com/talk to start the conversation.