Employee Engagement Emotional Radar

Employee engagement obviously has a strong emotional component and it is heightened when authentic emotional connections occur at work. Emotional suppression or lack of authenticity can weaken, damage or even destroy engagement.

Daniel Goleman, the leading author on emotional intelligence, wrote a wonderful book on Social Intelligence.

Carefully read the following snippet from his section on, radar for insincerity:

Forthrightness is the brain’s default response: our neural wiring transmits our every minor mood onto the muscles of our face, making our feelings instantly visible. The display of emotion is automatic and unconscious, and so its suppression demands conscious effort. Being devious about what we feel — trying to hide our fear or anger — demands active effort and rarely succeeds perfectly.

The employee engagement moral to this snippet: We must be genuine in our connections with others if we expect our connections to have a positive impact on employee engagement and our moods and emotions will be communicated in all our interactions. Watch your own mood and be careful about emotional contagion at work.

Photo Credit: Radar by http://flickr.com/photos/benfrantzdale/1056282822/