By Diana Moss
April 21, 2011
Have you ever tried to win an emotional argument with logic? If you have, I am guessing you lost that one. Trying to meet someone’s need for emotional understanding with logic, or someone’s need for logical understanding with emotion simply doesn’t work. Depending on the situation, we humans want to hear facts when we want facts and we want to feel an emotional response when we are emotional, and often we want both.
Logic often rules the workplace. Even with many management books written on the subject of Emotional Intelligence over the past fifteen years, leaders still find it challenging to build both rational and emotional commitment among their employees. Doing so is a key component of employee engagement. According to the Corporate Executive Board, strengthening an employee’s rational commitment and emotional commitment increases performance and retention; two things that all organizations want to achieve.
It is important to look for ways to build rational commitment, what employees think, and emotional commitment, how employees feel, about their supervisors, their work, and the company as a whole. This takes awareness and an ongoing conscious effort by leaders and the organization.
A great opportunity to strengthen employee rational and emotional commitment and to increase employee engagement is through the day-to-day interaction between supervisors and employees. Here are a few ideas to get you started: