For this week’s blog, we focus on tipping points, or
points where events and changes becomes significant enough to cause a larger,
more important change. For changes to occur however, two attractors are
required: positive emotional attractors (PEA) and negative emotional attractors
(NEA). PEA includes dreams, possibilities, and strengths whereas NEA includes fears
and weaknesses (Howard, 2006). While Boyatzis and Taylor (2015) states that NEA
are required to have people move from vision to action, a person must spend
more time with PEA in order to achieve a sustained desired change. Despite this
however, he adds that it is important for leaders to maintain balance between PEA
and NEA to make effective decisions (Boyatzis & Taylor, 2015).
A tipping point I recall is when I was working on my
past job as a summer camp employee. After a successful first year, I was
promoted as a coordinator and had more responsibilities: which included the
management of an entire camp and lower-leveled employees. Unlike the previous
year, the number of camp participants nearly doubled. In addition to having
around the same number of employees as the previous year, everyone was
struggling and exceptionally busy.
Likely due to the high levels of stress and lack of
employees, my coworkers and occasionally myself made a lot of mistakes and in
general was not performing to the expected standards. With the constant
mistakes, I was also progressively getting upset at myself and my coworkers. At
one point during the summer camp program, I was entering my exam week for
classes. Since my workplace had academics as their top priority, I had two
assistants take over my camp for the day while I was given a couple hours to
focus on my studies. At one point, one of the camp instructors interrupted and
notified me that a few students were missing and was needed to complete an
activity. Already stressed from studying, I ended up getting into an argument
with my assistants: blaming them for their mistakes.
With the constant arguments and negative emotions, I
started to notice that workplace performance and relationships were getting
worse. I eventually reached the tipping point when my boss called me into his
office for a talk. I was worried, thinking I’d lose my job, but instead he thanked
me for my so-far work efforts and pointed out some areas that needed some
fixing on. While the talk made me feel better, it also made me think about the
way I treated my coworkers. At this stage, I was able to identify NEA and PEA: I
became more aware that everyone was stressed and that treating them negatively
is only making things worse. Inspired by how my boss treated me, I then decided
to get in a better habit to stay positive, even during the most difficult times.
This is critical for leaders, as study finds that positivity help improve relationships
and overall work outcomes (Fredrickson, 2011). In the end, I was able to
apologize for my behavior on the two assistants and we improved on
communication.
References:
Boyatzis, R. E., Rochford, K., & Taylor, S. N.
(2015). The role of the positive emotional attractor in vision and shared
vision: Toward effective leadership, relationships, and engagement. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 670.
doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00670
Fredrickson, B. (2011). Barbara Fredrickson: Positive
Emotions Open our Mind [Video File]. YouTube.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dFDHzV36g&feature=youtu.be
Howard, A. (2006). Positive and negative emotional attractors
and intentional change. Journal of Management
Development, Vol. 25 Issue: 7, pp.657-670
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