"Emotions Drive People, and People Drive Performance"
"Emotions Drive People, and People Drive Performance"
He or she is able to cope with optimal levels of stress and conflict. The emotionally healthy person maintains a positive approach to life that is rooted in his/her sense of personal responsibility for, and ability to manage, his/her life in personally fulfilling ways.
An emotionally healthy individual:
• Is capable of adapting to changing situations and exhibiting resiliency in stressful situations
• Feels that his or her basic needs are being met both at home and in the workplace.
• Is self‐aware and accepts a wide range of feelings in self and others
• Is tolerant of ambiguity, flexibility and is adaptable to change
• Can function autonomously while remaining cognizant of self limitations
• Accepts challenges and risks and acknowledges conflict and optimal levels of stress as being potentially health
• Effectively manages to arrive at personal decisions based upon the integration of feelings, cognition and behavior
• Forms interdependent relationships based upon mutual commitment, trust and respect
Emotional health exists along a continuum . At one end of this continuum employees can sustain high levels of functioning and are emotionally healthy. The opposite end of the continuum is characterized by low‐functioning and emotionally unhealthy individuals. Furthermore, individuals who experience diagnosable physical or behavioral health problems (e.g., major depressive disorder or anxiety disorders) may also function on this low‐ functioning end of the continuum. Between these end points lie individuals showing moderate symptoms, as well as those employees who may be at‐risk for becoming emotionally unhealthy in the future.
Several factors are influencing and being influenced by each other in varying amounts at different times. When applied to employee or employee groups within a workplace, these variables include:
• Degree of engagement with one’s job
• Energy and vigor
• Flexibility and adaptability
• Level of motivation and engagement
• Personal and work‐related control
• Resiliency
• Tolerance for ambiguity
These factors provided the foundation for what are perhaps the most fundamental concepts of workplace emotional health: functionality and engagement. In other words, the bottom line is about being able to sustain a desirable level of functioning in the workplace, and remain fully engaged in work in the midst of various pressures, stressors and changes.