Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Marija Kovljenić, Media Manager, Direct Media Serbia
Emotions largely govern our lives, although we are not always aware of it or don’t want to admit it. You just need to look around yourself, and it’s almost certain that you will see someone who at that very moment is experiencing some emotion. Here, even this text awakens different feelings, both in me writing it, and in all of you reading it.
For most people work is not the first thing that comes to mind when you mention ‘emotion’, although, paradoxically, work causes certain kinds of emotions in every single person. So what is emotion when it comes to business? And how smart is it to show emotion in the workplace? Don Hayes once said that emotions are the worst enemy of the stock market. Fortunately for us, we don’t work on the stock exchange, and feelings, when our business is concerned, can often be very good friends to us, provided that we notice them, recognize them and understand their purpose.
The mantra of success and survival in the business world in recent decades is based on that, sometimes innate, but more often the skill of emotional intelligence that has to be learned – on the skills to manage our emotions and to interpret the emotions of others. Knowing the right way to use the information given to us by emotion has become more important in achieving a business objective than academic training or work experience. Emotional intelligence today is complementary to the established prerequisites of business success. It helps us to create good relationships, to fit in with others and that others fit into our world.
In the world of media, marketing, agencies and clients there’s a lot of emotions – different ones. And it’s good that it’s so. And although I’m certain that when it comes to emotional intelligence we are leading the way as a profession, even in this profession there are those who need to work on it. It’s not ideal, but it is challenging, and even fun for us, and by us I mean many of the colleagues in the industry and the majority of colleagues in the Direct Media System, whom I immodestly rank into the category of those who call every emotion by its proper name. Whether we came to this level by working on ourselves, individually or collectively, or we simply got it at birth.
In the end, both for these emotionally intelligent and for those who are on their way to become such, the best advice is to always look at the bright side of things, not only on work but also everything around us, although that’s often not easy. In business, positive emotions lead to positive reactions. Two pluses always give a plus, while two minuses almost never give a positive result, except in math. You can always pick a fight with someone – anger is emotion as well – but before you do that, you need to ask yourself in the Aristotelian way, are you angry “at the right person, in the right measure, in the right time, for the proper reason, and in the proper way.”
If you do so, you’ll see that it’s not easy to get mad.