A team is comprised of members with a wide range of experiences and emotional makeups, making life as a manager interesting.

Your employees each have ways of expressing their requirements or expectations. When these forms of expression clash, it could result in an emotionally tense situation for you and your team.

How you respond to your employees in these situations affects morale and productivity on your team. This simple five-phase process can give you control of your response when other people may be angry or disruptive:

1. Recognize an emotional flare. Realizing that you’re faced with an emotional conflict is the first step to gaining control.
2. Pause and calm down before reacting. Take a deep breath and think for a moment so you aren’t tempted to say something you’ll regret later.
3. Recognize the cause of the emotional disruption. This enables you to evaluate the situation better.
4. Specify the problem without making it about the person. Don’t retaliate to your employees with a personal attack.
5. Redirect your energy toward the goal. Focusing on your goals and not your frustrations will help you to keep your composure.

Implementing this five-phase process will help keep emotional disruptions from getting out of hand.

Filed under: Management Minute