When you think of success in the workplace, the first thing that comes to mind is likely hitting your KPIs, acing a presentation, or getting rewarded for your work. However, I’d argue that the foundation of all these things begins with employee well-being because it’s a requirement for people to do their best work. Emotional intelligence plays a vital role in how we achieve well-being for ourselves and create it for others.
Employee well-being is a critical part of organizational success. It goes beyond an employee’s physical health, and refers to the holistic state of their mental and emotional health as well. The US Surgeon General has identified five essentials in the Workplace Mental Health and Well-being Report. These are:
Focusing on well-being isn’t just a feel-good initiative. There’s a direct correlation between cultures of well-being and higher financial performance, productivity, engagement, and employee retention. In fact, employers with effective well-being programs have double the retention of companies that don’t. Plus, these companies experience significantly less absenteeism, and the costs that come with it.
The evidence is undeniable: Investing in employee well-being leads to a thriving workplace where individuals feel valued, supported, and motivated to contribute their best efforts.
While we all want to work at places that value our well-being, quite often, people find themselves experiencing the exact opposite. According to a recent survey by the American Psychological Association, 19% of employees labeled their workplace as toxic and more than 22% said their work environment has harmed their mental health. Another study found that nearly 9 out of 10 employees say they have been under a toxic manager.
Toxic managers engage in problematic behaviors like using fear or blame and shame tactics, actively crushing team creativity, avoiding accountability, stealing credit for others’ work, not listening to their people, or showing no interest in their personal lives.
Toxic managers do real damage to employee morale, engagement, and even health. One study found that 74% of workers who have a toxic boss reported feeling anxiety over the weekend when thinking about returning to work; 53% reported having nightmares about their bosses, and 34% engaged in coping mechanisms like drinking and overeating.
According to Human Resources Director, employees who work for toxic bosses reported increased anxiety (51%), mental fatigue (44%), physical symptoms (33%), increased depression (32%), decline in performance (24%), and 21% misdirected stress on friends/family. It’s no wonder, then, that half of employees reported quitting an organization to get away from a toxic boss. Shockingly, a toxic culture is 10.4X more powerful than compensation in predicting a company’s attrition rate.
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the antidote to toxic workplaces and a strong contributor to employee well-being. Most toxic behaviors stem from a lack of emotional control rather than an intentional desire to harm others. And on the flip side, emotional intelligence is vital for helping employees navigate toxic situations and mitigate their harmful effects.
When our brains perceive a threat, whether in the wild or in the workplace, the amygdala launches the fight-flight-freeze response, flooding the body with adrenaline and cortisol, preparing us to survive the oncoming danger. This response is effective when we are in a life-threatening situation. Interestingly, the brain also shuts down the logical part of the brain to divert energy to muscles, and our self-awareness goes offline to protect us from going into shock should we be injured.
But when this reaction kicks off due to a trigger and our life is not actually threatened, it’s called an amygdala hijack. One expert states, “When faced with intense emotions…the emotional mind can surge to the forefront, overwhelming the rational mind’s ability to maintain control. In such moments, reason takes a back seat, and we may find ourselves acting impulsively, driven by the raw power of emotions. These intense emotional states can impair our judgment, leading to regrettable actions and consequences.”
In the workplace, the fight reaction can include aggression, contempt, shaming, and ridiculing another. And the flight/freeze reaction can show up as withdrawing but also intentionally ignoring another or actively blaming them.
Obviously, this can happen to all working adults but it’s especially harmful when managers behave this way because they have power and their daily words and actions shape almost all of an employee’s experience of a workplace including its culture and critical elements for performance like psychological safety.
When on the receiving end of such behavior, employees can experience a threat state as well.
Self-regulation is a critical skill in emotional intelligence and includes recognizing when one has become dysregulated as well as the ability to moderate intense emotions with specific actions. Dr. Dan Siegal first described what is known as the window of tolerance. When we’re within this window, we are in our ideal state—we feel relaxed and in control, we’re able to function effectively both and we have a calm state of mind. In other words, our systems are regulated.
As we go through our day, we have ups and downs but as long as those events are not too stressful, we stay in our window of tolerance. Sometimes events (like being triggered or treated poorly by a manager) can push us to the edge of our window and we can cross into the zones of dysregulation.
At the topic of our window is HYPER arousal where we have the fight or flight reaction. We have increased reactivity with intense emotions like anger, anxiety, overwhelm, and we might lose control. When we recognize that we are in this state, we need to down regulate our system by doing things that are calming, soothing and grounding. Some examples include deep breathing, rhythmic movement like rocking or swinging, listening to soothing music, a warm shower or cold plunge, time in nature, eating comforting food, or using a weighted blanket.
At the other end of the spectrum, when we’re in HYPO arousal, experiencing the freeze reaction where we shut down or withdraw. Here, we might feel numb, exhausted, depressed or disconnected. In this case, we need to up regulate our system by doing things that are energizing and connecting. For example, doing sensory stimulation through tastes or smells, sounds), listening to energizing music or doing faster movement like walking or dancing, cold water immersion, increasing concentration with a game or task, hands-on/tactile crafts, and connecting with others.
Organizations can greatly contribute to their employees’ well-being by providing training on emotional intelligence skills like self-awareness, self-control/regulation, and empathy. Studies show that investing in emotional intelligence training has a positive return on investment (ROI), even as high as 1000%. This includes boosts to productivity and financial performance as well as engagement and retention of talent.
Gallup found that employees who had managers with high EQ were four times less likely to leave than those who had managers with low emotional intelligence. Harvard found that companies that prioritize emotional intelligence are 22 times more likely to perform higher than companies that do not.
Research shows that EQ is more than twice as predictive of performance than IQ and it accounts for 80-90% of the competencies that differentiate top performers. Further, of careers that are derailed, 75%are for reasons related to emotional competencies.
Creating a positive culture of well-being is possible by investing in emotional intelligence and the five pillars of workplace well-being identified above.
What’s most important to remember about these essentials is that these are habits — and like any habit, they are strengthened by continual practice and training. Providing managers with the tools they need to build skill in each of these areas is crucial to your organization’s health.
By making these investments, workplaces can become reimagined places of growth and fulfillment. When done right, they can be not just places we work, but places where we thrive and are supported in reaching our fullest potential.
Emotions are all around us in the workplace. It’s important for everyone to understand how to harness them to increase productivity and cultivate positive relationships.
In this live course, you will learn:
Plus, emotional intelligence is a skill set you can also use in your personal life with family and friends!
Brain Aware Training is the leading developer of brain science-based training programs that solve today’s workplace challenges. We harness the power of human biology to help people—and organizations—rise to their potential. Global organizations from all industries turn to us to design and deliver engaging classroom and online training to help their people learn, practice, and master the behaviors critical to their strategic success. We provide certification in our research-based models and award-winning learning solutions that drive sustained behavior change and measurable results.
