Liz Ryan, CEO and founder of Human Workplace, recalls how shocked she was as a young business person when she found out just how personal the business world is. Your relationship with your boss or co-workers, to Liz, seemed to be something that could help your career sail forward and just as easily halt your progression, or even make your life miserable. Notably, managers have their own likes and dislikes, and experience emotions in a similar fashion as everyone else. Furthermore, these manager emotions are contagious and powerful—as a manager, emotion regulation and management may go a long way in forging a collaborative and non-hostile working environment. Research also suggests that leader emotions are particularly important in the workplace. For one, some researchers assert that “what goes around comes around,” meaning that negative emotional displays from the leader can alter the shared emotions of the group, which in turn can lead to disapproval of the leader and employee cynicism. On the other hand, leaders who display empathy tend to be seen as less likely to become ineffective as leaders, or to “derail.” Overall, displaying either positive or negative emotions (e.g., not surface acting) can help bolster follower performance, because the followers likely take in and use this information in making work-related decisions.

The reality of manager emotions can be particularly biting when you are an employee who feels as if your manager does not like you. Your manager may exhibit emotional displays that suggest he or she is angry with you, lacks confidence in your skills and abilities, or does not care about your well-being and advancement in the organization. Although the dislike or negative emotions toward you may be rooted in various perceptions of you (e.g., your manager thinks you are incompetent, does not like your style, or does not relate to you), the negative emotions may also stem from other sources, such as the manager’s disposition or situational constraints placed on him or her. Notably, Joseph Barber, associate director at Career Services at the University of Pennsylvania, asserts that it is critical for employees to realize that their managers see the world differently and may be experiencing very different emotional states at any given time. This form of perspective taking, according to Barber, is especially useful as a job applicant trying to anticipate what managers want in a new employee and highlighting the areas of your relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities that match these qualifications.

Questions 

1. How do you think managers can strike a balance between authenticity and managing their own emotional displays (e.g., surface acting) in organizations? Or do you think it is impossible to achieve such balance? Why or why not? 

2. Do you think there are any emotions that are off limits—that leaders (or employees) should never display at work? What are they, and what makes them off limits? 

3. Do you think there is a way to improve your reading of your manager’s and coworkers’ emotions, and adapting your behavior based on this emotional information? What are some ways that you can work on these types of behaviors?