From the course: Mindfulness Practices

Manage your emotional triggers

From the course: Mindfulness Practices

Manage your emotional triggers

- Let me share the story of an executive coaching client. Let's call her Sally. Sally works in finance and is considered a high-potential employee. She's brilliant at what she does, and was actually recently promoted into a stretch role. Yet, she was given a low performance rating in her last review. This is because she had been unpredictable in managing her emotions. In certain situations, people around her felt bullied and disrespected. Of course, Sally was surprised when she got this feedback. She had no idea about her stress-related impact on others. So she decided to work with me to improve her emotional intelligence. As we worked together, Sally started practicing mindfulness. She started observing herself during the workday. She noticed certain situations when she would get emotionally triggered, and her body language and tone of voice reflected her impatience with others. With practice, she became aware of what triggered her. She was able to notice the thoughts that caused her to be impatient, so she could catch herself right before she acted on her irritation. Feedback from her colleagues, just three months later, showed that she had made significant improvements in her behavior. Emotional intelligence is one of the most valued skills in the workplace. Research actually shows that more than IQ, your emotional intelligence is a key driver of success. It even correlates with higher pay. One of the most important aspects of emotional intelligence is the ability to know and manage ourselves. This becomes even more important as stress levels in the workplace rise. We each have different triggers that create dysfunctional behavior in the workplace. Mindfulness practice allows us to notice the thoughts that trigger certain emotions and behaviors. As we notice these triggers, we can have greater choice in our behaviors. A great tool to capture this insight is a mind story map. You can experiment with this in the exercise files.

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