Managing Teams Part 1: Emotional Labor
“Hell is other people”
Next time you listen to a loved one complain about a job, note whether they are complaining about the behavior of coworkers and bosses, or the work itself. I’ve kept an ear out for this recently, and well over half the time, people’s complaints have to do with the most difficult, confusing, and unmanageable parts of their jobs: other people.
Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre captured a sentiment that many of us have felt after 2 hour meetings that were dominated by a challenging coworker.
Lots of research has been done on the effects of interpersonal issues on job satisfaction and performance (as if we need data to know that having a frustrating boss or coworker makes work worse for everyone), and findings consistently show that the impacts are serious.
Just take a look at a few of the findings from some recent research articles:
“Organisational constraints and interpersonal conflicts at work lead to an intention to leave a job or profession by inducing negative affect at work. Interpersonal conflicts at work are the strongest predictor of negative affect at work.” Source
“interpersonal conflict in the workplace has a direct effect on counterproductive work behaviour, and workplace interpersonal conflict affects work-related counterproductive behaviour mediated by job stress.” Source
“The extreme outcome of unresolved conflicts is work disruption, decreased productivity, project failure, absenteeism, turnover and termination.” Source
These are just a few headlines from hundreds of similar research articles. The science is clear, and these findings should be noted by business leaders who are concerned about the bottom line. In short:
Interpersonal issues in the workplace lead to lowered productivity and less business success overall.
Perfect! Now all you need to do is manage the complex, mysterious, triggering, and ever-changing inter/intrapersonal dynamics that lead to team dysfunction and conflict. No problem.
Hell is managing other people
Managing relational issues in a team is a type of emotional labor, which does not draw upon the same skills or capacities that normal work involves. Instead, it draws on one’s personal and relational development, or one’s ability to see, understand, and work with challenging emotions effectively and skillfully. Unfortunately for leadership teams, there just aren’t that many college courses or weekend trainings that will make you suddenly overcome the wounds, fears, and reactive habits that get in the way of forming healthy relationships. That kind of work is hard won and requires diving into some of the most challenging parts of our lives.
So, how does one improve their ability to manage the interpersonal dynamics of a team? Well, there isn’t any getting around the fact that a good leader has to be competent at emotional labor. No matter how well structured your team is, the quality of relationships (and thus the quality of the work output), is going to be affected by the emotional limitations of leaders. So, we have to bite the bullet and learn to face the limitations that keep us from performing emotional labor effectively. After a few years of mental health counseling, and a few years in the corporate workforce (and a few years being a human in relationship with other humans), I can offer a few tips on how to accomplish this.
