Feelings First: A Modern Management Manifesto
Homo Sapiens may be the “wise” species, but we confuse “wise” with “rational” at our own peril
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You’ve probably heard that old saying:
People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Whether it’s attributed to Maya Angelou or a leader in the Mormon church isn’t all that important. What is important is that any time spent working with others — whether in a personal or business setting — will quickly validate it.
(Ir)rationality and Relationships
Feelings are important. Furthermore, feelings are efficacious — meaning they make things happen. We may think we act based on logic — reasons, evidence, and all that. But it’s been well documented in the psychological research that we tend to make a lot of decisions based on how we feel — only to rationalize them after the fact. And many times we do so quickly and unconsciously.
Relationships are at the core of life. How your relationships go dictates how well things go for you, period. And the single most important factor in the health of your relationships is how the other party in each relationship feels about you.
And for those who insist that they don’t have relationships with others, and (for some reason) don’t need them — you’re still not exempt. We each have a relationship with ourselves. It sounds weird, but it’s absolutely real.
We all engage in self-talk to some degree. We all have (or lack) a level of trust in ourselves. We all feel certain ways about ourselves. So ensuring that those feelings are both positive and strong will go a long way toward improving your life — even if it’s just you by your lonesome.
The Method In a Nutshell
The great thing about working with feelings is that you don’t have to go through any kind of process to get started. Feelings are everywhere. Every interaction you have with someone — or even just sitting by yourself — feelings are there. Sometimes they are front and center; other times they are lurking in the background — though they’re still very much pulling the…
