It’s time to talk about emotions! Well… at least Emotionality
Emotions matter. We all know this. And thankfully open and honest recognition of emotions and the effect they have in life and at work is increasingly taking a prominent role in understanding ourselves and the people we connect with.
Today, at work, conversations around diversity, wellbeing, psychological safety and other related topics are becoming increasingly prominent.
And as with all things in the HR and people space, new HRTech is really starting to cut through the noise, helping to open up the conversation around emotions!
At TALY, we talk about emotions a lot. To catch up, check out some of our earlier articles on Emotional Intelligence (Introduction, Perceiving & Expressing Emotions, Understanding Emotions, Harnessing Emotions, Managing & Controlling Emotions). Your Emotionality and Emotional Intelligence play a huge role in understanding how you make work work for you.
In so many situations, in life and work, we have to deal with A LOT! Your underlying personality helps us understand just how you do this.
There are lots of different ways to talk about emotions, but today I just want to focus on one area - a part of your personality known as Emotionality.
The TALY Personality Profiling brings together…
• scientifically-backed personality profiling
• tailored to the needs of your business, culture and the role
• delivered through customised, locally-built AI tools to ensure accuracy
Get in touch to find out more about how you can use TALY profiling to give you the insights you need to build great teams - from recruitment onwards! Or Book a Demo today to see how easy it is to start using TALY in your business.
What is Emotionality
Emotionality is one of the Five Factor personality traits.
This trait, also known as Neuroticism is not about whether you have emotions or not. It’s about the FLUCTUATION you feel in your emotions – if you have a low level of Emotionality, you experience little fluctuation. If you have a high level of Emotionality, you can experience strong fluctuations.
And the fluctuations we’re talking about are things like anxiety, moodiness, temperamentality, impulsiveness, irritability, and so on.
Here’s an example for you…
A major report is due for a client tomorrow. The client calls with a range of last minute additions they need included – and no change to the due date (of course).
For those with low Emotionality, they sense the pressure, but they don’t FEEL a strong change in their emotions. The anxiety doesn’t build up, they don’t feel irritated. They absorb it and deal with it.
For those with high Emotionality, a situation like this may see their anxiety spike, they may get grumpy or moody, they might feel a strong emotional response.
Importantly, as with all areas of personality, neither of these personality traits are right or wrong! They just are what they are. As we’ll go on to explain, both ends of the spectrum can bring challenges and benefits – but it all starts with understanding first, and then managing appropriately.
The role of EMOTIONALITY at work
Emotionality plays an important role at work in two key ways…
1. Your Emotionality impacts on how you respond – both on the inside and in response to difference situations.
2. Where teams sit on Emotionality – where there is alignment and where there are differences – can have a huge impact on the vibe
For you personally, your Emotionality can mean that you experience fluctuations in your emotions –sometimes it can be in response to external stressors and sometimes there doesn’t seem to be an apparent cause at all.
Those with low Emotionality can still experience the fluctuations of course – but just to a lower level.
Understanding your Emotionality and where you sit on this trait can be essential for self-awareness, and knowing how to make different situations work for you.
But where it potentially matters more at work is in teams. In fact, in personal and intimate relationships Emotionality has been found to be one of the key traits that can create division or tension.
And in teams at work this is also true. As mentioned, there isn’t a good or bad level of Emotionality. BUT, if two people respond very differently in situations, and don’t realise that this is driven by differences in personality, it can create all kinds of problems.
Exploring Low Emotionality.
People who are low on Emotionality don’t experience strong fluctuations in their emotions. They tend to be level-headed, calm, collected and balanced, and take this balance into their interactions with others.
This plays an important role in Resilience. People with lower levels of Emotionality have been found to be able to absorb more pressure, and their ability to not feel pulled by strong emotions but rather to focus on the next step can help in keeping things moving.
But there is a downside… Some of these include:
• Your level of calmness and balance can lead others to see you as disconnected or not “realising” how serious situations are. This is usually from people with a higher level of Emotionality
• Your ability to absorb a great deal can often see you taking on more work, or others feeling like you have capacity, because you aren’t showing obvious signs of pressure…
• And related to this – when you do start to feel anxiety and stress, and show this to others, things have actually progressed quite far!
Exploring High Emotionality
In the opposite to Low Emotionality, people with High Emotionality can often experience feelings like anxiety, moodiness, irritability, temperamentality and more. They experience strong fluctuation in their emotions – sometimes for no discernible reason at all, and sometimes in response to what is going on around them.
For many, this high Emotionality can translate into a sense of passion. Their strong feelings, and their outward display of these feelings, can make it clear where their priorities sit.
In fact, when measuring the personality of small business owners and entrepreneurs, we often note a high level of Emotionality – people who are driven by emotional energy, rather than traditional notions of achievement and success.
How can you understand Emotionality more?
Understanding your Emotionality, and the Emotionality of your team, is essential for creating a work environment that works for you and for building strong, resilient and understanding teams. And, as mentioned, might also be important in your personal relationships!
Here’s how you can make it work for you…
Know where you sit
As with all things personality, getting a clear and reliable measurement of where you sit on this dimension is critical. The area of Emotionality is very prone to bias – so don’t just use your instincts or compare yourself to others – get it measured.
Be aware that others might be different
Tension in teams around Emotionality often comes from a lack of understanding. We don’t understand why some RESPOND to situations differently to the way we do. So we just simply feel we are wrong, or they are wrong, or something else is going on and it’s frustrating!
But perhaps it is just differences in underlying personalities – differences that aren’t right or wrong – and getting to understand and leverage these differences in the team may lead to positive outcomes.
Have open conversations about it
The key to resolving team tensions linked to Emotionality is open, honest, safe conversations around this topic. Starting with the concept that our personality just is what it is, we can then accept that there is no right or wrong, and actually just get on with ways of working that help to respect our differences and resolve the tensions.
Where do you think you sit on this trait? If you’re feeling tension in your team that might be linked to differences in Emotionality, maybe it’s time to work it out!
The TALY approach to personality profiling brings together a unique mix of Five Factor and Emotional Intelligence profiling to help organisations, hiring managers and teams to make better decisions about recruitment and teams.
Get in touch to find out more… we love talking about this stuff! Or Book a Demo today to see how easy it is to start using TALY in your business.