Role of Emotion in
Decision Making
Professor
Shiv begins his speech saying, “decision confidence gives rise to the passion
for the action that you are taking.” Throughout
his extensive research on the subject, he has found that confidence has a
direct impact on the dopamine system or the engagement system of the
brain. This information is critical to
the improvement of decision making because it is saying that with increased
confidence; effort, engagement, and wanting results are positively increased. Essentially, this decision confidence gives
rise to the passion for the action you are taking. This passion is evident in body language and level
of engagement, which is an essential characteristic of great leaders because
those you lead can sense your level of confidence through observing your body language. Your confidence affects their confidence as
if it is contagious. It has a significant
impact on the utility that you, as well as your team, will extract from the experience (Shiv, 2011).
While at Target, I enjoyed being
there every day and enjoyed opportunities to affect those around me with the
same enjoyment I felt. I knew that daily
operations and guest experience would be directly impacted positively if teams
were engaged and passionate about their objectives, so I made it a point first
thing before shift changes to get everyone into team huddles. I used these opportunities to show the team
my genuine appreciation for them by personally recognizing their efforts; acknowledging those who went above and beyond with applause. I brought them up to date on corporate
initiatives, company philanthropy, district wins, and store leadership goals
and objectives. I decided to involve
them on this information so they could feel more connected to the company and our
corporate culture. They didn’t only feel
like a store team; they were part of an even greater purpose and something they
could feel proud of. I cared for my
store team like family, and I ensured that every team member felt valued and
enjoyed coming to work in the positive environment we created. The
passion for the team and guests was persuasive enough to be contagious; the team
members went forth into their daily roles with this contagious passion that was
reflected in the quality of their work and passed along to guest
experience. The decision confidence in
the way huddles were directed was reflected in the decision confidence of the
team as they successfully ran their departments and extracted optimal utility
from the experience. In this situation,
emotion played a significant role in each decision I made; in the way I chose
to conduct team huddles, how I approached team-building exercises and handled
employee development. My goal was to
reach as many individuals as possible every day on an emotion level in a way
that transcends rational and intellectual levels; to truly inspire them.
According to Biro, when we are inspired, we
tap into our best selves and deliver amazing work (Biro, 2013). I believe there is a leader in each one of
us, but it takes confidence in who you are and confidence in your abilities for
true inspiring passion to emerge, and this is the substrate in which leaders
are born because I think leadership can be acquired, honed, and perfected. Brio lists the tools that allow talent to shine
as; emotional intelligence, continuous learning, contextualize, let go,
honesty, kindness, respect, collaboration, and partner with your people (Biro,
2013). I think the most essential tool
is emotional intelligence. Great leaders
are empathetic and understanding to peoples desires and needs, which allows
them to react to fulfill them. This provides a sense of fulfillment and of
being understood. They are important for
motivating people, creating vision, and focusing energy. According to Sundheim, you need emotion in
the front end to inform prioritization (creating vision, focusing energy), and
you also need emotion on the back end to motivate and inspire (Sundheim, 2013).
A situation I was not so confident
in was over fifteen years ago when I was a special education paraprofessional
at the Guam High School. During my years
there, I was happy and confident in my role and had built strong relationships
with my students. One year when an
Algebra teacher fell ill I was asked to sub for the remainder of the school year. It was November, and I remember being very nervous
in my abilities to teach math thinking I’d be doing a disservice to the
students by not being as effective or helpful as they needed me to be. I could be their cheerleader and support
system in their math progress. I could offer help in just about any other
subject they needed! This lack of confidence
turned to fear, and anxiety resulting in self-doubt, and a negative perspective
about myself and my abilities and was reflected in my communication with the
students. I’m certain my body language
displayed this lack of confidence. As I
stumbled my way through all the lessons, I sensed a lack of control
over the classroom; students didn’t care what I was saying as I tried to
explain what I had interpreted from my reviews of the lessons. Since decision confidence gives rise to the
passion for the action that you are taking, and the confidence or passion was
not there, students lost all interest and respect in me as a leader.
My lack of confidence translated to
emotions of fear and discontent which impacted my level of motivation and
engagement and it most definitely impacted the utility that I could have otherwise
extracted from the experience; that of success.
This was the experience that woke me up to the importance of leadership
and its impact. I learned that good
leaders have a vision and courage to carry out that vision, confidence in
communicating; directing and influencing the team, self-confidence; trust in my
abilities, a team builder; making teams feel significant and important,
ambitious and motivated, embraces risks with confidence; welcomes
opportunities, employs decisions; puts change into operation, and solution-oriented; corrects mistakes. Some of these
lessons learned fall under Dr. Shiv’s decision confidence virtues of passion,
contagious confidence, and extraction of utility (Shiv, 2011). Without confidence, there are no virtues from
invoking emotion for effective leadership and decision-making. It’s the emotion that is needed that gives
rise to the passion for action that you are taking. If I had confidence going into the classroom
of math students despite my weak abilities, the situation would have turned out
very differently. As Dr. Shiv stated, “confidence
is vastly underrated.” (Shiv, 2011).
References:
Biro, M. M. (2013). Leadership is about emotion. Retrieved
from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/meghanbiro/2013/12/15/leadership-is-about-emotion/
Shiv, B. (2011). Brain research at Stanford: Decision
making. [Video/DVD] Stanford University. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRKfl4owWKc
Sundheim, D. (2013, -08-15T16:00:21Z). Good leaders get
emotional. Harvard Business Review, Retrieved from
https://hbr.org/2013/08/good-leaders-get-emotional
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