

We can be aware of our feelings, manage them, understand other people, and manage our relationships with others. Perspectiveīeyond its specific tools, emotional intelligence provides us with a perspective on ourselves and others. Among other tactics, she suggests avoiding the gaze of negative people to decrease the chance of catching their emotions.
#OFFICE BULLY BOSS MOVIE HOW TO#
Barsade provided wise advice about how to fend off the emotions of a toxic person. Sigal Barsade, a researcher at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, specializes in studying emotional contagion and its impact in organizations. One way bullies impact us is to project feelings that we pick up through our mirror neurons. The rest of us in that moment are receivers, picking up on the emotions of that powerful person. With emotional contagion, the most powerful person in a situation is the “sender” of emotions. They produce emotional contagion, the subject of one of my recent posts. Simply put, mirror neurons fire in our brains in response to the behavior of people around us, including their facial expressions. Mirror neurons are one mechanism for that connection. Dan Siegel’s work with Mindsight and the field of interpersonal neurobiology has helped us understand more about the “social brain.” Our brains make unconscious, automatic connections with the brains of the people around us. Relationship management is the fourth component of emotional intelligence.

Empathy can help you understand what they are feeling and what triggers them. However, emotional intelligence gives us insight and tools for how to interact with a bully boss. And, there are many strategies for addressing a bully boss beyond the ones I mention in this article. Your job isn’t to analyze or fix your boss. Tania Singer and her colleagues at the Max Planck Institute in Germany have developed tools for developing empathy and compassion. Using your self-awareness and empathy, you can remind your coworkers that bullying is not normal or acceptable. What can you learn from them about keeping your cool?īullying can feel normal if it happens all the time. Is anyone in the office less impacted by bullying? Pay attention to them. If so, others are probably having emotional hijacks and feeling the constant strain. Are you the only one being bullied by your boss? Or do you pick up signals that your coworkers are having similar experiences? My guess is you’re not alone. The core skill in social awareness is empathy, sensing what others are thinking and feeling without them telling us in words.

That brings me to the third component, social awareness. And, in work cultures where there are constant threats, a hijack can last for days or weeks. Taking a break isn’t always possible in the midst of a high-pressure work environment. Psychologist John Gottman advises couples having arguments to take a 20-minute time out before continuing the conversation. Practiced regularly, these techniques are more easily accessed in the moment. You can simply step away from the difficult situation and take deep breaths. This is the time for self-management tools such as relaxation or meditation. Without emotional intelligence, the amygdala is in control and you’re off to flee, fight, freeze, or faint. As Dan Siegel and his colleagues at UCLA say, “Name it to Tame it.” Just acknowledging we’re in the midst of an amygdala hijack starts the cooling process. With emotional intelligence, we can recognize that hijack and choose to cool down. The amygdala triggers a Flight, Fight, Freeze, or Faint response. It overrides the calmer, thinking part of our brain. Your heart races, your vision narrows, and you find yourself in the grip of what I call an “ amygdala hijack.”ĭuring a hijack, the part of the brain that controls our emotional reactions takes charge. What do you feel when your boss humiliates you or intimidates you? Immediately, you might feel angry or afraid. However, t he four components of emotional intelligence provide useful perspective on and tools for dealing with a bully. Bullying can be part of a complex set of dynamics that are more than can be covered in a brief article. When the boss is a bully, their position enhances the power of their abuse. Obviously, someone who fits this definition can occupy any position in an organization. It is abusive conduct that is threatening, humiliating, or intimidating, or work interference - sabotage - which prevents work from getting done, or verbal abuse.” “Workplace Bullying is repeated, health-harming mistreatment of one or more persons (the targets) by one or more perpetrators.
