The Power of Emotions at Work: Accessing the Vital Intelligence in Your Workplace

by Karla McLaren

An in-depth guide for all workers—employees, managers, and CEOs—on how to engage our emotions in the workplace to create a productive, creative, and truly workable environment. We’ve all been taught that we must suppress or avoid emotions at work, but this inevitably leads to a loss in productivity, diminished creativity, and crushing job dissatisfaction. Research shows 85 percent of us avoid communicating crucial workplace problems upward, and many of us who are employed are actively looking for a different job. What’s going on? “The foundational problem is that we threw emotions out of the workplace, when in fact, emotions contain the information we need to make our workplaces work,” says Karla McLaren. Now this renowned researcher shares her insights on the skills we most need—and are most often absent in the business world—for healthy, functional, and sustainable workplaces. With The Power of Emotions at Work, McLaren teaches communication and empathy skills to workers at all levels, How to co-create a healthy and well-balanced social environment that benefits all workers in any type of organizationHow to recognize your primary emotional role—and the roles of othersHow to support people in your organization who perform the most “emotional labor” Where to find authentic motivation and engagement in your jobHow to go from an “unintentional community” to a place of genuine belonging, and much more  We all yearn to be our authentic selves at work, where we feel supported and can communicate our feelings and frustrations in a constructive way. Workplaces are “unintentional communities,” says Karla McLaren, because without access to our emotions at work, we are left without the tools we need to do our best work in a functional community. This is your resource to help you understand and engage intelligently with emotions at work—so you can help to create healthy and intentional communities where people and projects thrive.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business

287 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 17, 2021

About the author

Karla McLaren, M.Ed is an award-winning author, social science researcher, and pioneering educator whose empathic approach to emotions revalues even the most “negative” emotions and opens startling new pathways into the depths of the soul. She is the founder and CEO of Emotion Dynamics LLC.

Karla’s lifelong work has been focused on the creation of a grand unified theory of emotions, which she has developed through her work with survivors of dissociative trauma, through her own lifelong experience as a hyper-empath, and through extensive research into the social and biological sciences.

Reviews

[Maureen Moriarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been an Executive Coach for 22 years and emotional intelligence has been a focus of much of my work; I have read many books on emotions. This one is a standout because Karla's insights provide a practical and fresh approach to our ongoing workplace emotional challenges. I particularly appreciate her take on emotional workers and roles --those that often go unrecognized, unpaid and overlooked. Her practical visual yet simple guide to what emotional gifts, skills and questions to consider is awesome. Her take on the "devils floorpan" is worthy of applause. I am still shocked and how many professional office places are designed this way. Bravo Karla for providing us with a useful guide that helps us understand the "brilliance and power" in our emotions and how to cultivate a healthy happier workplace for all!

[Debbee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read as part of a collection of books from different authors on emotions and leadership. I found the insights helpful.

[Rebekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toxic workplaces make so many people miserable and McLaren clearly has passion for helping.
Picked up some timely insights. I liked the bit about motivation - the 2 different theories/models on management and motivation, and how it arises naturally when we have competence (I have what I need to do my job), autonomy, and relatedness (I care about my teammates).
I appreciate her perspective that emotions have an important place at work, that we should learn from them, and why we should not punish people for having them; I hope workers become valued enough that this perspective spreads.