Have you watched the new version of The Lion King? What did you think of it?
I watched it over the weekend, and for me, it was a disappointing affair. Being an avid fan of the original animated version, I was super excited to see this movie. Frankly, it was a drag and wasn’t a patch on the original. Even though the story was the same, the impact was way off. Why? What changed, and are there things we can learn from it?
Things that were missing were expressions, emotions, humour, and inspiring voices.
I am sure the technical limitations would have been high, but it looks like the power and importance of these missing elements were clearly underestimated.
More than anything it was a case of missing emotions. We sense emotions through expressions, actions, dialogues, tone. What seems to have happened was that they couldn’t replicate some of the emotional expressions that are conveyable through a cartoon, through CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) – and that caused the humor quotient to drop. I suppose that’s the price you pay if you’re aiming for photorealistic animation. Combined with relatively flat dialogues and a lack of richness in the visuals, the differences from the original film were telling.
The changes were quite subtle and yet the overall impact was significantly different. A WOW movie became a ‘oh, when will this end’ kind of affair. Surely, there is something to learn from this?
A Case of Missing Emotions in the Corporate Life…
The question that came up for me was – has our predominantly logic and left brain driven corporate world also become a case of missing emotions?
We know through the movie and music business that the ability of a movie to connect with our emotions eventually determines its success.
What role do emotions, feelings and expressions have at the workplace?
At office, we kind of encourage people to be unemotional – don’t get angry, don’t cry, don’t bring your feelings to the table and yet key aspects like motivation, connection, frustration, boredom, happiness all have roots in emotions. Emotions drive behaviors.
If you’re wondering about emotional fitness at work, read this: Emotional Fitness for the Urban Professional.
The EQ vs IQ debate has raged for years and though there is acknowledgement that EQ matters, it is only when there is extreme negative behavior that it becomes a derailer for managers and leaders. Some great managers seem to have learnt to leverage feelings through their own intuitiveness. Overall though, day-to-day management hasn’t consciously focused on leveraging emotions and feelings at work.
Many times we feel we didn’t say anything to offend others but we convey so much with our expression – and the person opposite immediately picks up on that, while we are still blissfully unaware.
In the same vein: even if my tone changes slightly, my kids will immediately look up to see if I am angry or upset. The exact same thing happens within a team, and there will be hushed speculation on why the boss is in such a bad mood.
A slightly condescending tone or a shift in my facial expression conveys my judgement on an idea.
In meetings, my tone tends to be too serious and that becomes intimidating to my team members and they become guarded.
Just by being distracted, I sometimes convey disrespect to the team members I am talking to.
So, our expressions convey our emotion and being unaware of that is certainly an issue.
So what do we do to deal with this?
Should we be guarded all the time and perhaps keep a mirror in front of us to see what we are doing? 🙂
The first thing is the realization that a relationship is critical for success at work – trust emerges out of that relationship.
Building a relationship requires us to pay attention to feelings of people. It needs us to become more self-aware of how we are coming across to others in terms of our expression, tone etc. and also learn to use the non-verbal feedback that team members are providing to adjust our own behaviors.
If we genuinely care about people and their well-being, it not only helps in the relationship building process but also reduces the negative impact of non-verbal communication.
Deep listening is an art, but of paramount importance in the corporate world. My thoughts in a blog: LEAP Dialogues: Just Listen.
Some questions to ponder on:
How are we consciously encouraging the need for strong relationships at work?
How are we encouraging friendships at the workplace, especially at senior levels?
How are we dealing with the intrinsic need of people to express their emotions and not suppress them?
How are we teaching employees and managers to deal with an emotion like crying?
How are we promoting picking up on others’ emotions and feelings?
How are we teaching people to clarify when they notice expressions on people’s faces?
How are we promoting self-awareness?
Can we master the art of leveraging emotions, feelings and expressions to make work places thrive?
Can we use the lessons of the New Lion King and its missing emotions to trigger our thoughts towards this?
Connect with me on LinkedIn for more such LEAP Dialogues.