The Role of Emotion in Making Crucial Business Decisions

While many businessmen would think that emotions have no place in the office, emotional decision making in business does have a role. However, emotions are also dangerous in the workplace as well. If we were to take a closer look at it, putting emotions in the workplace is all about balance. One must have emotional strength and know how to balance the emotional decision making, especially in business.

So, if you learn how to manage your emotional decision making, you can easily put emotions to a good use.

How Emotional Decision making Affects Business

Emotions are an inevitable part of business. So, how does one balance the rational versus the emotional decision making process?

Here are a few instances wherein emotional decision making may affect your business.

• Taking Risks

All businesses have risky decisions, and it is up to the boss to make those decisions. It is through the boss’ actions and decisions that a company will either make it or break it. According to a study entitled Only Human by Gyro, work risks are not just run by hard data but also by personal feelings.

This makes sense because data can only help you make your decision but not make your decisions for you. This doesn’t mean you have to make decisions based on feelings but rather let your feelings make the last snap choice with data backing you up.

Let’s take for example when a boss decides whether to push a big project that has a risk of failure and loss but also a chance for big profits. The data can show the odds of its success and failure. However, the decision will all depend on whether the boss feels whether he can take a big risk or not. In the end, the feelings do count. Of course, the boss still has to acquire an emotional decision-making strength and learn how to control emotions.

• Exuding Passion

Janet Crawford, a neuroscientist, explores how emotions actually helped make Fortune 500 successful. When creating a business, the founder or innovator fuel his or her idea with pure passion if he or she wants the business to fly. This also makes perfect sense because you can’t make an idea come to life if you don’t feel strongly about it.

Passion is also a type of feeling. You can only reach out to the hearts of your customers if you share their sentiments and if you have the desire to provide their needs and wants. Being passionate means you have the emotional decision making strength to come up with a vision and carry it out.

• Connecting With Partners

In order to form bonds with business partners, you have to make sure that they actually like you. They have to feel the same passion that you do when it comes to driving the business to life. According to Harrison Assessments, interpersonal skills are very important when it comes to making new business partners. The study also states that certain traits such as diplomacy, influence, flexibility, optimism, collaboration, and helpfulness are very important to business partnerships.

• Sharing a Bond with Clients

Other than also connecting with partners, you would also need some great interpersonal skills when it comes to clients. Combining interpersonal skills along with passion and ambition is what will really drive the clients to go for your brand. In fact, this will help clients share a strong bond wherein they will start becoming very loyal customers to the very end.

It is only through feelings that you can really reach out to clients. Data and logic won’t really bend your clients. Clients will always choose the brand that they feel the most comfortable with and the ones that can really provide their needs and wants with regard to both product providing and overall service.

How Emotions Can Also Make Business Decisions Go Bad

While letting your emotions take charge can actually be good for your business, there are times whenever emotions can make your decisions go bad as well. Rice Business researcher, Jennifer George, states that feelings are a double edge sword in business decisions. For instance, being too happy can make you overconfident of your decisions. Being too angry or frustrated, on the other hand, can blind you from opportunities you can make.

The key to using your emotions in business decision making is a balance. Balance feelings with logic when making your final choices.  

Conclusion

So, how can emotional decision making impact your managing abilities? Here are some of the ways that feelings play a really big role in business decisions.  Whenever you’re in business, don’t allow yourself an emotional decision making. This is mainly because emotional strength is necessary for taking risks and finding the right business partners.

With that, it is also important to not make decisions solely based on emotions. You have to make sure that you know how to control your emotions and focus on factual information. Through scanning all the facts, then one has to make the last choice based on how he or she feels. That is how the bosses of the Fortune 500 made their money.