Newsletter 18 - Managing moods

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Moods and emotions can't be ignored when you're a manager. Your own mood affects your team, and a mood can develop within your team. And that can have a serious impact on the performance of your team.

So what can you do about it?

The first thing is to train yourself to be fully aware of your mood. Moods have two elements - your level of energy (high to low) and whether you feel positive or negative about your life. They can combine in different ways and you need to be aware of both elements.

There is more about this on the New Managers Online members pages.

Your mood can affect the mood of the team: if they see you are low, they will worry. Equally, if they are feeling low or anxious and you seem unrealistically happy, that mismatch will have a bad effect on them. To work effectively, the team needs to have reasonable levels of energy and a confident, realistic approach.

How can you manage this? As we say, the first step is to be aware of the different aspects of mood. Next assess your own honestly. Then consider the mood of the group as a whole or as individuals. What is it now, and how would you like it to be? What would be appropriate for the work of the team and for the people involved?

Liz Miller, who has written a very interesting book on moods called Mood Mapping, suggests these useful steps:

stay calm and assertive and respect the dynamic, especially if you are new to the group.
be sure to listen receptively: this gives you an insight into any problems or resentments as well as helping people to let go of the mood.
learn to reflect and express the mood of the group, and to be able to help shift it to a mood that supports the demands of the job.

February 2010

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