STARTING TO THINK ABOUT MANAGING EMOTIONS

Managers at the epicenter of employee emotional dynamics need to have their manager "game-on." Today's marketplace requires managers to be part of creating policies and procedures to manage many complicated functions, including emotions, at work. Today's management is not limited to the cubicle , so the range of creative management approaches must be comprehensive. Emotional Continuity Management plans that attend fully to the broad emotional strata of employees is very complex and can take years of top-end planning, discussions, research, drills, trainings, auditing, assessments, evaluations, and ethics determinations. Emotional Continuity Management is a cutting-edge activity and so must begin somewhere even if there is not a large volume of easily accessible information or support. And because of the emotional content of our times, Emotional Continuity Management planning must begin now, from where you are today. You cannot wait to be an expert to be the expert. The world is volatile and business economic securities are teetering on emotional whims of emotionally based issues. The issues of outsourcing, massive layoffs, wars in the Middle East, national security, rising fuel prices, endangered species, scandals, daily rumors of potential terrorists threats, and constant disruptions are defining countless new task and performance functions while creating emotional storms. Given the volatile nature of the world situation, a cutting-edge manager must begin first efforts to establish policies and procedures for managing emotions at the workplace. Policy and planning can begin by establishing basic criteria for Emotional Continuity Management.

Any plan, policy, or procedure of Emotional Continuity Management will be best served if it is:

• Positive : not fear based. Based in possibilities of recovery, and not horror .

• Practical : it should work across the board for all strata of employees

• Technical : empirical and repeatable, science-based, auditable, data producing

• Non-technical : include non-visible, intuitive, human "feelings" data

• Auditable : measurable outcomes

• Assessable : transparent and teachable in a variety of learning styles

• Accessible : available to all on not controlled by one domain

• Repeatable : created in a form that has continuing presentations and upgrades

• Documentable : lends itself to paper trails

• Researchable : provides data that can be evaluated and adjusted as trends change

• Fiscally sound : inexpensive to encourage regular use

• Standard setting : visible, transparent, higher-ground thinking

• Ethical : Moral, principled , fair, decent and just for all humans

• Compassionate : thoughtful, sympathetic, kind, benevolent , and humane

• Economically rational : supports the bottom line and is value-added.