AUTHOR S AFTERTHOUGHTS

AUTHOR'S AFTERTHOUGHTS

It is absurd for me to write about this topic, because it isn't something managers want to know. The few brave souls who stand as warriors in the face of the rational machine of business and try to stalwartly advocate for intuition and human emotions risk professional "life and limb" in the effort.

I wish I had done a study on how many managers seek me after the lecture and whisper to me about their job situation. I get hugs and handshakes, knowing smiles and great evaluations. And then? Companies continue to ignore emotions. The echoes reverberate through the system, "We don't have enough money, enough time, enough training, enough staff to look at this stuff." I want to echo back, "Do the math!!!"

But then some manager tells me how they have seen all the chaos first hand. I especially remember the eyes of people in New York City in the fall of 2001. Everywhere I went the eyes bore into me with, "Did you see it? Were you here? Are you one of us?" If you want to see what the eyes of New Yorkers looked like, check out a copy of Vanity Fair, October 2001. These are the eyes of people who have had a very close-up look at something very, very scary. I see that look in managers eyes sometime as they look at me during a seminar. They see the emotions close-up and personal. And some of them are scared, and scared of being scared. Scared doesn't get promotions. Managers have "the look."

Healthy, dysfunctional and pathological people are everywhere on the planet, not just at work. Before I started doing Emotional Continuity Management consultations in companies, I knew that there was a range of people on the planet from wonderful to horrible. The first company I was hired by had an emotionally spinning person in a key position. When a beloved employee was murdered during the middle of the consultation, this employee, in a key position, convinced the majority of the staff that they didn't "need any damn counselor to talk with about feelings, because I'm here for you." She said she would do it for them and in her position of power held them hostage. Managers and line staff actually had to sneak to my private office in another city to try to deal with their emotions about the murder and their tyrannically controlling manager. I did not have an official opportunity to diagnose the manager's mental illness , but I had no doubt what it was and how it influenced the company.