Words for the Workplace: A Deep Dive into Emotional Communication at Work - Day 1- Happy

But emotions are the most powerful force inside the workspace, as they are in every human endeavor. They influence everything from leadership effectiveness to building and maintaining complex relationships, from innovation to customer relations. That's a quote from Permission to Feel by Mark Brackett, phd. Emotions Talking about emotions can bring up a lot of emotions, but broaching this subject in the workplace can add another layer of complexity to the conversation. But it doesn't have to be that way. This mini-series will cover five words or word categories that we can start to bring into the workplace to help communicate our emotions in more specific and helpful terms. Hello and welcome. To Connect the Dots, lead the Way. I'm your host, heather Valseric. I'm a white female with short, strawberry blonde hair. I have on tortoise shell glasses and a blue shirt that says Be Kind. I'm sitting in front of a teal wall with multiple pieces of art displayed. Welcome to day one of this mini-series. And today's word or word category actually comes from Amy Lawn. She responded to my LinkedIn post asking for suggestions for this series and she said Happy and All Versions, and I loved that request right, like just the word happy and in all versions of that, and it reminded me of a study that Mark Brackett talked about in permission to feel, where they asked subjects for three words to describe what they would most like to feel at work, and happy was the number one choice. He said it's like the default choice, the one that we blurt out with much thought. But he goes on to talk about the second and third responses, which included words like excited, joyful, appreciated, supported, fulfilled, respected, inspired, accomplished. Valued also was another top choice, and it was actually mentioned twice as much by women than it was men. And just thinking about this in the word happy, right, as I talk about this, right, it feels generic. It's the I'm fine or I'm doing good of emotions. Right, we say it, but do we really mean it? In Atlas of the Heart, brené Brown defines happiness as the, as the feeling of pleasure often related to immediate environment or certain circumstances, and this makes this makes sense. Right, that the happy is the default response. It's the here and now. But that wasn't what the question asked in the study. They asked for three words to describe what the subject would most like to feel at work, and that's why the second and third responses were so important Excited, joyful, appreciated, valued. These tell more of a story. They tell different stories In Brené Brown's book Atlas of the Heart. You will find joy and happiness in the places we go when life is good section. She defines joy as an intense feeling of deep spiritual connection, pleasure and appreciation. Finding connection with your work can absolutely bring you joy. Appreciation for the people and the work that you do supports that joyful feeling. But how do we talk about that at work? Are you going to hop on a Zoom meeting next week and when someone sees you and asks you, well, how's your project going? Or are you going to be like well, I'm filled with joy about the project currently? That would be weird. You're definitely going to get some weird looks on that, but maybe we can introduce the feeling like this you know the project is going really well and the team is pulled together to overcome some last minute changes. It has been a joy to work with this team so far. We dug a little deeper there. A few of the terms that were mentioned in that study reminded me of gratitude, right, the feeling of appreciation and being valued. If someone shows or expresses gratitude, the other person feels appreciated or valued. Gratitude is another term in a list in places you go when life is good, and she wrote. Gratitude is an emotion that reflects our deep appreciation for what we value, what brings meaning to our lives and what makes us feel connected to ourselves and others. In the workplace, we can help others feel appreciated and valued by showing gratitude. As a leader, you should be practicing gratitude, showing it to your team, to your peers, to your leader. Honestly, really, we all do. There's no leader title required there. So how do you bring gratitude into the workplace? Well, we can thank people, we can tell them what we're grateful for about them, but is that going to go far? Why not? So when you're showing gratitude, it needs to be genuine, it needs to be real. Get to know that person and express gratitude in the way that is meaningful to them. So the word happy in the workplace. Should we use the word happy? Absolutely, there is a time and place for the word happy. But next time you start to answer a question with a version of well, I'm happy or I'm happy with it, maybe work to go a little deeper. Does it bring you joy? Does it make you grateful? Do you feel valued or excited? I would love to know what words you would use instead of happy in the workplace. So head over to my sub stack with the link in the description to comment. Let's continue that conversation there and make sure that you check out the links in the description to learn more about Mark Brackett's book permission to feel and Brene Brown's book Atlas of the Heart. Those are two books that you will hear me talk about in all episodes this week, so if you want to check those out, links are below. I'll be back tomorrow with more words for the workplace. Until then, remember that you are loved, you are worthy and there are great things ahead for you in this life if you trust and believe in the Lord. Bye, thanks for watching.