How To Use Emotions To Improve Performance

How To Use Emotions To Improve Performance

One area of psychology that has not had enough attention has been the relationship between emotions (or moods) and achievement (or performance). Most of the work looking at emotions and performance has been focused on the negative effects of emotion – that is, how emotions get in the way of performance. For example, in a search for peer reviewed studies on test anxiety you can find well over 2,000 published studies.

While it’s pretty clear that being overly anxious about a test or exam can get in the way of getting a good grade, we’re less aware of the effects of other negative emotions, such as anger or boredom and positive emotions, such as hope and joy.

Reinhard Pekrun, a psychologist at the University of Munich, along with his colleagues, has spent a great deal of time researching and writing about the effects of various emotions on performance. Much of their research has focused on college students but the lessons learned can apply to achieving in many other areas as well.

In one of many studies, they assessed students’ goals and emotions related to an upcoming exam. According to their theory, emotions impact our performance in a number of ways. First, we start out with our overall  “achievement goals.” These are the goals we set for ourselves before taking on a task. We might set goals for achieving sales, getting new sales leads, making the company more profitable, training new employees, developing a new product, and so on. There is no end to the goals we may set to achieve at work or at home.

Then, Pekrun divides the achievement goals into three parts –

  • mastery goals,
  • performance-approach goals and
  • performance-avoidance goals.

Mastery goals have to do with developing the competence you need to attain the goals you want – a good grade in school, a great presentation at work, and so on. You do this through honing your skills, applying concerted effort and practice.  Mastery goals also imply attributing positive value to these activities. You work hard because you see the goal as something worthwhile. This means you really want to achieve your goal – it’s not forced on you by someone else.

Performance-approach goals are focused on demonstrating your competence as compared to others. It provides you with a reference point, or a point of comparison based on the average performance out there. So if you’re taking an exam, generally a C grade puts you in the average performance compared to others. An A or B places you in better than average performance and a D or F puts you in worse than average position. In many of the things that we do we define our competency in comparison to others – achieving better than average sales, being more or less profitable than industry standards, giving a better or worse proposal than our competitors.

Performance-avoidance goals have to do with wanting to not look incompetent. The goal here is to not look bad to others. When you strive to achieve a goal, there is a part of you that wants to avoid looking silly, foolish or incompetent. In this case, you work to avoid getting a D or F grade because you fear how that makes you look compared to others. Or at work, you don’t want to be among the bottom 10% of the sales force.

It should come as no surprise that people who have high mastery goals tend to do better. Most of the research in this area has been in school systems, but the results hold across various age groups. People high on mastery goals perform better through the various grade levels – from elementary school throughout high school and college, different academic courses – math, science, arts, and learning in general.

Mastery goals have been found to be directly related to specific emotions. People high in mastery goals had greater enjoyment of learning, more hope, greater pride, and were lower in boredom and anger. The emotions associated with mastery goals are sometimes referred to as “activity” emotions. They get you to actively work to improve yourself, learn more, and develop the skills you need.

Performance-approach goals also related to specific emotions. These emotions are more relevant to the outcome of the goal – in this case hope and pride. People higher in or more driven by performance-approach goals were people who were more hopeful and proud.

People high in performance-avoidance were higher in a different set of emotions. These people were higher in shame, anxiety, and hopelessness. The activity of these people is more focused on avoiding these negative emotions.

Let’s say you have to produce a major presentation that could lead to your company winning a significant contract over its competitors. In order to win you will be required to show how your solution is not only technically superior, but the cost-effective choice. Your mastery goal determines how hard you work at collecting relevant information, compiling it, synthesizing, and expressing it to make your case. Your emotions, hope, pride, excitement will help spur you on.

Your performance-approach goal will focus on doing better than your competitors. Looking for ways to differentiate yourself in order to outperform them and win the bid. You will still be hopeful, but also proud of your performance.

In the performance-avoidance arena, your focus would be the shame and perhaps embarrassment of losing the bit. You’ll be driven by trying to not look bad to others who are aware of your performance. Your anxiety increases as you focus on avoiding the loss of the competition.

If we look at Perkun’s research predicting success in examinations, he found that mastery and performance-approach goals predicted success while performance-avoidance goals were associated with lower performance. This was true taking into account other factors, such as gender, social desirability, and scholastic ability.

In terms of emotions, people who were motivated by hope and pride did significantly better than people who were driven by anger, shame, boredom, anxiety and hopelessness. The important message here is the role of your emotions in your ability to achieve your goals. Emotions have a significant mediating effect on your success. The better your ability to know which emotions you need, and how to summon them when needed, the more likely your success.

Dr. Steven J. Stein is a psychologist, co-author of the best-selling book "The EQ Edge: Emotional Intelligence and Your Success" and CEO and founder of MHS Assessments, a leading publisher of assessments including the Emotional Quotient Inventory 2.0 (EQ-i 2.0) and the MSCEIT, the world's first, most researched, and most widely used tests of emotional intelligence. These original self-report and performance measures of EI are used by leading organizations worldwide.

Dr. Stein is the psychology consultant and part of the casting team for numerous reality tv shows in Canada and the U.S. His work on emotional intelligence has been featured in leading newspapers, magazines, blogs, TV, and radio presentations. He has shared information on using emotional intelligence with audiences throughout North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and South America.

"5.0 out of 5 stars" Steven and Howard provide an easy to understand framework for growing our own emotional capacity

By Kevin Ciccotti Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

As a professional coach who works with clients to help them develop their leadership and influence, I find that EQ is one of the single most important areas that we can focus on to produce exceptional results. In "The EQ Edge," Steven and Howard provide an easy to understand framework for growing our own emotional capacity. They include relevant case studies and examples to drive home the impact emotions can have on us and the people around us. It's a great way to identify areas of need, and then to find strategies to help address those needs in order to be more effective in our work and life. A great read, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about EQ.

V.S.Kumar, MCC(ICF), ACTC, SP(EMCC)

Executive Coach. Mentor. Assessor MCC and Coach Supervisor.

6y

Really supports me in my work. thank you.

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Gilles Diguer

National Sales Leadership, Double Digit Sales Growth, Award Winning Sales Teams

7y

Excellent topic

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Dr. Steven Stein

Founder and Exec Chair of MHS and co-author of "Hardiness," “The EQ Edge,” and author of “The EQ Leader”

8y

Thank you Cecilia Jonsson and George Anderson. I appreciate your continued contributions and work in the field.

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Dr. Stein, I am amazed with the effectiveness of your EQ-i-2.0 assessment as well as the EQ Edge. This post only adds to the useful tools that you have provided to Emotional Intelligence Coaches.

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