Probably like you, I've worked for some great companies in my career. yet so far (except for my own company) I've never worked for a business that embraced 'open emotions' in the work-force. In actual fact, trying to get a business person in a meeting to talk about emotions is rear enough in my experience, that is unless you touch on this one topic - Marketing. If you talk about understand and connecting with customers emotions....funnily enough that's ok.
Even more funny is that customers and potential customers love to emotionally connect with businesses who are willing to express their authentic stories. We're emotive beings and get chills sent down our spines when a topic rocks our world. So logically, businesses that understand why they emotively do what they do, can more easily connect their customers. Some companies like Apple understand and have mastered the 'Emotive connection' but many businesses are just trying old methods of 'Features and Benefits' marketing and wondering why their efforts are amounting to very little.
I recently got back from a Blogging course, where the theory of letting go of trying and embracing authentic emotions was the highlight of what I learnt. The speaker at the course told of her trying and trying (out of a fearful place - paying bills etc) to get her business to where she dreamed it of being, yet without major success. It wasn't until she realised that she was trying so hard from a place of fear to succeed that her business changed. Only when she managed to let go of the fear and embraced 'What excited her' about what she did, did her business turned around. She is know very successful. This example of embracing emotions means we're not going against what we feel, instead we're working with our passions which brings energy, vibrancy, fun and enthusiasm into the work-place and our customers feel that when we communicate with them.
I've never liked the word selling, is means you're trying to convince someone to buy what you are offering, in my mind. So instead, if a company tells me whythey're doing what they're doing and I emotively connect with that, then there is no selling. I'm not being convinced it's the right thing, instead I feel it's the right thing.
Yet businesses authentically telling their emotive stories to their customers can be difficult, I know, I've seen a lot of businesses trying, but not from the heart. But there is a solution. I and may others help create business graphics and videos to emotively communicate to audiences. So if you find it hard and would like some help communicating emotionally with your customers, please let me know www.emphasise.nz
Although I would like to see more people express and not hold their emotions in (holding back is often expressed in anger or another way more powerfully later anyway) so that we hear more authentic truths from people, I know this may be frightening to some, but I'm sure being open would help people connect more in the world . I'd love to hear your experiences of telling your emotional stories in business and how it has worked for you.
Thanks for taking the time to read :-)
Dave