Strategies for Managing Emotional Contagion for a Healthier Team Dynamic

Emotional contagion has powerful effects on teams. It can cause the tenor to rise to match a great mood or fall in line with a sour one. I’ve previously talked about ways to prevent yourself from taking on negative emotions and how to help someone out of a bad mood. But what if you’re the team leader and trying to manage the emotional state of your entire team? How do you manage emotional contagion to get a healthier team dynamic?

Be aware of your mood

The first step in managing emotional contagion is to be aware of your own emotional state. Being aware of your mood is easier said than done. Self-awareness is usually in short supply, and when you add the stress of modern leadership, it can be difficult to stay tuned in to how you’re feeling. But it’s essential to make the effort. Research shows that leaders with greater emotional control are rated more favorably.

But that doesn’t mean suppressing your emotions, which is unhealthy for leaders and other humans. It does mean choosing when and how to act on the information your emotions are providing. So, before you engage with your team, take a moment to check in and be aware of what emotion you’re spreading.

Quick Tip: Create a ritual to lift your mood. It might be looking at a picture that reminds you of something positive, having a song that pumps you up, reciting an affirmation that centers you, or doing a minute of deep breathing.

Consider your non-verbal cues

You’re constantly communicating as a leader, and much of that isn’t through words. Your gestures, facial expressions, and body language can often carry more weight than what you say. To manage emotional contagion, it’s essential to be intentional about your words, but it’s equally crucial to be aware of what your body language conveys.

Quick Tip: Find a way to see your reflection when interacting with people. If it’s in your office, strategically place a mirror so you can occasionally glance at your expression. If you’re on a web call, keep your camera window open. Sometimes, you might be taken aback by the angry, grumpy, sad person reflected back at you. That’s a good moment to reset your facial

Make a connection

When attempting to buoy your team with a positive mood, experts advise that making direct eye contact with people will strengthen the effect. That means some emotional subjects warrant prioritizing in-person or on-camera interactions over written communication.

If you’re meeting in person, consider the setup. Are you sitting facing one another for one-on-one meetings so that eye contact is easy? In team interactions, does your meeting room setup promote eye contact or (as in many rooms I get stuck in) make it extraordinarily difficult? In virtual meetings, does your computer setup naturally capture your eyes? If not, you’re likely missing this powerful opportunity to spread a positive mood.

Quick Tip: I bought an inexpensive webcam and this camera holder to ensure my camera is right at eye level so I can transfer as much of my positive mood and enthusiasm as possible.

Neutralize negative contributions

Given how powerful emotional contagion can be (and the sad fact that negative emotions transfer more easily than positive ones), you need to be highly attuned to members of your team who are projecting negative emotions and find a way to reduce their impact. If you notice in the moment, you can give the person a forum to address their concerns constructively (hoping to change their mood with action). Alternatively, you can deny them your eye contact or attention to reduce the disruption and provide feedback after the meeting about what you saw and how it impacted you.

Quick Tip: I like to respond to emotionally charged comments with questions that accept where they’re at and help them take ownership for moving forward. My favorites are, “What do you need?” and “Where from here?”

Create virtuous cycles

Research by shows that leaders who convey positive emotions using expressive gestures, smiles, nods, and other enthusiastic body language transfer those positive feelings to their team. But don’t think you can just send an email or post a happy Slack message. Findings comparing the positive emotional lift between those who saw a leader communicate a positive message and those who only read a transcript suggest that your enthusiastic face is doing the heavy lifting, not your buoyant words (Johnson, 2009).

Quick Tip: If you need to communicate asynchronously (for example, if you lead a team that’s in different time zones), take a moment to record a video message so that you capture the full effect of your positive facial expressions and gestures.

Interrupt vicious cycles

Finally, noticing and interrupting when your mood and team members’ moods are spiraling downward is essential. Unfortunately, the vicious cycle can be more of a tornado than a virtuous one because negative moods are more contagious than positive ones (Sy and Choi, 2013).

You can stop the swirl and manage emotional contagion in multiple ways. One method is to call out what’s going on and intentionally investigate the negative emotions to get a better understanding. Don’t do that by saying, “You’re all very grouchy today.” Instead, you can be candid about your own emotions by saying something like, “I’m noticing that I’m feeling grumpy about this. Can we take a moment to talk about where we’re at on this project?” If you choose not to be transparent about your feelings, your option is to describe the behavior you see, such as, “I notice everyone is looking down, and we’ve dropped our eye contact. Can we take a moment to share how we’re feeling about this?”

Another way to reverse the direction of the emotional contagion cycle is to slowly start changing your gestures, expressions, and body language to lead your team in a more positive direction. Try making constructive and forward-looking comments with body language to match. For example, if you come up with a possibility, you could say, “What if we were to…” As you say the words, raise your brow, smile, and open your eyes a little wider. You can also alter the mood in the room by picking up your cadence or widening your body language to reflect more openness and positivity. Your team will take their cues from you.

Quick Tip: This might be the perfect moment to have a funny video to show or to refer back to an inside joke that will help break the tension. I keep a file of memes, videos, and affirmations that I can pull out. Don’t deny the mood in the room; you can call it out and then say, “I think we need a little pick me up.”

Conclusion

Emotional contagion is likely happening constantly among your team members. As their leader, you need to be attuned to it and aware of how you’re affecting it. This is not a simple task, but you must take it seriously to create the team dynamic necessary for the team’s health and productivity.

What questions do you have about managing the emotional contagion on your team? Let me know.

Additional Resources

Managing Emotions Step-by-Step

Managing Fear and Emotions

Effective Ways to Manage Your Emotions at Work

How to Be Less Emotional at Work

 

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